What’s Wrong With This Shaw’s in Freeport, Maine?

If you know you know.

And you know because you've damn near given yourself a concussion walking into the Shaw's in Freeport. The doors are on the wrong side!

In almost every other side-by-side door situation, the entry is on the right and the exit is on the left. But not Shaw's. I don't know if every Shaw's has this frustrating trait, but I know Freeport and Sanford have this setup. They also do have another entry where the doors are 'right'.

The Scarborough and Westbrook Shaw's had the backwards doors too, but those Shaw's are no longer with us. There may be a very believable reason why the doors are reversed. A United Kingdom company bought Shaw's in the 80's. According to Wikipedia,

In November 1983, J Sainsbury plc, the UK's largest supermarket group, purchased 21% of Shaw's outstanding stock. In June 1987, Sainsbury's acquired controlling interest. The backward doors and the extensive international foods of UK origin were reinforcing clues.

So in England, you drive on the wrong side of the road and you enter businesses on the wrong side too! There have been theories that the reason the doors are backward is because it's exit flow from the registers. Or to stop a thief as they run out of Shaw's with an armful of ribeye steaks - they smack right into the wrong door!

I'm going with the English company owning the store and going all European on us poor Mainers. There's not a time I've stopped by and done these doors the right way. Lucky for me, the Shaw's in Falmouth has the 'normal' doors.