EXETER — Selectmen Chairman Donald Clement said town officials have already begun discussing who they might be able to attract to fill the Super Stop & Shop after the chain announced Tuesday morning it was closing all six of its New Hampshire stores.

EXETER — Selectmen Chairman Donald Clement said town officials have already begun discussing who they might be able to attract to fill the Super Stop & Shop after the chain announced Tuesday morning it was closing all six of its New Hampshire stores.



“I guess rather than sit back we're going to try to be as proactive as we can to see who else is interested in the property,” Clement said Tuesday afternoon. “We're not going to appeal to Stop & Shop to keep the store open because that decision has already been made, but we're going to get all the players together and see what can be done.”



The closing of Stop & Shop 137 Portsmouth Ave. will come on or before Sept. 21, the company said. It will once again leave Exeter without a major supermarket chain, Clement noted. Market Basket and Shaw's are located in neighboring Stratham, also on Portsmouth Avenue.



“There's no question the town and the townspeople were very, very excited when they opened because for years and years we didn't have a major supermarket chain in town,” Clement said. “We're back to where we were six or seven years ago. It's devastating to me for that aspect and for the employees who will be losing their jobs.”



Suzi Robinson, spokeswoman for Stop & Shop's New England Division, said 127 people who now work in the chain's Exeter store will lose their jobs because of the closing. That includes a mixture of full- and part-time positions.



She said 670 people statewide will lose their jobs.



Asked if any of the New Hampshire employees will be transferred to Massachusetts stores, Robinson in an e-mailed statement said, “We will work with the UFCW Local 1445 and local and state agencies to support displaced associates during this difficult time.”



Town Manager Russ Dean said in a statement this afternoon that town officials would be “working aggressively through our Economic Development Commission, Board of Selectmen and others to support finding a quality replacement any way that we can.”



“It goes without saying that Market Basket, Shaw's, Philbrick's, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, Wild Harvest and others would likely be among those stores that pop into people's minds, and we'll work to gauge their interest in coming to Exeter,” Dean said in the statement. “We are open for business and we want to make sure these and others know they would be welcome here.”



Robinson in the e-mailed statement noted that Stop & Shop is a tenant in the plaza located at the intersection of Portsmouth Avenue and Holland Way.



“We have continued lease obligations and will work with the property owner with respect to the future of the store premises,” she said in the e-mailed statement.



Clement said he regularly shopped at Stop & Shop and said they seemed to be “doing OK,” whenever he was there.



“Nothing is as busy as Market Basket is,” Clement said. “The volume of shoppers at Market Basket was always busier than Shaw's or Stop & Shop.”



“We continually assess our stores and operating performance. Our six stores in New Hampshire have not achieved performance goals after many years of investment, and we have made the difficult decision to close these underperforming stores,” said Joe Kelley, president of Stop & Shop's New England Division, in a statement.“This action will allow us to focus our investment and resources on continuing to grow our business in other areas of the Northeast.”



“We are sensitive to the impact this decision will have on our associates, our loyal customers, and the communities we have served. We deeply appreciate the years of dedicated service our associates in New Hampshire have provided since 2003, and the loyal patronage from our customers,” said Kelley in the statement.



Robinson said she couldn't discuss why chain officials thought the New Hampshire stores didn't perform as well as they had hoped.



The chain is also closing two Stop & Shop stores in Manchester, single stories in Bedford, Hudson and Milford, and three gas stations in New Hampshire.