The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company (A&P) – The Original Retail Giant
A&P, founded in 1859 in New York City, became the biggest grocery store in the United States, dominating the business for most of the 20th century with 15,709 locations at its peak. Picture this: from the 1920s to the 1960s, A&P wasn’t just America’s largest grocery chain – it was the largest retailer in the world. In its heyday, A&P operated nearly 16,000 locations and was certainly a household name, commonly compared in popularity to what Google or McDonald’s are today.
A&P introduced standardized stores, selling branded goods produced in A&P factories and delivered through a vertically integrated supply chain of factories, warehouses, and trucks. The company quickly abandoned customer delivery and scaled back on credit, converting groceries to a cash and carry business. A&P also began the cash-and-carry system instead of the previously used credit sales and delivery options, which allowed them to begin developing and marketing their own private-label products.
What made A&P successful was that the Hartford brothers who ran it used innovative methods to keep prices low and drive out competition. However, both brothers died in the 1950s, and with them, the mindset for radical innovation vanished. Though many customers were moving to the suburbs, the chain refused to expand along with them. The company eventually imploded, and following the 2008 recession, continued closing and selling off stores before filing for bankruptcy twice. The 156-year old company officially shuttered all its operations in 2015.
Alpha Beta – The Alphabetical Grocery Revolution
The chain Alpha-Beta got its name from the way groceries were organized in its stores: alphabetically. This is certainly a hard concept to grasp in today’s world – imagine the bananas nestled right in between the baking powder and BBQ sauce! The first Alpha Beta grocery store opened in 1917. This grocer actually arranged products in alphabetical order on each shelf to help shoppers find exactly what they needed. It was a top spot to shop, particularly in California.
In 1900, Canadian brothers Albert and Hugh Gerrard opened a butcher shop in Pomona, California. They expanded their business by opening a small grocery store in 1914. When things got busy, they let customers shop for themselves. This simple decision would transform grocery shopping forever. The reduced labor costs afforded by this style may have helped keep prices low.
Despite this interesting organizational method, the Alpha Beta company had a shelf life of 78 years, operating mostly in California and across the southwest. It went through more ownership changes than one can count, with American Stores, Skaggs Drug Centers, Yucaipa Companies, Lucky Stores, and ABCO Foods all owning a piece at one time or another. In the 1990s, many Alpha-Beta stores began to be rebranded by their new owners. In 1995, Alpha Beta ceased to exist after the remaining stores were turned into Ralphs or Food 4 Less locations.
Food Fair and Pantry Pride – The Innovation Laboratory
Food Fair was founded by Samuel Friedland as the Reading Giant Quality Price Cutter in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania during the late 1920s. By 1957, the chain had expanded to 275 stores. Food Fair got its start in the 1920s and eventually grew to be among the top five grocery stores in the United States with about 500 stores, primarily located throughout the Mid-Atlantic and the Northeast.
Here’s where things get fascinating. During the 1960s, Food Fair acquired Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based Best Markets. Riding the success of Best’s top private label brand, Food Fair had converted most of its stores into Pantry Pride by 1970. The birth of the store was the result of Food Fair purchasing a competitor known as Best Markets, which had a private label brand called Pantry Pride. The Best Markets name became a thing of the past, but its private label was given the honor of becoming the store’s new name.
Before departing from the retail grocery landscape, Food Fair embraced a variety of innovations that grew to be quite popular including electronic registers, scanning, UPC, and discount grocery stores. By the mid-1980s however, Pantry Pride was in financial straits and began its eventual slide into obscurity. At its peak, the chain included 440 supermarkets in seven states on the East Coast and the Bahamas. The 456-store, $2.7 billion company entered bankruptcy in 1978. In 1993, all remaining locations were sold to Fleming Companies and were either closed or sold to other chains by 2000.
Dominick’s – Chicago’s Architectural Innovator
The Dominick’s chain was originally founded in 1918 by Sicilian Dominick di Matteo, and opened its first supermarket – standing at 14,000 square feet – in 1950. Dominick’s was a Chicago area chain that dated back to a store founded by Sicilian immigrant Dominick DiMatteo in 1918. Dominick’s first supermarket was a 14,000-square-foot store that opened in 1950.
The 1980s were a glorious time of innovation for Dominick’s. Shoppers may remember distinctive and state-of-the-art details including exposed piping and ducts on the store’s ceilings, bulk groceries, specialty bakeries, and upscale meat and produce departments. During the 1980s and early 1990s, the chain was one of the first to experiment with all ceiling sales areas being exposed to structural elements such as piping and HVAC ducts.
Closer to the turn of the century, the company’s well of fresh ideas began to run dry though, and Dominick’s struggled to keep up with new competitors. The chain’s 116 stores were purchased by Safeway in 1998, and by 2013 the winds of change blew the Dominick’s name out of the Windy City for good. Out of 72 stores available for sale, Mariano’s Fresh Market acquired 11, Jewel-Osco purchased 10 and Whole Foods bought seven.
Grand Union – The Red Dot Revolution
Grand Union was founded in the “Electric City” of Scranton, Pennsylvania. For a time, its growth really was electric. The company’s famous Red Dot Savings made their way across the northeast in the 1900s – at one time amassing over 850 stores thanks to acquisitions of Colonial Stores and Big Star Foods. The grocery store Grand Union sprung out of a Pennsylvania-based business called the Jones Brothers Tea Company, which was founded in 1872.
The Red Dot concept was revolutionary for its time. Shoppers would hunt for those distinctive red dots throughout the store, knowing they marked exceptional deals. This wasn’t just random discounting – it was strategic loss-leader pricing that drew customers deep into the store. The psychological impact was profound: shoppers felt like treasure hunters discovering hidden gems.
Grand Union attempted to compete with chains like Aldi with its Hot Dot stores. Though the company tried various formats to stay competitive, changing consumer preferences and intense competition from discount retailers eventually overwhelmed this Pennsylvania pioneer. The chain that once dominated the Northeast corridor couldn’t adapt to the superstore revolution of the 1990s.
Bohack – The Family Empire That Crumbled
German immigrant Henry C. Bohack opened his first grocery in 1887 and over the years Bohack developed into one of the first powerhouse grocery store chains. When the Depression arrived in late 1929, Bohack responded by actually opening more stores to provide employment. The founder passed away in 1931. This counter-intuitive response to economic hardship showed remarkable business acumen and social responsibility.
Bohack’s produced several of its store-brand groceries that people loved, including a store brand of cheesecake that was incredibly popular. Other such products, labeled “Bohack’s Best,” included apple sauces, white bread, fruitcake, coffee, and even beer. Bohack was recognizable by the distinctive “B” in the logo.
The Bohack family took the chain public in 1965, and allowed Charles Bluhdorn, head of Gulf and Western Industries, to become the majority stakeholder. Bluhdorn had acquired a range of businesses including Paramount Pictures, Sega, Simon and Schuster, and even Madison Square Garden. Unfortunately, when a big recession hit in the 1970s, this had a domino effect that eventually shut down the supermarket chain. Bohack’s prospered until 1974 when the chain went bankrupt. After an attempted merger with Shop-Rite failed, Bohack’s disappeared into the history books in 1977.
Waldbaum’s – The Multicultural Marketplace
Two Jewish-Ukrainian brothers, immigrants to the United States, established Waldbaum’s as a family-run business in 1904. This family-run approach and diverse hiring practices, while also selling products from different cultural cuisines, made Waldbaum’s incredibly popular in multiethnic neighborhoods around NYC. The store was ahead of its time in embracing America’s growing diversity.
However, when A&P bought it out, the company rapidly declined. Most of the Waldbaum family’s descendants were pushed out of management, the stores were neglected – 47% failed a sanitation inspection by NYC in 1990 – and the diverse range of products disappeared. Even though it was a regional chain, it was the 12th biggest supermarket chain in the U.S. when it was bought out.
This acquisition represents one of retail’s great tragedies. Waldbaum’s understood something that many chains still struggle with today: America’s neighborhoods are diverse, and grocery stores should reflect that diversity. When corporate ownership stripped away this cultural sensitivity, they didn’t just lose customers – they lost the chain’s very soul.
Kash n’ Karry – Florida’s Cash-and-Carry Pioneer
In 1922, Italian immigrant Salvatore Greco opened a small storefront with his wife in their Tampa, Florida home. In 1947, the family opened the Big Barn store in nearby Plant City. In 1962 the name was changed to Kash n’ Karry, under the concept that shoppers would bring “cash” and “carry” out their own groceries. Those who have spent any amount of time in Florida will remember the Kash n’ Karry chain, best known for providing quick service to help get busy shoppers in and out the door, including opening a new checkout lane if there were three customers waiting in line.
Through a series of buyouts and acquisitions, the chain expanded before falling into bankruptcy in 1994 and being acquired by North Carolina-based Food Lion in 1996 for $341 million. With declining revenue, Kash n’ Karry closed most of its stores and the few left were rebranded as sweetbay Supermarkets by the end of 2007. Unable to compete with Walmart and Publix, the 105 unit chain closed 33 of its stores in 2013. Kash n’ Karry eventually fell victim to growing too fast and too much competition from similar supermarket chains. The last Kash n’ Karry closed in 2007.
What made Kash n’ Karry special wasn’t just its name or concept – it was their obsessive focus on customer service. That three-customer rule for opening new checkout lanes was revolutionary. Today’s retailers spend millions on customer experience consultants, yet Kash n’ Karry figured out this simple principle decades ago.
The Legacy That Lives On
These nine chains didn’t just disappear – they evolved into the DNA of modern retail. As you’ll travel through the decades, it becomes clear that the grocery retailers who acted fast and stayed ahead of the technological curve were the ones that passed the test of time. During the last century, technological innovations and societal changes were among the main forces changing how people obtained, prepared, and consumed food.
Supermarkets and grocery stores have significantly transformed in recent years, driven by technological advancements and shifting consumer preferences. E-commerce has become a cornerstone of the industry, with a significant majority of grocery retailers integrating online ordering and fulfillment into their operations. This shift has been fueled by consumer demand for convenience and efficient shopping experiences.
Every time you scan a barcode, grab a shopping cart, or pick up a store-brand product, you’re participating in innovations these forgotten chains pioneered. Their failures taught the industry what doesn’t work, while their successes created the blueprint for everything from Walmart Supercenters to Amazon Fresh. The future of supermarkets is indeed exciting, promising a shopping experience that is more seamless, personalized, and sustainable. From the humble beginnings of the King Kullen stores to the tech-driven supermarkets of today, the evolution of supermarkets is an ongoing journey, continually shaped by technological innovation and consumer needs.
These chains proved that grocery shopping isn’t just about food – it’s about community, culture, and the endless human drive to make life a little easier. What innovations do you think they’d be pioneering if they were still around today?
