Major Company Profiles

A&P (The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, Inc.)

A&P was founded in 1859 in New York City. At its peak in the 1930s it operated 16,000 stores and remained the number one retailer in the US through the 1950s. By the 1960s local and regional competition began to push the company from some markets and its quantity of outlets has declined steadily to approximately 400 stores in nine states today. New Jersey and New York are mainstays of its operation. One of its top-performing stores by volume is in Midland Park, NJ. The company also operates The Food Emporium, Food Basics, Waldbaum and Super Fresh chains among several others. Recently A&P acquired Pathmark Stores for about $1.3B. The company is majority owned by Tengelmann Group of Germany.

Food Basics

Food Basics is a division of A&P (The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company). Its concept is no frills, which A&P successfully introduced in Canada and then brought to the US in 2001 by converting one of its A&P branded stores in Passaic, NJ. There are approximately 11 Food Basics stores in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. In 2006 A&P revitalized the Food Basics “look & feel” with a newer format, wider aisles, new signage and colors and an emphasis upon everyday low pricing.

The Food Emporium

The Food Emporium is a division of A&P (The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company). It is comprised of 30 stores primarily located in Manhattan with some located in New Jersey and a few north of NYC and in Connecticut. It is viewed as upscale and caters to an affluent clientele. The Food Emporium was originally part of Shopwell, Inc prior to its purchase by A&P in 1986. Many of the stores in New York City were originally A&P outlets that were converted to The Food Emporium brand.

Foodtown

Foodtown is a cooperative comprising individually owned or groups of entrprise owned stores in central New Jersey, New York and eastern Pennsylvania. In the 1980s and 1990s more than 150 stores operated in New Jersey and New York. In 1995 Royal Ahold of the Netherlands purchased 45 stores and in the following years a number of others left the cooperative. Since the 1990s 5 stores have opened in Pennsylvania to go along with more than 50 stores in New Jersey and New York. Foodtown’s corporate offices negotiate with suppliers, and direct marketing programs on behalf of the cooperative’s storeowners.

Gristede’s Foods, Inc.

Two brothers, Dietrich and Charles Gristede, founded Gristede’s in 1888 in New York City. By 1938 there were more than 150 stores, including liquor stores in the New York area. In 1969 the company was sold to Southland Corporation which itself was acquired by the Red Apple Group in 1986. The Red Apple Group, privately held, continues to operate the chain with more than forty stores in operation today. Most are supermarkets primarily in Manhattan with others in Westchester County and other parts of New York. The chain operates several mega-stores and owns City Produce Operating, which provides groceries to the supermarkets and sells wholesale produce to third parties.

Kings Super Markets, Inc.

Kings was founded in 1936 and has grown to more than 20 stores in New Jersey and New York. The stores target upscale consumers and are located in or near affluent communities. Marks & Spencer, a UK clothing retailer that also targets affluent buyers, purchased the company in 1988. Kings was again sold in 2006 to a private investor group who continues to operate the stores with a bias toward its original target market.

Pathmark Stores, Inc.

Pathmark was born in 1968 when Supermarkets General Corporation left the Wakefern Cooperative with approximately 80 then named ShopRite stores, which were re-branded to Pathmark. By 1978 about 109 stores were in operation. After years of positive and negative performance Pathmark filed for bankruptcy in 2000, but recovered quickly to emerge stronger in 2001. It operates about 140 stores in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware. A number of stores are 50,000 square foot Super Centers with pharmacies, mini bank branches, large bakery operations and plant & flower centers. Recently Pathmark was acquired by A&P.

ShopRite Supermarkets/ Wakefern Food Corporation

ShopRite Supermarkets is the brand moniker of the largest retailer owned store cooperative in the US. It was incorporated as Wakefern Foods in 1946 when seven storeowners agreed to form a cooperative to negotiate the purchase of wholesale goods on their collective behalf. The ShopRite name was introduced in 1951 to attract consumers and to bring more stores into the cooperative. In 1968 Supermarkets General Corporation left the cooperative with about 80 stores to become Pathmark. However, after a few years those members who remained had expanded to a level of equal or greater sales volume. Today the Wakefern Cooperative is comprised of more than 40 members who own and operate over 200 ShopRite stores in seven states. Wakefern maintains 2.5 million square feet of warehouse space and operates a fleet of 400 tractors and 2000 trailers.

The Stop & Shop Supermarket Company

 Stop & Shop was founded as the Economy Grocery Stores Company in 1914 in Somerville, MA. Its name became Stop & Shop, Inc. in 1946. The company grew steadily primarily in New England with purchases and sales of other retail chains such as Bradlees, Medi-Mart and Perkins Tobacco. In the late 1980s it was acquired by a leveraged buyout firm which unsuccessfully tried to arrange a merger with Safeway. In 1995 the American division of the Dutch company Ahold purchased Stop & Shop. Today it operates about 385 stores in six states and has begun integrating new Starbucks licensed outlets in some of its locations such as Morris Plains, NJ and Dix Hills, NY. In July 2007 Stop & Shop announced that it was selling 10 super stores in Southern NJ and Philadelphia to Wakefern Foods. They will be converted to ShopRite Supermarkets. In August of 2008 the company introduced a new logo seen above.

Waldbaum, Inc.

Waldbaum’s began in 1904 with a shop opened by Joseph Waldbaum in Brooklyn, NY. Today it operates more than seventy stores in New York City, Westchester County and Long Island. During the 1970s it expanded into New England by purchasing Foodmart, Inc. of Springfield, MA. The New England stores became Waldbaum’s Foodmart and rose to over 150 outlets at their peak. The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company (A&P) acquired Waldbaum’s in 1986. Over time Waldbaum’s Foodmart branded stores were renamed Super Foodmart and A&P Foodmart. The other stores continued with the Waldbaum’s moniker. Today most stores have bakeries and more than half have pharmacies.