Our first Food Store Focus section tells the story of the A & P chain, which was founded by George Francis Gilman. On February 17, 1859, he started a side business at his Gold Street Manhattan leather tanning shop. Gilman & Company would sell tea and coffee on a wholesale basis. In May 1861, the tea & coffee shop was moved to a new location on Manhattan's Front Street. In 1863, the business became a retail endeavor and was renamed the Great American Tea Company. The newspaper advertisement above dates to 1864.
Advert from the Great American Tea Company
By 1864, there were five Great American stores. In May 1869, the Transcontinental Railroad was completed. In light of this, the name of Gilman's tea & coffee business was changed to The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company. The first expansion, in October 1871, added a Chicago unit. By 1874, Gilman and employee George Huntington Hartford were overseeing twenty-five stores. Gilman handed management of the company over to Hartford in 1878, when there were seventy stores. A circa-1880 unit is shown above.
Photo from Wikipedia / "Grubbxdn"
By 1885, business had been extended as far west as Kansas City and as far south as Atlanta. The store total stood at 175. A circa-1897 newspaper promotion is seen above. One might note the merchandise being sold: tea, coffee, baking powder, spices, sauces, sugar and condensed milk. Stores did not have a grocery section, produce section or meat department.
Advert from The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company
What was -apparently- the very first A & P trademark. It dates to 1905. At this time, A & P operated 250 stores. The company had been incorporated in 1902.
Graphic from The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, Incorporated
By the time of this 1914 trademark, A & P was overseeing 850 stores. It was now the largest grocer in America. A new no-frills format was introduced in 1912, with the first A & P Economy Store opening in Jersey City. It was operated by a single manager. This innovation proved quite profitable and was quickly established as the standard A & P operation.
Graphic from The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, Incorporated
The iconic circle logo was introduced in 1919. With minor alterations, it would remain the company trademark for over 50 years. Following World War I, A & P -and the grocery industry as a whole- experienced a cycle of enormous expansion. Pre-war, there had been 850 A & P stores. By 1920, this total had ballooned to 4,339. By the mid-1920s, new Combination Stores were selling grocery items, dairy products, produce and meats.
Graphic from The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, Incorporated
A manager stands in front of the Salem, Ohio store in the 1920s. At this time, all A & P units were full-service in format, with the store manager assembling orders for customers. This slow and laborious task was replaced by the first self-service A & P stores, in 1936.
Photo from Salem Public Library
An illustration commemorating the company's 70th anniversary. In 1929, there were an astounding 16,000 A & P stores, which was the highest number ever attained. A & P now operated in thirty-four states and the District of Columbia. A Canadian division, with stores in Ontario and Quebec, had been established in 1927. The first California stores opened in May 1930. The first supermarket, which encompassed 28,100 square feet, opened in 1936.
Graphic from The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, Incorporated
A & P survived The Great Depression, although its total number of stores had fallen to 9,100 by 1939. This was due to consolidation and the shuttering of older, outmoded stores. These were being replaced with modern supermarkets. The chain also emerged intact following a series of Anti-Trust suits filed by the US government between the years 1942 and 1953.
Graphic from The Great Atlantic & Pacific Team Company, Incorporated
The year 1959 was the 100th anniversary of the A & P chain. The Early American-style store was the standard design for newly-built units. It encompassed 15,000 square feet and was one of 100 stores built as part of the company's Centennial celebration. The Golden Anniversary store count stood at 4,252, with units operating in thirty-seven states, the District of Columbia and Canada.
Photo from The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, Incorporated Annual Report 1965
A view inside shows the huge selection of pre-packed meats available at a mid-century A & P Super Market. The A & P chain was the first grocer to offer pre-packed meats.
Photo from The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, Incorporated Annual Report 1966
One of the chain's many mall-based stores is depicted above. It opened, at Muscle Shoals, Alabama's SOUTHGATE MALL, in August 1968. The store encompassed approximately 13,500 square feet.
In the late 1960s, A & P introduced two discount food prototypes, "A-Mart" and "A & P Discount Foods." A Queens, New York "A-Mart" unit is seen above. At the start of the 1970s, there was a total of 4,575 stores.
Photo from The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company Annual Report 1969
An all-new store concept was introduced in Pennsauken, New Jersey in May 1971. Warehouse Economy Outlet (a.k.a. "WEO") units operated with minimum overhead and a focus on fast-selling products, which resulted in increased efficiency and profits.
Graphic from The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, Incorporated
A & P was known for its extensive selection of house brands. Canned goods, spices, peanut butter, jams and the like bore the Ann Page trademark. Coffee was Eight O'Clock brand, with baked goods bearing the Jane Parker name. Pre-packed meat was Super-Right.
Photo from The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company Annual Report 1972
The corporate headquarters on Manhattan's Lexington Avenue moved to new quarters in Montvale, New Jersey. This change took place on July 1, 1974. In 1975, the new "sunrise logo" debuted. The chain had been in a state of decline for a number of years but was given a double whammy by the brutal economic conditions of the 1970s. In late 1974, A & P was operating at a loss. As a cost-cutting measure, 1,250 stores were shuttered in 1975 leaving 2,074 in operation.
Graphic from The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company Annual Report 1975
Several different store formats were introduced in the ensuing years. The A & P Family Mart (which carried groceries and drugs) debuted in 1977, with the first Super Fresh Superstores opening in 1982. These were followed by A & P Future Stores, in 1985. In the acquisition mode, A & P bought stores from Stop & Shop and Pantry Pride and merged with Kohl's Food Stores, Dominion (of Canada), Waldbaum's, The Food Emporium and Farmer Jack.
In 1989, the official store count stood at 1,215, with units operating in twenty-six states and Ontario (Quebec stores having been closed in 1984). By the time of this 2004 logo, A & P had been decimated by competition from WalMart. The total number of A & P stores was 628.
Graphic from The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, Incorporated
A & P sold its 237-unit Canadian holdings in 2005. A New Orleans division closed in 2007. A new trademark appeared in 2009, when A & P was reeling from The Great Recession. By 2010, there were 395 stores. The company filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy in late 2010 and emerged in early 2012. A second Chapter 11 was filed in July 2015, when there were 296 stores. 167 were sold. The remainder closed for good on November 25, 2015, ending a retail reign of 156 years.
Graphic from The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company
A & P JUNIOR-ANCHORED SHOPPING MALLS:
*THE MALL, St. Matthews, KY (1962)
*WASHINGTON SQUARE, Evansville, IN (1963)
*GLEN BURNIE MALL, Anne Arundel County, MD (1964)
