This MALL HALL OF FAME feature will begin with a history of the American supermarket. As on other parts of this website, we present a visual picture and do not just talk about the subject matter.  Our fifteen Food Store Focus sections include all matter of retro grocery store ephemera. We also zero in on the supermarket as it related to early car culture shopping centers and shopping malls built in the USA. 

The supermarket story begins with the introduction of the so-called self-service grocery. Exactly who came up with this concept first is subjective. It is claimed that Hugh and Albert Gerrard opened the Triangle Groceteria -a self-service-type market- in Pomona, California, in 1915. Memphis, Tennessee's Clarence Saunders opened the first self-service Piggly Wiggly market on September 6, 1916. If Clarence Saunders wasn't the very first to operate a self-service food facility, he was the first to patent to idea.

Up to this time, customers at the typical grocery would have their orders filled by clerks. All merchandise was not individually packaged and priced and was stocked in shelves behind counters. The clerk filling a customer's order would have to measure out various quantities of foods and sack them up. Obviously, this was a very labor-intensive and time-consuming process.

At the self-service Piggly Wiggly, customers entered through a turnstile, grabbed a basket and walked through aisles of pre-packaged and price-marked merchandise. Items would be paid for at a checkout stand located near the store's exit. Clarence Saunders patented his self-service grocery format in 1917. Most of his competitors had converted to this store model by the late 1930s.

This early Piggly Wiggly trademark was used to promote the rapidly-expanding grocery store chain in 1919. By 1922, there were 600 stores, with all being franchised -in opposition to company-run- operations. The store count in 1924 was 1,400 and had risen to 3,123 by 1929. The peak store number -in 1932- was 2,660. 

Graphic from Piggly Wiggly Stores, Incorporated

An early store is depicted in this vintage image. Piggy Wiggly founder Clarence Sauders issued public stock in the company and eventually lost control of it. His later attempts to establish fully-automated supermarkets -such as Keedoozle and FoodElectric- were not successful.

Graphic from Piggly Wiggly Stores, Incorporated

Meanwhile, in September 1916, Clarence Saunders opened Piggly Wiggly Store Number One, in Memphis, Tennessee. 

Photo from Library of Congress

The Piggly Wiggly concept revolutionized the grocery industry. In addition to introducing the self-service format, the chain was also the first to provide check-out stands and customer shopping carts.

Photo from Library of Congress 

Circa-1921

Circa-1941

Circa-1951

As of mid-2023, there were 506 franchised Piggly Wiggly stores. These operate in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin. The corporate headquarters is located in Keane, New Hampshire. 

Graphic from Piggly Wiggly, Limited Liability Company

The self-service grocery was followed by the first supermarkets. Early models were somewhat larger than the standard 1,000 square foot grocery and offered items at discounted prices. The idea was to make money not so much by large profits made on individual items but from smaller profits garnered by selling en masse...or on a much larger scale.

The Smithsonian Institution has recognized New York City's King Kullen chain as "America's first supermarket." The first store opened, in the Queens borough, on August 4, 1930. Michael J. Cullen's 6,000 square foot units set a new standard in the industry. Five criteria were met; self- service shopping, discount pricing, individual departments, chain marketing and volume dealing. On-site parking was also provided for customers.

At first, King Cullen's retail rivals -such as A & P, Kroger and Safeway- balked at the adoption of the supermarket-style store. However, a severe economic depression necessitated their acceptance of the price-based format.

Long Island, New York's King Kullen chain was another merchandising maverick of the early 20th century. The first store, seen here, opened its doors in August 1930. It was located in the Jamaica neighborhood of New York City's Queens borough. The building had previously housed an auto repair garage. 

Photo from https://kingkullen.com

-Circa-1935-

-Circa-1950-

A mid-century King Cullen store holds its official grand opening. In 1932, there had been eight operational stores. Fourteen were in service in 1938. The chain had grown to thirty locations by 1952. 

Photo from https://kingkullen.com

Here, we see the check-out lines at a mid-century store. Early King Kullen units encompassed between 5,200 to 6,400 square feet. By the 1950s, stores fell within the 10,000 to 15,000 square foot range. 

Photo from https://kingkullen.com

In the 21st century, the King Kullen chain is still family-owned. The company oversees twenty-seven stores...all on Long Island. The corporate headquarters in located in Hauppauge (Suffolk County), New York

Graphic from King Kullen Grocery Company, Incorporated

The number of company-owned (and not franchised) stores operated by America's large grocery chains, i.e., A & P, Kroger, Safeway and Grand Union, peaked in the late 1920s. In the 1930s, as the supermarket-type store came into its own, grocery chains were consolidating several smaller grocery stores into single supermarket operations. Hence, a particular chain's actual number of stores tended to drop during this time.

As America became increasingly auto-oriented during the 1920s and '30s, the car culture shopping center was born. Among the earliest was Kansas City's, Missouri's COUNTRY CLUB PLAZA. One of its first tenants was Wolferman's, a local gourmet grocery chain that opened On The Plaza in January 1924. Another early car culture retail complex, Columbus, Ohio's GRANDVIEW AVENUE SHOPPING CENTER, began business in 1928. It featured four grocery stores; A & P, Kroger, Piggly Wiggly and a local chain known as Polumbos.

At the close of World War II, the budding supermarket industry, whose development had been delayed by The Great Depression and a global conflict, was poised for major expansion. The auto-oriented shopping center, which had evolved in the 1920s and '30s, began to be built in suburban locations.

Wolferman's operated the nation's first Shopping Center Food Market. The store opened in early 1924, at Kansas City, Missouri's COUNTRY CLUB PLAZA. The upscale grocer was also noteworthy for its on-site bakery, which produced the chain's famed English muffins. 

Graphic from Fred Wolferman, Incorporated

Washington, DC's historic CONNECTICUT AVENUE PARK & SHOP was one of America's first strip-type shopping centers. The 59,000 square foot complex, dedicated in December 1930, originally housed A & P and Piggly Wiggly grocery stores. 

Photo from Library of Congress

Graphic 1 from The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, Incorporated

Graphic 2 from Piggly Wiggly Stores, Incorporated

Los Angeles' CRENSHAW CENTER was the nation's first regional-class shopping center. The original complex featured large, multi-story department stores and acres of free parking. It also included a large Von's supermarket.
Photo from http://s11.photobucket.com / "DCGrocery"

Graphic from the Von's Grocery Company

Another innovative regional shopping center was Chicagoland's PARK FOREST COMMERCIAL CENTER / PLAZA. In this vintage view, we see its Jewel Tea Company supermarket, which opened in 1950. 
Photo from Malls of America Blogspot

Graphic from Jewel Tea Company, Incorporated

A mid-century mom shops for groceries for her (2.5-child) Nuclear Family.

Photo from Library of Congress / Thomas O'Halloran

The suburban shopping mall debuted in the early years of the post-war era. America's first bona fide mall, Seattle, Washington's NORTHGATE CENTER, held its official grand opening April 21, 1950 and included IGA Foodliner and A & P supermarkets as two of its tenants. 

America's second retail mall, Greater Boston's SHOPPERS' WORLD, opened for business October 4, 1951. The center include a Brockelman's supermarket in its original retail mix. This store, rebranded by Stop & Shop in 1953, moved to a newly-built mall store in October 1961.

The nation's first regional-class, fully-enclosed mall, Edina ["uh-diy-nuh"], Minnesota's SOUTHDALE CENTER, held its grand opening October 8, 1956. It featured a 30,000 square foot Red Owl supermarket, reputed to be the largest in the Upper Midwest at the time. America's early interior malls almost always included a supermarket as a customer drawing point.

Before long, large supermarket chains and major shopping center developers had formed partnerships. Cincinnati's Kroger Company and Cleveland's Jacobs, Visconsi, Jacobs Group co-built Fairview Park, Ohio's WESTGATE CENTER (1954). Kroger and Youngstown, Ohio's Edward J. DeBartolo Corporation developed centers such as Indianapolis' LAFAYETTE SQUARE (1968) and Greater Youngstown's SOUTHERN PARK MALL (1970).

Philadelphia's Food Fair Stores inaugurated its own development subsidiary, Food Fair Properties, in September 1955. This company built Miami, Florida's 163rd STREET CENTER (1956) and Baltimore's REISTERSTOWN ROAD PLAZA (1962). New Jersey's Grand Union Company also delved into shopping mall development by forming Eastern Shopping Centers, in May 1956. Some of their projects were Hyattsville, Maryland's PRINCE GEORGES PLAZA (1959) and  Orlando's PARKWOOD PLAZA (1960). 

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)

Our second Food Store Focus section covers Stop & Shop, a tenant at America's second shopping mall. The chain originated with Jacob & Julius Rabinovitz, who founded the Economy Grocery Stores Company, in Somerville, Massachusetts, in May 1914. This concern should not be confused with the Economy Grocery Company (a division of First National Stores), whose corporate offices had been in East Hartford, Connecticut.

Photo from ajhsboston.org

The self-service store format, patented by the Piggly Wiggly chain, was adopted by Economy Grocery Stores in 1918. At this time, there were thirty-two units. In 1929, the store count stood at 368, with thirty of these stores having meat departments. A Stop & Shop Foodmart, the chain's first supermarket, opened -in Cambridge, Massachusetts- in October 1935.

Photo from Stop & Shop, Incorporated Annual Report 1965

An interior view of an early Stop & Shop supermarket. Units of the time averaged between 10,000 and 15,000 square feet. The chain expanderd by acquiring existing grocery store enterprises. Rood & Woodbury came under the corporate umbrella in 1929, Grey United Stores in 1932 and Brockelman Brothers in 1953.  

Photo from Stop & Shop, Incorporated Annual Report 1946

The Economy Grocery Stores Corporation expanded into Connecticut in 1941. By 1946, over 90% of all stores were supermarkets operating under the Stop & Shop brand. As a result, the corporate name was changed to Stop & Shop, Incorporated in 1947, with all remaining Economy Grocery Stores being either rebranded or shuttered.

Graphic from Stop & Shop, Incorporated

By 1954, Stop & Shop was overseeing ninety-six stores. Seventy-nine were self-service supermarkets, eight self-service grocery stores, five full service grocery stores and four bakeries. The first Rhode Island stores were dedicated in 1956. The unit seen above opened -in Cranston, Rhode Island- in 1959. With its completion, the company was operating 107 stores.

Photo from Stop & Shop, Incorporated Annual Report 1959

The Framingham, Massachusetts Stop & Shop was added to the 10-year-old SHOPPERS' WORLD mall. This store, a relocation of an earlier unit in the shopping center, encompassed 30,000 square feet and opened for business in October 1961. In the same year, Stop & Shop bought two existing supermarket companies, Park 'N Shop and Tedeschi.  

An updated logo made its first appearance in 1964. At this time, Stop & Shop was operating 143 supermarkets in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Vermont.  

Photo from Stop & Shop, Incorporated 

In 1970, the Stop & Shop store count was 139. In spite of economic doldrums, the chain expanded to 156 stores by 1975. Store numbers declined to 119 in 1985 and 118 in 1992. Several units in New Jersey and New York State had been either sold or shuttered. On a lighter note: the first Super Stop & Shop store were unveiled -in Pembroke, Massachusetts- in 1982. Super Stores covered between 45,000 and 80,000 square feet. 

Photo from Stop & Shop, Incorporated Annual Report 1992

Stop & Shop survived a hostile takeover attempt in February 1988. To insure its survival, it merged with New York City's Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company in March of the same year and was taken private. Stop & Shop became a publicly-traded company again in 1991. An expansion mode in 1995 added new Super Stores in Greater New York City. Moreover, existing chains were acquired. These included Purity Supreme, of Massachusetts, and Melmarkets, of Long Island.   

Graphic from Stop & Shop, Incorporated 

In July 1996, a US subsidiary of Holland's Koninklijke Ahold N.V. acquired Stop & Shop. Ahold reorganized the company, placing thirty-five new stores under its direction. By year's end, Stop & Shop was operating nearly 200. Another expansion mode, between 2000 and 2003, added units from Edwards Super Food Stores and C & S Wholesale Distributors. During 2003, Ahold merged Stop & Shop with its Maryland-based Giant Food company, forming the Stop & Shop / Giant-Landover corporation. In 2023, there were 399 stores.

Graphic from Stop & Shop, Incorporated 

STOP & SHOP JUNIOR-ANCHORED SHOPPING MALLS:

*NORTHSHORE CENTER, Peabody, MA (1958)

*CONNECTICUT POST CENTER, Milford, CT (1960)

*SOUTH SHORE PLAZA, Braintree, MA (1961)