Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company | Wikipedia audio article
Channel: wikipedia tts
Date: 06/01/2019

This is an audio version of the Wikipedia Article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Atlantic_%26_Pacific_Tea_Company


00:06:20 1 History
00:06:29 1.1 1859&#8211;1878: Gilman era
00:08:53 1.2 1878&#8211;1951: Hartford era
00:09:06 1.2.1 Evolution of the grocery store
00:14:18 1.2.2 Development of economy stores
00:16:26 1.2.3 Adding stores that included grocery, meat, produce, and dairy
00:20:24 1.2.4 Converting to supermarkets
00:26:12 1.3 1951&#8211;1974: Post-Hartford era
00:32:31 1.4 1975&#8211;2001: Scott/Wood era
00:42:16 1.5 2001&#8211;2015: Final years as a supermarket chain
00:45:24 1.5.1 First Chapter 11 bankruptcy (2010)
00:47:43 1.5.2 Second Chapter 11 bankruptcy and supermarket shutdown
00:51:16 2 Store design
00:54:08 2.1 Futurestore
00:56:52 2.2 Pharmacies
00:57:13 2.3 Overseas ventures
00:57:49 3 Store names
01:09:04 4 Private brands
01:14:16 5 iWoman's Day/i
01:14:49 6 In arts, entertainment, and  media



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SUMMARY
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The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, better known as A&P, was an American chain of grocery stores that ceased supermarket operations in November 2015, after 156 years in business. From 1915 through 1975, A&P was the largest grocery retailer in the United States (and until 1965, the largest U.S. retailer of any kind). A&P was considered an American icon that, according to The Wall Street Journal, "was as well known as McDonald's or Google is today", and was "the Walmart before Walmart". Known for innovation, A&P and the supermarkets that followed its lead significantly improved nutritional habits by making available a vast assortment of food products at much lower costs. Until 1982, A&P also was a large food manufacturer. In his 1952 book, American Capitalism, John Kenneth Galbraith cited A&P's manufacturing strategy as a classic example of countervailing power that was a welcome alternative to state price controls.Founded in 1859 by George Gilman as "Gilman & Company", within a few years the firm opened a small chain of retail tea and coffee stores in New York City, and operated a national mail order business. The firm grew to 70 stores by 1878, when Gilman passed management to George Huntington Hartford, who turned A&P into the country's first grocery chain. In 1900, it operated almost 200 stores. After Hartford acquired ownership, A&P grew dramatically by introducing the economy store concept in 1912, growing to 1,600 stores in 1915. After World War I, it added stores that offered meat and produce, while expanding manufacturing. 
In 1930, A&P, now the world's largest retailer, reached $2.9 billion in sales with 16,000 stores. In 1936, it adopted the self-serve supermarket concept and opened 4,000 larger stores (while phasing out many of its smaller units) by 1950.A&P's decline began in the early 1950s, when it failed to keep pace with competitors that opened larger supermarkets with more modern features demanded by customers. By the 1970s, A&P stores were outdated, and its efforts to combat high operating costs resulted in poor customer service. 
In 1975, it hired outside management, closed older stores, and built modern ones. When these efforts failed to turn A&P around, the heirs of the Hartford family and the Hartford foundation, which owned a majority of the stock, sold to the Tengelmann Group of Germany. 
In 1981, A&P launched its second store-closing program financed by the surplus assets of its employee pension plan, reducing the corporation to fewer than 1,000 stores. The plan also closed manufacturing operations except coffee production.Starting in 1982, A&P acquired several chains that continued to be operated under their own names, rather than being converted to A&P. While A&P regained profitability in the 1980s, in 2002 it operated at a record loss because of new competition, especially from Walmart. A&P closed more stores, whi ...