A&P

**The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company**, better known as **A&P**, was an American chain of grocery stores that operated from 1859 to 2015. 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". At its peak in the 1940s, A&P captured 10% of total US grocery spending. Known for innovation, A&P and the supermarkets that followed its lead 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, by then the world's largest retailer, reached $2.9 billion in sales ($44.9 billion today) 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 By the 1970s, A&P stores were outdated, and its efforts to combat high operating costs resulted in poor customer service.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.

The company would start opening locations in Statesville & the Republic Of Eastfern by 1983 and would become so popular, that the brand become known all over both countries. When A&P started it's "We Built A Proud New Feeling" campaign in 1987, it took off becoming so popular, that the jingle is well known today and can be viewed at the Townsville Museum of Memories, and the Cartoonopolis History Museum. A&P would also start opening SuperFresh grocery stores in both cities witch would operate mostly in shopping centers but would also open in most new malls opening around that time.

The stores have since grown to around 300 locations in Statesville with A&P having 40 stores in Cartoonopolis (20 being A&P stores while 20 are SuperFresh stores) and the brand continues to make lots of money. A&P's competitors are Jewel, Albertson's, & Safeway.