A grocery store (AE), grocery shop (BE) or simply grocery is a foodservice retail store that primarily retails a general range of food products, which may be fresh or packaged. In everyday U.S. usage, however, "grocery store" is a synonym for supermarket, and is not used to refer to other types of stores that sell groceries. In the UK, shops that sell food are distinguished as grocers or grocery shops.
Ace Hardware Corporation is an American hardware retailers' cooperative based in Oak Brook, Illinois, United States. It's the largest non-grocery retail cooperative in the United States.
Food Lion is an American regional supermarket chain headquartered in Salisbury, North Carolina, that operates over 1100 supermarkets in 10 states of the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern United States. The chain employs over 63,000 people. It was founded in 1957 as Food Town, a single grocery store in Salisbury. It later expanded to many locations across North Carolina. It was independently operated until it was acquired by the Belgium-based conglomerate Delhaize Group in 1974. In 1983, the company changed its name and branding to Food Lion to allow it to expand into regions where Food Town was already in use by unrelated stores. Following further mergers and acquisitions, Food Lion, LLC is currently owned by Ahold Delhaize. The mascot’s name has been George the Food Lion since January 17, 1997.
Wakefern Food Corporation is an American company that was founded in 1946 and is based in Keasbey, New Jersey. It is the largest retailers' cooperative group of supermarkets and the fourth-largest cooperative of any kind in the United States. Wakefern was the largest private employer in New Jersey in 2018, with 40,200 employees. As of 2023, Wakefern has 48 member companies who own and operate 365 supermarkets, under the ShopRite, Price Rite Marketplace, The Fresh Grocer, Dearborn Market, Gourmet Garage, and Fairway Market brands in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island.
ShopRite is an American retailers' cooperative of supermarkets with stores in six states: Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.
A warehouse store or warehouse supermarket is a food and grocery retailer that operates stores geared toward offering deeper discounted prices than a traditional supermarket. These stores offer a no-frills experience and warehouse shelving stocked well with merchandise intended to move at higher volumes. Unlike warehouse clubs, warehouse stores do not require a membership or membership fees. Warehouse stores can also offer a selection of merchandise sold in bulk. Typically, warehouse stores are laid out in a logical format; this leads customers in a certain way around the store to the checkout. For example, as one enters the store they are directed down an aisle of discounted products. From there the layout could then lead to the fresh produce department, followed by the deli and bakery departments at the back of the store. Often, certain customer service niceties, like the bagging of groceries, are not done by store employees; this helps reduce overall cost. Many warehouse stores are operated by traditional grocery chains both as a way to attract lower income, value conscious consumers and to maximize their buying power in order to lower costs at their mainstream stores.
Feeding America is a United States–based non-profit organization that is a nationwide network of more than 200 food banks that feed more than 46 million people through food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, and other community-based agencies. Forbes ranks it as the largest U.S. charity by revenue. Feeding America was known as America's Second Harvest until August 31, 2008.
Associated Wholesale Grocers, Inc. (AWG) is the United States's largest cooperative food wholesaler to independently owned supermarkets and grocery stores. It serves more than 4,000 locations in 36 states and from 8 full-line wholesale divisions. The consolidated run-rate sales for AWG is close to $10 billion. In addition to its cooperative wholesale operations, the company also operates subsidiary companies which provide certain real estate and supermarket development services, digital marketing services, and is a wholesale supply provider of health and beauty care, general merchandise, specialty/international foods and pharmaceutical supplies. It was founded in 1924 as Associated Grocers of Kansas City and was based in Kansas City, Missouri before moving to Kansas City, Kansas. Associated Wholesale Grocers distributes four private-label brands of grocery products, Best Choice, Clearly Organic, Always Save, and Superior Selections along with IGA.
Affiliated Foods is a grocery wholesaler. It was founded by the 1968 merger of South Plains Associated Grocers of Lubbock, Texas and the Panhandle Associated Grocers of Amarillo, Texas, and is a retailers' cooperative serving Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, Nebraska, and Wyoming. Panhandle Associated Grocers was founded in 1946. The company has 700 member stores.
Unified Grocers, originally Unified Western Grocers, was a retailer-owned wholesale grocery cooperative that supplies independent supermarkets in the Western United States. It was formed in 1999 by the merger of two West Coast cooperatives, one based in Oregon and one in Los Angeles: United Grocers of Oregon and Certified Grocers of California. In 2007, it acquired Associated Grocers of Seattle, Washington, and shortened its name to Unified Grocers. The company has its headquarters in Commerce, California.
Affiliated Foods Midwest was a retailers' cooperative based in Norfolk, Nebraska, Elwood, Kansas and Kenosha, Wisconsin, serving the states of Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, Arizona, Arkansas, Kentucky and Michigan. It distributed Shurfine products, and was affiliated with IGA (supermarkets).
Associated Grocers of New England (AGNE) is a retailers' cooperative serving over six hundred independent grocery stores and convenience stores, in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1946 as New Hampshire Wholesale Grocers and took the present name in 1969. AGNE is a member of Retailer Owned Food Distributors & Associates. It distributes Shurfine products in its stores. It is based in Pembroke, New Hampshire.
URM Stores, Inc. of Spokane, Washington is an American retailers' cooperative serving independent supermarkets in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington. It was founded in 1921 and is a member of Retailer Owned Food Distributors & Associates. It is an owner of Western Family Foods. It purchased Rosauers Supermarket in 2000.
Riceland Foods, Inc. is the largest farmer-owned rice & soybean marketing cooperative in the world with headquarters inStuttgart, Arkansas. USA. The cooperative was founded in 1921 and has become a major rice & grain miller and a global marketer of the same. Approximately 5000 farmers own or deliver to the cooperative which operates six rice mills including the world's largest in Jonesboro, Arkansas. The cooperatives principal purpose is to utilize efficiencies of scale to generate increased farmer returns through receiving, storing, milling, packaging, and marketing rice, vegetable oil, meal & byproducts to markets around the globe.
Foodtown is a northeastern United States supermarket cooperative founded in 1955 by Twin County Grocers in New Jersey. Currently, there are 66 Foodtown stores in New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut. Foodtown's corporate offices are located in Iselin, New Jersey.
A consumers' co-operative is an enterprise owned by consumers and managed democratically and that aims at fulfilling the needs and aspirations of its members. Such co-operatives operate within the market system, independently of the state, as a form of mutual aid, oriented toward service rather than pecuniary profit. Many cooperatives, however, do have a degree of profit orientation. Just like other corporations, some cooperatives issue dividends to owners based on a share of total net profit or earnings ; or based on a percentage of the total amount of purchases made by the owner. Regardless of whether they issue a dividend or not, most consumers’ cooperatives will offer owners discounts and preferential access to good and services.
