Farmer Jack

Last updated
Farmer Jack
Formerly
  • Tom's Quality Meats (1924–1945)
  • Lucky Stores (1945–1955)
  • Food Fair (1945–1955)
  • Borman Food Stores Inc. (1955–1959)
    Traded as Food Fair
  • Borman's Inc. (1959–1987)
Company type Subsidiary
Industry Retail (Grocery)
Founded1924(100 years ago) (1924) in Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
FoundersTom Borman and Sam Burlak
DefunctJuly 7, 2007;16 years ago (2007-07-07)
Fate Acquisition by A&P, then liquidation
Headquarters
Detroit, Michigan
,
U.S.
Number of locations
100 at peak (1995)
67 at liquidation (2007 (2007))
Areas served
 Michigan
Products Bakery, dairy, deli, frozen foods, general grocery, meat, produce, seafood, snacks, liquor
BrandsVarious
RevenueDecrease2.svg US$98 million (1997)
Number of employees
7,200 (1997)
Parent The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company (1987-2007)

Farmer Jack was a supermarket chain based in Detroit, Michigan. At its peak, it operated more than 100 stores, primarily in metropolitan Detroit. In its final years, the chain operated as the Midwest subsidiary of the New Jersey-based A&P Corporation. A&P closed the Farmer Jack chain on July 7, 2007.

Contents

Farmer Jack stores were typically in suburban neighborhoods, usually anchoring strip malls. In addition to offering groceries, each store operated full-service produce, floral, delicatessen, bakery, pharmacy, meat, and seafood departments, with some locations including a bank.

History

Farmer Jack's beginnings were in 1924, when Jewish-Russian immigrants Tom Borman and Sam Burlak opened a neighborhood grocery store, Tom's Quality Meats, at 12th and Forest in Detroit. In 1927, his brother Abraham "Al" Borman opened a store on Kercheval on the city's east side. The brothers eventually formed a partnership, which ended in 1945, with Tom developing Lucky Stores, and Al developing Food Fair markets. In 1955, the two operations merged into Food Fair, operating under the corporate entity Borman Food Stores Inc. Four years later, the renamed Borman's Inc., sold more than 400,000 shares of stock, with the brothers retaining control. Proceeds from the stock sale fueled a buying binge: Borman's bought State Super Markets of Ferndale; American Stores Inc., acquired nine Lipson-Gourwitz Co. markets in Detroit, planning an expansion to 46 stores.

In 1966, Borman announced the opening of three suburban shopping centers that would contain gas stations, car washes, garden supply stores, Yankee discount stores, and food stores, operating under the new moniker of Farmer Jack. By 1972, Detroit became a major zone of grocery store competition, with six chains competing in the region, including Chatham and Great Scott! In a speech, Paul Borman claimed A&P's move to discount-type stores had nearly destroyed the supermarket industry.

Borman acquired the 13-store Arnold Drug pharmacy chain in 1965, [1] but dissolved this division in 1981 in order to cut financial losses. [2]

In 1987, Borman's was flush with cash, and took advantage of Safeway's troubles as an opportunity to diversify its store base beyond Michigan when it bought that chain's 60-store Salt Lake City division. Those stores were throughout Utah, southern Idaho, and in adjacent towns in Nevada and Wyoming. The Safeway stores were renamed Farmer Jack; the company planned to remodel and update them, as Safeway had not invested much in the division. The expansion was short-lived and by the end of 1988, Farmer Jack sold the 60-store division to various retailers including 29 stores to Boise, Idaho-based retailer Albertsons. Later in 1987, a lengthy strike by Detroit-area clerks and cashiers, who were not supported by meat cutters or Teamsters, depleted Borman's cash reserve and forced the company to buy out 800 workers at the cost of $12.9 million (~$28.7 million in 2022).[ citation needed ] The 1987 strike started a period of losses that would prompt the sale to A&P.

In 1989, beginning a decade of merger mania in the supermarket business, A&P paid $76 million (~$157 million in 2022) for 79 Farmer Jack stores operated by Borman's. The buyout made A&P the top player among grocery stores in southeastern Michigan, with a 36% share. By 1994, all A&P stores in metro Detroit had been converted to Farmer Jack stores.

In the mid-1990s, A&P rebranded select stores within the East (mostly in Virginia and South Carolina) to the Farmer Jack banner; while they shared the same name, these stores were not controlled by the Midwest division. [3] These stores were closed or sold by 1999. [4]

In September 2003, a newly built Farmer Jack opened in Milford, Michigan; a new store opened in Waterford, Michigan, in 2005. [5] The company planned a new store for Dearborn Heights in 2004, but it opened as Food Basics instead. After A&P discontinued the Food Basics brand locally, the company converted it into a Farmer Jack.

Decline and demise

After initial merger pains, Farmer Jack rose to prosperity, becoming A&P's most profitable division through the 1990s. But in 2002, the chain began losing money. Former executives attributed this to several reasons: [6]

Market Scope projected that Farmer Jack led metro Detroit in market share with 27.5% at year end 2001. It began a free fall in 2002; by the end of the year, Kroger led the market while Meijer climbed to 16.1% from 10.1% in just one year.

In 2003, Farmer Jack announced its first round of store closures and that it would seek voluntary buyouts among its most senior employees. [7] In June, in a move made by the company to ‘get its consumer base back,’ but attributed by the media as a marketing gimmick, each store was closed for 37 hours so that they could be thoroughly cleaned; when the stores reopened, employees debuted with new uniforms and the loyalty card and weekly sales were discontinued in favor of everyday low pricing. Additionally, a new marketing program titled "We’re Thinking Fresh" promoting ‘it’s fresh or it’s free - guaranteed’ was launched. [8] An analysis by the Detroit Free Press among a basket of commonly purchased items concluded that Farmer Jack's price had indeed gone from most expensive to least expensive among its peers; however, journalists also noted that "in spite of the surface shine, some areas of the store (where journalists shopped) needed a scrubbing. The coolers looked old, a frozen food area had bent and crooked shelves, and some inner cooler door frames were dusty and dotted with bits of paper." The paper speculated that competitors would match Farmer Jack's prices and it would suffer from the same problems it had before the makeover. [9]

In early 2004, ten Farmer Jack locations were converted into A&P's Food Basics format in an attempt to compete with discount chains such as Save-A-Lot. [10] Less than a year later, nine were closed while the other—a new-build store in Dearborn Heights—was converted into a Farmer Jack. Simultaneously, the closure of 15 Farmer Jacks was announced; [11] four more closures were announced later in the year. [12]

In early 2005, A&P placed Farmer Jack for sale, seeking an estimated $250M (~$362 million in 2022) for 71 core stores; the remaining locations were offered individually. [13] Later that year, workers approved wage cuts conditional on a sale to Spartan Stores—which was led by several former Farmer Jack executives, including its CEO Dennis Edison who led Farmer Jack until his dismissal in 2002, but the deal fell through. Workers then approved a similar package of cuts in exchange for A&P guaranteeing to keep the stores open through May 2007. A&P, which was unable to find a buyer for Farmer Jack, said the chain would break even for the year and therefore A&P—which had just received a cash injection from the sale of its Canadian division—was in no hurry to sell it. A&P also admitted that because it had anticipated a quick sale, Farmer Jack had been poorly managed for over a year; therefore, the company was returning to loyalty cards and "It's Savings Time" marketing. [14]

By April 2006, Farmer Jack was once again profitable. [15]

In August 2006, Farmer Jack announced it would convert three stores into a prototype mixed discount-upscale market featuring warehouse-type shelving, fewer product offerings and higher stacking in the produce department while featuring lower prices. Plans were scrapped by October, with then A&P CEO Eric Claus saying "we're not pleased with our lack of sales momentum in Michigan". [16]

In March 2007, A&P announced plans to sell or close Farmer Jack by July. [17] In May, its distribution warehouses closed. [18] The remaining Farmer Jacks closed on July 7. "For all practical purposes, those stores were closed anyway," supermarket analyst David Livingston told the Detroit News. "Farmer Jack was doing such a low volume. The existing stores were barely even doing that -- existing." "Farmer Jack was stuck in the past in terms of quality, merchandising and pricing," said Ken Dalto, a Farmington Hills-based retail consultant. "A&P never gave its Michigan stores the type of attention they needed to do well. Customers noticed they didn't move beyond 20 years ago." [19] While Kroger was aggressively remodeling or rebuilding its stores with designer interiors, full service meat & seafood counters, sushi and extensive prepared food bars, most Farmer Jacks retained A&P's late 1980s/early 1990s interior design package.

A Farmer Jack store with a liquidation sign displayed 101Farmerjack.jpg
A Farmer Jack store with a liquidation sign displayed

Of the remaining 66 Farmer Jacks, the company announced that it sold 20 to Kroger, 10 to smaller local chains and 15 to independent grocers. [19] However, some of the deals with the independent grocers collapsed. In an October 2007 SEC filing A&P revealed that it received approximately $110 million for 41 former Farmer Jack sites, and that 2 warehouses and 25 stores remained for sale. [20] [21]

In June 2010, A&P ended lease payments at vacant Farmer Jack stores; affected property owners responded with 24 lawsuits against A&P. [22] In December 2010, A&P filed for bankruptcy citing dark leases from discontinued operations like Farmer Jack as a factor in its decision. [23]

Marketing

Farmer Jack is remembered in metro Detroit for its It's Always Savings Time jingle, which was used in the 1990s and again in the mid-2000s. Its most famous advertising mode was the 10-second "Farmer Jack savings time" plugs where the radio personality would give a quick special while in the background would play a sound similar to a teletype that began and ended with a low "boinnng" sound.

Another famous slogan was Made in Michigan, Sold at Farmer Jack, which was used to promote Michigan brands and agriculture products.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kroger</span> American retail company

The Kroger Company, or simply Kroger, is an American retail company that operates supermarkets and multi-department stores throughout the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ralphs</span> American supermarket chain owned by Kroger

Ralphs is an American supermarket chain in Southern California. The largest subsidiary of Cincinnati-based Kroger, it is the oldest such chain west of the Mississippi River. Kroger also operates stores under the Food 4 Less and Foods Co. names in California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">A&P</span> Defunct American grocery store chain

The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, better known as A&P, was an American chain of grocery stores that operated from 1859–2015. From 1915 through 1975, A&P was the largest grocery retailer in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Meijer</span> American hypermarket chain

Meijer Inc. is an American supercenter chain that primarily operates throughout the Midwestern United States. Its corporate headquarters are in Walker, Michigan, which is a part of the Grand Rapids metropolitan area. Founded in 1934 as a supermarket chain, Meijer is credited with pioneering the modern supercenter concept in 1962. About half of the company's 259 stores are located in Michigan; the others are in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, and Wisconsin. The chain is ranked by Forbes as the 14th-largest private company in the United States, and is the country's 21st-largest retailer by revenue as of 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harris Teeter</span> American supermarket chain

Harris Teeter Supermarkets, LLC., also known as Harris Teeter Neighborhood Food & Pharmacy, is an American supermarket chain based in Matthews, North Carolina, a suburb of Charlotte. As of February 2024, the chain operates 259 stores in seven South Atlantic states and Washington, D.C. Supermarket News ranked Harris Teeter No. 34 in the 2012 "Top 75 Retailers & Wholesalers" based on 2011 fiscal year sales of $4.3 billion.

SuperValu, Inc., was an American wholesaler and retailer of grocery products. The company, formerly headquartered in the Minneapolis suburb of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, had been in business since 1926. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of United Natural Foods (UNFI).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cub (supermarket)</span> American supermarket chain owned by United Natural Foods

Cub is an American supermarket chain. It operates stores in Minnesota and Illinois. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of United Natural Foods, based in Providence, Rhode Island.

Fred Meyer is an American chain of hypermarket superstores founded in 1922 in Portland, Oregon, United States, by Fred G. Meyer. The stores are found in the northwest U.S., within the states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Alaska. The company was acquired by Kroger in 1998, though the stores are still branded Fred Meyer. The chain was one of the first in the United States to promote one-stop shopping, eventually combining a complete grocery supermarket with a drugstore, bank, clothing, jewelry, home decor, home improvement, garden, electronics, restaurant, shoes, sporting goods, and toys. The Fred Meyer division is headquartered in Portland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steinberg's (supermarket)</span> Defunct Canadian supermarket chain

Steinberg's was a large family-owned Canadian grocery store chain that mainly operated in the province of Quebec and later Ontario. In addition to its flagship supermarket chain, the company operated several subsidiaries across the country. The company went bankrupt in 1992, three years after being sold to private interests, after 75 years in business.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Penn Traffic</span> Defunct retail chain

The Penn Traffic Company was a food service company founded in 1854 in Johnstown, 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marsh Supermarkets</span> Defunct grocery chain based in central Indiana

Marsh Supermarkets was an American retail food chain headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, with a peak number of 86 stores in 2013 located throughout central Indiana and parts of western Ohio. Its eventual parent company was Sun Capital Partners, headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FreshCo</span> Canadian discount supermarket chain owned by Empire Company Limited

FreshCo Ltd. is a Canadian chain of discount supermarkets owned by Sobeys. It was launched in March 2010. As of September 2023, there were 100 FreshCo stores.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Food 4 Less</span> American no-frills grocery store chain owned by Kroger

Food 4 Less is the name of several grocery store chains, the largest of which is currently owned by Kroger. It is a no-frills grocery store where the customers bag their own groceries at the checkout. Kroger operates Food 4 Less stores in the Chicago metropolitan area and in Southern California. Kroger operates their stores as Foods Co. in northern and central California, including Bakersfield and the Central Coast, because they do not have the rights to the Food 4 Less name in those areas. Other states, such as Nevada, formerly contained Kroger-owned Food 4 Less stores.

Dominick's was a Chicago-area grocery store chain and subsidiary of Safeway Inc. Dominick's distribution center was located in Northlake, Illinois, while its management offices were located in Oak Brook, Illinois.

Kessel Food Markets was an American supermarket chain based in Michigan. It began in 1981 when Owosso, Michigan, native Al Kessel, a former executive vice president of Hamady Brothers supermarkets, purchased Kroger locations in Corunna and Saginaw. Kroger closed these stores due to Michigan's poor economy at the time, and failure to reach union agreements. After Kroger closed all five of its Flint locations in 1982 for the same reasons, Kessel purchased them as well, followed by 13 Hamady stores after that chain filed for bankruptcy in 1991. At its peak, Kessel Food Markets comprised 24 stores. Kessel filmed his own television commercials for the chain, in which he would throw items into a grocery cart and state, "Save at Kessel this week. Why? Because we're with you."

Hamady was an American supermarket chain based in Flint, Michigan, United States, which at its peak had 37 stores and 1,300 employees. Given the chain's pervasiveness in the area, paper grocery bags were known as “Hamady sacks”.

Yankee Stores was an American discount department store chain begun in Flint, Michigan. Partners Joseph Megdell and Wilbert Roberts opened their first store in 1948 to sell military surplus under the name U.S. Surplus. By 1964, it had become a discount chain with 21 stores throughout southeastern Michigan, primarily around Flint. Many of its locations were paired with local supermarket chain Hamady Brothers. Some larger stores, including those in Lansing and Bay City, were called Yankee Stadium.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucky's Market</span> Colorado supermarket

Lucky's Market is a brand of supermarkets that are being used by two independent and unrelated regional supermarket chains, LM Acquisition Co. LLC in Colorado and Lucky's Market Ohio in Ohio.

References

  1. ↑ "Borman to acquire drug stores". Detroit Free Press. January 15, 1965. pp. 4D. Retrieved March 19, 2019.
  2. ↑ "Borman's says it lost $3 million in 1981". Detroit Free Press. March 24, 1982. pp. 1B. Retrieved March 19, 2019.
  3. ↑ Patterson, Philana. "Grocer To Convert To Upscale Format". Daily Press. Retrieved 20 March 2014.
  4. ↑ "Food Lion Acquiring Farmer Jack Stores". The Virginian-Pilot . Norfolk, Virginia: NewsBank. 26 February 1999. Retrieved 2013-12-17.
  5. ↑ "Industry Report". Detroit Free Press . 23 Sep 2003. p. D2.
  6. ↑ Dixon, Jennifer (14 Feb 2003). "Farmer Jack in a Tailspin" . Detroit Free Press. p. A1.
  7. ↑ Dixon, Jennifer (28 Mar 2003). "Farmer Jack Drops 4 Stores". Detroit Free Press. p. C1.
  8. ↑ Dixon, Jennifer (12 June 2003). "Farmer Jack Fights Back". Detroit Free Press. p. A1.
  9. ↑ Dixon, Jennifer (21 June 2003). "New Prices at Farmer Jack Undercuts Rivals". Detroit Free Press. p. A1.
  10. ↑ "A&P Reopening 10 Detroit Farmer Jacks as Food Basics Stores". Progressive Grocer. 13 January 2004. Archived from the original on 17 December 2013. Retrieved 2013-12-17.
  11. ↑ Guest, Gretta (27 May 2005). "As Grocer Fades, New Owners Take Gamble". Detroit Free Press. p. C1.
  12. ↑ Guest, Gretta (1 Sep 2005). "Farmer Jack Union Fears More Closures". Detroit Free Press. p. C1.
  13. ↑ Gopwani, Jewl (11 May 2005). "A&P To Sell Farmer Jack". Detroit Free Press. p. C1.
  14. ↑ Guest, Gretta (19 Oct 2005). "A&P Says It's In No Hurry To Sell Farmer Jack". Detroit Free Press. p. C1.
  15. ↑ Guest, Gretta (5 May 2006). "Farmer Jack is Trimming Store Prices: Wage Cuts Make Big Grocer Profitable Again". Detroit Free Press. p. E1.
  16. ↑ Guest, Gretta (28 Oct 2006). "Farmer Jack Delays Shops that Mix Upscale, Discount". Detroit Free Press. p. A12.
  17. ↑ Bauza, Margarita (9 April 2007). "Grocer's Future Uncertain" . Detroit Free Press. p. A8.
  18. ↑ Bauza, Margarita (9 May 2007). "Farmer Jack to Close All its Warehouses in Metro Detroit". Detroit Free Press. p. E2.
  19. 1 2 Youssef, Jennifer (7 July 2007). "Kroger in, Farmer Jack out". The Detroit News. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 21 March 2014.
  20. ↑ "Completion of Acquisition or Disposition of Assets: The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, Inc". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 22 October 2007. Retrieved 2013-12-17.
  21. ↑ "The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company / Real Estate". Aptea.com. Archived from the original on 2010-08-18. Retrieved 2010-05-01.
  22. ↑ Duggan, Daniel (3 October 2010). "A&P stops rent on Farmer Jack spaces: 24 lawsuits filed; owners in default". Crain's Detroit Business . Retrieved 2013-12-17.
  23. ↑ Duggan, Daniel (13 December 2010). "A&P wants to terminate 21 retail leases in metro Detroit, bankruptcy filing shows". Crain's Detroit Business. Retrieved 2013-12-17.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.