Company type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Retail groceries |
Founded | April 2014 in Mt. Prospect, Illinois, U.S. |
Founder | Chris Sherrell |
Headquarters | Downers Grove, Illinois , U.S. |
Number of locations | 70 [1] (January 2024) |
Areas served | Midwest |
Key people | Liz Zolcak (CEO) |
Website | www |
Fresh Thyme Market is a regional American organic food supermarket chain based in Downers Grove, Illinois.
In 2023, Fresh Thyme was ranked number 13 out of 43 on Forbes' America's Best Midsize Employers in the Retail and Wholesale Industry Category and 218 out of 500 overall on the Forbes' list. [2] The company was also the recipient of WholeFoods Magazine's Retailer of the Year award in 2022. [3] [4]
In April 2014, Chris Sherrell opened the first store in his chain as Fresh Thyme Farmers Market in Mount Prospect, Illinois. [5] Two months later, Fresh Thyme opened its first Indiana store in Indianapolis. [6] The opening of the first store in Ohio followed in July in Columbus. [7] By the end of 2014, the chain had nine stores in the Midwest. [8]
In April 2015, the first Michigan store was opened in East Lansing. [9] By August 2015, the company had 28 stores in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio, with stores planned for Minnesota and Missouri. [10] In September 2015, Fresh Thyme opened its first Minnesota store in Plymouth. [11] By November 2015, two stores were opened for the first time in Missouri. [12]
In February 2016, the first store in Nebraska was opened in Lincoln, which is also the 30th store in the chain. [13] This was followed a few weeks later by the opening of the first store in Iowa in West Des Moines. [14] This was followed in a few weeks with the first store in Kentucky by opening of a store in Louisville, which is also the 36th store of the chain. [15] In the following month, Fresh Thyme was able to enter Wisconsin by opening its first store in the state in Milwaukee. [16]
Fresh Thyme expanded east into Pennsylvania in June 2018 by opening two stores in the Pittsburgh area. [17] In 2019, the company closed under-performing stores in Dayton, Ohio; [18] Louisville, Kentucky; [19] Ames, Iowa; [20] Grand Island, Nebraska; [21] [22] and Omaha, Nebraska. [23] [24]
When founder and CEO Sherrell left the company in November 2019 and was replaced by Meijer executive Gerald Melville, the chain had expanded to 77 stores in 11 states. [25] In August 2020, Fresh Thyme streamlined their image by changing their name to "Fresh Thyme Market" by getting rid of the word "Farmers" and removing the tractor from their new logo. [26] [27]
In September 2020, Fresh Thyme announced that it was withdrawing from the state of Nebraska by closing its remaining three stores after closing two stores the previous year. The closures left the company with 70 stores in 10 states. [28]
Melville retired in July 2022 and was replaced internally by vice president Liz Zolcak. At the time of the change of leadership in 2022, the chain had 71 stores in 10 Midwestern states. [29] By January 2024, the official number stores dropped to 70 stores across 10 Midwestern states [1] after the closing of their first store in Mt. Prospect in August 2023. [30]
According to news reports, Midwestern hypermarket chain Meijer is an investor in Fresh Thyme Market—with former Meijer executives serving on the Fresh Thyme board—but that there was no additional corporate connection. [31] [32] [33] [34] [8] [35] For a number of years, the company's chief executive officer was a former Meijer executive. In 2021, the organic food supermarket chain began to offer a "broad assortment of Meijer branded items". [36]
A grocery store (AE), grocery shop (BE) or simply grocery is a 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
Hy-Vee, Inc. is an employee-owned chain of supermarkets in the Midwestern and Southern United States, with more than 280 locations in Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wisconsin, with stores planned in Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama. Hy-Vee was founded in 1930 by Charles Hyde and David Vredenburg in Beaconsfield, Iowa, in a small brick building known as the Beaconsfield Supply Store, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
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, particularly in its birthplace of West 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 23rd-largest retailer by revenue as of 2023.
Baker's is a supermarket chain operating primarily in the metro area of Omaha, Nebraska. It is owned by Kroger. Baker's supermarket has an annual revenue of $325,000,000.
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.
Farmer Jack was a supermarket chain based in Detroit, Michigan. At its peak, it operated more than 100 stores, primarily in metropolitan Detroit. There was a store in Evart, MI in the late 70s/early 80s. 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.
Raley's Supermarkets is an independent, family-owned American grocery and retail technology company headquartered in West Sacramento, California. Raley's was founded in 1935 by Thomas P. Raley in Placerville, California.
SpartanNash Company is an American food distribution and retail company headquartered in Byron Center, Michigan. The company was founded in 1917 and was formerly known as Spartan Stores until it adopted its current name on November 19, 2013 following a merger with Nash Finch Company. The company's core businesses include distributing food to independent grocers, military commissaries, and corporate-owned retail grocery stores in 44 states, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East.
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.
The Giant Company is an American regional supermarket chain that operates in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia under the Giant and Martin's brands. It is a subsidiary of Ahold Delhaize, and headquartered in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. As of September 2020, the company operated 190 stores, 133 pharmacies, and 105 fuel stations. The chain also provides online shopping and delivery to New Jersey through Giant Direct.
Sprouts Farmers Market, Inc., is a supermarket chain headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona. The grocer offers a wide selection of natural and organic foods, including fresh produce, bulk foods, vitamins and supplements, packaged groceries, meat, poultry, seafood, deli, baked goods, dairy products, frozen foods, natural body care, and household items. Sprouts employs 35,000 workers and operates more than 400 stores in 23 states.
Smart & Final is a chain of warehouse-style food and supply stores based in Commerce, California, which developed through a series of mergers and expansions. The oldest of the combined companies, Hellman-Haas Grocery, was founded in 1871 in Los Angeles. The company operates over 250 stores in the Western United States and 15 in northwestern Mexico.
Sunflower Farmers Market was an American chain of full-service grocery stores headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, which emphasized value-priced natural and organic products. Sunflower opened its first store in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 2002. In June 2013, Sunflower Farmers Market was operating 38 grocery stores located in eight Southwestern states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Oklahoma and Texas. In June 2012, Sunflower merged with Sprouts Farmers Markets.
Family Fare is an American supermarket chain. It was founded in 1966 in Holland, Michigan, and acquired by Don Koop in 1973. The chain was largely located in central-western Michigan for most of its history, with stores in Holland and the Grand Rapids area. It has been owned by SpartanNash since the 1980s. Family Fare expanded in Michigan in the first decade of the 21st century by acquiring locations from other SpartanNash stores in Michigan, including Great Day, Prevo's, and Glen's Markets. Conversions of other stores in the 2010s expanded Family Fare throughout the Midwestern United States, adding stores in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.
Best Market was a family-owned, regional supermarket chain with 30 stores in New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey. The company was headquartered in Bethpage, New York, and had been owned by the Raitses family since the company's first store opened in Lake Ronkonkoma, New York, in 1994.
The Fresh Grocer is a supermarket chain based in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania that operates twenty-four stores in the greater Philadelphia and the greater Scranton areas of Pennsylvania, as well as one store in the greater Pittsburgh area, and northern New Jersey and Long Island, New York. Founded in 1996 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as an independent company, the company became a member of the Wakefern Food Corporation, a retailers' cooperative, in 2013.
Southeastern Grocers was an American supermarket portfolio headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida. The portfolio was created by Lone Star Funds in September 2013 as the new parent company for Harveys, Winn-Dixie, and Fresco y Más.
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.