National Supermarkets

Last updated
National logo used for both divisions in the USA National-logo-mini.png
National logo used for both divisions in the USA

National Supermarkets was a grocery chain in both the St. Louis, Missouri, and New Orleans, Louisiana, areas of the United States. Both firms were owned by Loblaw Companies of Canada, but in June 1995, they were sold by Loblaw to Schnucks Markets. [1] Immediately after that, per the FTC, Schnucks sold the National New Orleans division to Schwegmann Brothers Giant Supermarkets of Metairie, Louisiana, which later sold them to Great A&P, which finally sold them to Rouse Markets in 2007. National itself had cemented the number two spot in St. Louis by acquiring several former Kroger locations and the Kroger distribution center in the market when the latter exited St. Louis in 1986. Kroger and National had been battling for the number two and three spots since the 1970s, swapping rankings several times over throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

Contents

New Orleans and St. Louis represented the last two divisions of National Supermarkets, a.k.a. National Tea, which originated in Chicago in 1899, making the chain one of the oldest in the USA. It was also one of the largest, ranking as the fifth largest in the late 1960s, only A&P, Safeway, Kroger, and Food Fair were larger. Loblaw bought the company in 1955. Among the chains National acquired were Miller's (Denver), Standard (Indianapolis), and Applebaum's (Minneapolis-St. Paul). Besides the National and Standard banners, Big D and Del Farm banners were used in the Midwest and That Stanley! was used in the South.

At its height, National's footprint extended from western Pennsylvania to Colorado, with stores in Denver, Sioux Falls, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, the Quad Cities, Indianapolis, Chicago, Youngstown, Memphis, and Nashville. It was the largest supermarket chain serving the Mississippi Valley. Major rivals included Jewel, Red Owl, Bettendorf-Rapp (Allied), Kroger, A&P, Dominick's, Eagle Food Centers, Hy-Vee, Marsh, Winn-Dixie, Hill's, Fisher/Fazio's/Costa, Thorofare, King Soopers, Albertsons, and Safeway, depending on the market.

National's logo was Loblaw's logo turned upside down to look like an "n" instead of an "L".

Slogans

At the height of their market share in the late 1960s, National Supermarkets' slogans used in television advertising included "Super National-Market" and "The Underpricer". In their final years in the 1980s and early 1990s, the National slogan in the St. Louis market was, "You're Important to Us!"

Failed resurrection

As a condition of buying National from Loblaws, Schnucks had to sell off 24 stores for anti-trust reasons. In 1996, Family Company of America, a group led by Belleville, Illinois, financial consultant James R. Gibson, bought 23 stores from Schnucks and reopened them under the name National Markets. However, the new National was unable to make much headway against Schnucks, despite a "Great Grocery Giveaway" promotion where random customers had their day's shopping given to them free of charge, and disappeared for good in April 1999. [2]

After the bankruptcy, it emerged that Gibson had financed the purchase with money embezzled from 183 clients of his investment company, among them orphans, accident victims who trusted Gibson to invest money from their settlements, and disabled people who trusted him with their life savings. In 2005, Gibson was sentenced to 40 years in prison for his crimes. [3] He will not be eligible for release until 2036, when he will be 91 years old. [4]

National Supermarket Murders

Shortly after closing on September 4, 1987, at the National Supermarket at 4331 Natural Bridge Avenue in St. Louis, two men disguised as the cleaning crew made their way into the store where employees were preparing for the next day. They shot seven employees execution-style as they laid on the floor, killing five. It remains one of the worst mass murders in St. Louis history. [5]

National Supermarkets—New Orleans division

At the end of 1994, National operated 28 stores in the New Orleans area (in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama) under the following names:

The former "Real Uptown Superstore" building is still in operation as a Rouses supermarket.

Denham Springs, Louisiana, also had a National Supermarket (#18) that was simply known as "Superstore." The building is now a home furnishings store.

Related Research Articles

Albertsons Companies, Inc. is an American grocery company founded and headquartered in Boise, Idaho.

Loblaws is a Canadian supermarket chain with stores located in the province of Ontario, and in Alberta and British Columbia under the Loblaws CityMarket banner. Headquartered in Brampton, Ontario, Loblaws is a subsidiary of Loblaw Companies Limited, Canada's largest food distributor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Loblaw Companies</span> Canadian retail company

Loblaw Companies Limited is a Canadian retailer encompassing corporate and franchise supermarkets operating under 22 regional and market-segment banners, as well as pharmacies, banking and apparel. Loblaw operates a private label program that includes grocery and household items, clothing, baby products, pharmaceuticals, cellular phones, general merchandise and financial services. Loblaw is the largest Canadian food retailer, and its brands include President's Choice, No Name and Joe Fresh. It is controlled by George Weston Limited, a holding company controlled by the Weston family; Galen G. Weston is the chair of the Loblaw board of directors, as well as chair of the board of directors and CEO of Canada-based holding company George Weston.

Dominion was a national chain of supermarkets in Canada, which was known as the Dominion of Canada when the chain was founded. The chain was founded in 1919 in Ontario and was later acquired by the Argus Corporation. It was later sold to The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company (A&P), which restricted the chain to the Greater Toronto Area. Stores outside Ontario were converted to the A&P banner or sold to third parties. A&P's Canadian division was later acquired by Metro Inc., which rebranded the remaining Dominion stores to its namesake banner in 2008.

Atlantic Superstore is a Canadian supermarket chain. The chain operates 54 stores in the Maritimes of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. It is owned by George Weston Limited through Loblaw Companies Limited, and operates under the Atlantic Wholesalers division of Loblaws.

<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.

Schnuck Markets, Inc., doing business as Schnucks, is a supermarket chain. Based in the St. Louis area, the company was founded in 1939 with the opening of a 1,000-square-foot (93 m2) store in north St. Louis and currently operates over 100 stores in four states throughout the Midwest. Schnucks also ran stores under the Logli Supermarkets and Hilander Foods banners. Schnucks is one of the largest privately held supermarket chains in the United States and dominates the St. Louis metro grocery market.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Safeway</span> American supermarket chain owned by Albertsons Companies, Inc

Safeway, Inc. is an American supermarket chain. The chain provides grocery items, food and general merchandise and a variety of specialty departments, such as bakery, delicatessen, floral and pharmacy, as well as Starbucks coffee shops and fuel centers. It is a subsidiary of Albertsons after being acquired by private equity investors led by Cerberus Capital Management in January 2015. Safeway's primary base of operations is in the Western United States with some stores located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the Eastern Seaboard. The subsidiary is headquartered in Pleasanton, California.

SuperValu is a chain of franchised and independent grocery stores in Canada that currently operates in the province of British Columbia and Alberta.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">President's Choice</span> Private label brand of the Loblaw Companies

President's Choice or PC is a line of grocery products and services offered by the Canada-based Loblaw Companies Ltd.

Real Canadian Superstore is a chain of supermarkets owned by Canadian food retailing giant Loblaw Companies. Its name is often shortened to Superstore, or, less commonly, RCSS.

Dominion Stores is the primary brand name of the major-market supermarkets of Loblaw Companies Limited in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. The Dominion brand name is used under licence from Metro Inc., which discontinued the Dominion banner in the rest of Canada in late 2008 and has no other affiliation with the Newfoundland 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Omni Superstore</span> American supermarket chain

Omni Superstore was a chain of supermarkets in the Chicago area and was owned by Dominick's. In 1997, Dominick's phased out Omni and converted the stores into Dominick's because the concept was not generating enough revenue compared to other Dominick's stores.

Presto Foodmarkets was a chain of supermarkets and convenience stores in Great Britain, which first appeared in the early 1960s. While the fate of most of the chain's stores was conversion to Safeway, the final stores still trading as Presto were either closed or sold in 1998.

Rouses Markets are a chain of grocery supermarkets in the U.S. states of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi with more than 6,500 employees.

The National Tea Company was a Midwestern United States grocery chain that operated during the 20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seessel's</span> Defunct American grocery store

Seessel's Supermarkets was an upscale grocery chain in Memphis, Tennessee, owned by Albertsons, Inc. It was acquired by Schnucks in 2002, which rebranded the stores Schnucks.

Safeway is a Canadian supermarket chain of 135 full service supermarket stores mostly operating in the western provinces in Canada. It was established in 1929 as a subsidiary of the American Safeway Inc., before being sold in 2013 to Canada's second-largest supermarket chain, Sobeys, a division of the conglomerate Empire Company. Independent since 2013 from the American company it continues to use the same Safeway name and logo as of May 2023.

References

  1. ↑ "Schnuck Markets, Inc". Federal Trade Commission. June 9, 1995. Archived from the original on June 6, 2011. Retrieved September 4, 2011.
  2. ↑ Ghitelman, David. National Food's ex-owner hit with civil suit. Supermarket News, 1999-10-25.
  3. ↑ Man who stole from orphans sentenced to jail. Associated Press, 2005-09-21.
  4. ↑ Inmate information from Bureau of Prisons
  5. ↑ "31 years ago: A deadly night at the National Supermarket in St. Louis | Post-Dispatch Archives | stltoday.com". 4 September 2018.
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.