Purity Supreme, Inc. was a corporation involved in the operation of supermarkets and other stores.
From 1984 it was a division of Supermarkets General Holdings Corporation. [1] It operated from a headquarters located in North Billerica, Massachusetts. At its height, the company operated 64 supermarkets in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, and Connecticut. They also operated 63 owned and franchised Li'l Peach convenience stores and 23 drugstores in Massachusetts. They also ran the successful Heartland Foods, a warehouse-style supermarket chain. In 1984, at the time of the buyout by Supermarkets General, Purity, had an annual sales of $800 million (~$1.79 billion in 2021) with 28 supermarkets, 13 warehouse stores and 23 drugstores. Purity Supreme and Li'l Peach had combined sales of about US$1.3 billion in 1990 before the company was bought out again by Freeman Spogli & Co., an investment firm for about US$300 million (~$558 million in 2021), including the acquisition of debt. [2]
In 1995, Purity Supreme was acquired by competitor Stop & Shop, agreeing with regulators to sell 15 stores to address antitrust concerns. Stop & Shop continued to operate 56 stores under the Purity Supreme name until 1997 when it renovated and converted all but three of them into Stop & Shop stores. The three remaining Purity Supreme stores were closed. [3] [4]
Purity Supreme was led for most of its existence by Leo Kahn who started Purity Sav-Mor Markets with some of its first stores in Billerica, Chelmsford and Bedford. In 1968, Kahn bought out the Supreme Market chain of Boston and thus Purity Supreme was born.
Jewel-Osco is a regional supermarket chain in the Chicago metropolitan area, headquartered in Itasca, a western suburb. In 2007, the company had 188 stores across northern, central, and western Illinois; eastern Iowa; and portions of northwest Indiana. Jewel-Osco has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Boise-based Albertsons since 1999. The company originally started as a door-to-door coffee delivery service before it expanded into delivering non-perishable groceries and later into grocery stores, and supermarkets. Prior to its 1984 acquisition by American Stores, Jewel evolved into a large multi-state holding company that operated several supermarket chains and other non-food retail chain stores located from coast to coast and had operated under several different brand names.
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.
Shoppers Drug Mart Inc., commonly known as Shoppers is a Canadian retail pharmacy chain based in Toronto, Ontario. It has more than 1,300 stores in ten provinces and two territories.
Pathmark is a supermarket brand owned by Allegiance Retail Services, a retailers’ cooperative based in Iselin, New Jersey, USA. Pathmark currently has one location in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York, which it has operated since 2019.
ICA Gruppen AB (publ) (Swedish pronunciation:[ˈîːka]; "ICA Group"; from Inköpscentralernas aktiebolag, lit. '"the Purchasing Centres' Corporation"') (formerly Hakon Invest AB) is a Swedish retailer franchise with a focus on food and health. The group also owns a bank, real estate division and a pharmacy chain.
Eagle Food Centers was a chain of supermarkets that operated in Iowa, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Illinois for several years. The company was based in Milan, Illinois. The company operated stores under many names, including BOGO'S, Eagle Country Market, Eagle Discount Centers, Eagle Discount Supermarkets, Eagle Food Centers, May's Drug and MEMCO. Eagle also operated stores in Houston known as Eagle Supermarkets until March 1985. The chain held a 6% market share and had 1,100 employees before leaving the area.
The Stop & Shop Supermarket Company, known as Stop & Shop, is a regional chain of supermarkets located in the northeastern United States. From its beginnings in 1892 as a small grocery store, it has grown to include 406 stores chain-wide.
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.
Zayre was a chain of discount stores that operated in the eastern half of the United States from 1956 to 1990. The company's headquarters was in Framingham, Massachusetts. In October 1988, Zayre's parent company, Zayre Corp., sold the stores to the competing Ames Department Stores, Inc. chain, and in June 1989, Zayre Corp. merged with one of its subsidiaries, The TJX Companies, parent company of T.J. Maxx, which still exists today. A number of stores retained the Zayre name until 1990, by which time all stores were either closed or converted into Ames stores.
Shaw's and Star Market are two American supermarket chains under united management based in West Bridgewater, Massachusetts, employing about 30,000 associates in 150 total stores; 129 stores are operated under the Shaw's banner in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont, while Star Market operates 21 stores in Massachusetts, most of which are in or near Boston. Until 2010, Shaw's operated stores in all six New England states, and as of 2021 Shaw's remained the only supermarket chain with stores in five of the six, after it sold its Connecticut operations. The chain's largest competitors are Hannaford, Market Basket, Price Chopper, Roche Bros., Wegmans, and Stop & Shop. Star Market is a companion store to Shaw's, Shaw's having purchased the competing chain in 1999.
The Nash Finch Company was a Fortune 500 company based in Edina, Minnesota, United States. The company was involved in food distribution to private companies, primarily independent supermarkets, and military commissaries; and the operation of retail stores.
King Kullen Grocery Co., Inc., is an American supermarket chain based on Long Island. The company is headquartered in Hauppauge, New York, and was founded by Michael J. Cullen on August 4, 1930.
American Stores Company was an American public corporation and a holding company which ran chains of supermarkets and drugstores in the United States from 1917 through 1998. The company was incorporated in 1917 when The Acme Tea Company merged with four small Philadelphia-area grocery stores (Childs, George Dunlap, Bell Company, and A House That Quality Built) to form American Stores. In the following eight decades, the company would expand to 1,575 food and drugstores in 38 states with $20 billion in annual sales in 1998.
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.
Johnnie's Foodmaster, more commonly known as simply Foodmaster, was a chain of supermarkets in the Boston Metro Area. It had its headquarters in Chelsea, Massachusetts and all stores were located in the state. On November 18, 2012, all ten stores closed, with six leases being transferred to Austin, Texas–based Whole Foods Market, and two to Quincy–based Stop & Shop; the future of the remaining locations was unknown at the time of closure.
Hannaford is an American supermarket chain based in Scarborough, Maine. Founded in Portland, Maine, in 1883, Hannaford operates stores in New England and New York. The chain is now part of the Ahold Delhaize group based in the Netherlands, and is a sister company to formerly competing New England supermarket chain Stop & Shop.
Leo Kahn was an American reporter and businessman. He is credited as the co-founder of Staples Inc. Kahn is also considered a pioneer of the natural and health food supermarket industry, founding the Fresh Fields and Nature's Heartland chains, which are now part of Whole Foods Market.
Eisner Food Stores was a chain of supermarkets in Illinois and Indiana. It was acquired by The Jewel Companies, Inc. in 1957. The Eisner stores were rebranded as Jewel in 1985.
Fisher Foods, later known as Fazio's, was an American supermarket chain based in Cleveland.
D'Agostino Supermarkets once a family-owned supermarket chain in the New York City area, is now owned by Gristedes. The store was founded in 1932 by brothers Pasquale and Nicola D'Agostino, in the pioneering phase of the supermarket industry. At D'Agostino's peak in the 1990s, the chain operated at 26 locations in New York City and adjacent Westchester County, with annual sales exceeding $200 million. By 2016 under financial pressure, D'Agostino's consolidated to nine stores, all in Manhattan, and sold a controlling interest to John Catsimatidis, owner of Gristedes.