Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. (A&P) history

Better known as the A&P, the company was founded as the Great American Tea Company on Vesey Street in lower Manhattan in 1859 by George Huntington Hartford and George Gilman. It originally was a merchandiser of tea, coffee, and spices bought in bulk from suppliers. By purchasing tea directly from ships, the two discovered that they could lower the cost by two-thirds and still make a profit. They spent heavily on their marketing efforts, including advertising in magazines and newspapers and sponsoring a horsedrawn wagon with the company’s name on it.

The store became so successful that they were able to open many more in surrounding areas. It was renamed the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company in 1870. In the late 19th century, it began offering groceries in addition to tea. In 1880, the company introduced the first private label product—baking powder. Over the next 40 years, private manufacturing became an important aspect of its business, and by the end of World War I, A&P had opened its own factory and packing plant.

In 1912, John Hartford, a son of the founder, introduced the concept of “cash and carry” to retailing by allowing customers to come in to the store and take their purchased goods home with them rather than have them delivered, as was the norm. The idea was so successful that the company opened more than 1,600 new stores in the next two years.

By 1916, the stores’ sales had increased to more than $76 million per year. The company continued to expand during the retailing revolution of the 1920s, reaching 10,000 stores in 1923. By 1925, the company had almost 14,000 stores and sales of almost $450 million. In the 1930s, many of the stores were converted to supermarkets. By the 1930s, A&P had become the top-grossing grocery store with almost 16,000 stores and sales of more than $1 billion.

The new stores reduced the number of old stores but increased volume and sales exponentially. By 1950, only GENERAL MOTORS had greater annual sales among American companies. During the 1960s and 1970s, sales slumped, and the company reorganized and began to expand by making new acquisitions. It continued to do so into the 1990s and reestablished itself as one of the country’s leading supermarket chains. Today, the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company comprises a group of supermarkets, including A&P, Waldbaum’s, and the Food Emporium, among others.

See also CHAIN STORES.

Further reading

• Humphrey, Kim. Shelf Life: Supermarkets and the Changing Cultures of Consumption. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. 
• Walsh, William I. The Rise and Decline of the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. Secaucus, N.J.: Carol Publishing, 1986.