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The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company
Type	Public NYSE: GAP
Founded	New York City, 1859
Headquarters	Montvale, New Jersey
Key people	George Huntington Hartford and George Gilman, Founders Christian W.E. Haub, Executive Chairman Eric Claus, President and Chief Executive Officer
Industry	Retail
Products	A&P Food Basics Sav-A-Center The Food Emporium Super Fresh Waldbaum's
Revenue	US$8.7 billion (FYE Feb. 25, 2006)[1] US$6.9 billion (estimated FYE 2007)[2]
Employees	42,872
Website	www.aptea.com

The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company, better known as A&P, is a 410-store supermarket chain with locations in Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Louisiana, Mississippi, Michigan, and the District of Columbia. Its corporate and U.S. headquarters are located in Montvale, New Jersey. Supermarket News ranked A&P No. 21 in the 2007 "Top 75 North American Food Retailers" based on 2006 fiscal year estimated sales of $6.9 billion.^[2] Based on 2005 revenue, A&P is the thirty-fifth largest retailer in the United States.^[3]

Contents 1 History and leadership 1.1 The 20th Century 1.2 Rise and Decline in Number of Stores 1.3 The 21st Century 2 Private brands, then and now 3 Banners 3.1 A&P US 3.2 Canada 4 Trivia 5 Sources 6 References 7 External links

The company was founded in 1859 as The Great American Tea Company by George Huntington Hartford and George Gilman in Elmira, New York. It was renamed "The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company" in 1870, and John and George Hartford, founder Hartford's sons, joined the company in the 1880s. ^[4]

The company originally focused on the tea business, selling tea by mailorder from a storefront in Elmira. They were successful in capturing a large part of the market in the northeastern cities in the U.S. They purchased tea directly from Chinese tea plantations. Their low costs enabled them to undercut most of the market and grow.^[5] By 1876 they had sixty-seven stores.

In 1912, the first A&P Economy Store opened, a grocery store format that allowed cost-cutting and standardized layout,^[4] increasing their store numbers to 1600 by 1915. By 1925 they had 13,961 stores and sales of $437 million.^[6] In the early 1930s, A&P was operating approximately 16,000 stores with a combined revenue of US$1 billion.^[7] In 1936 A&P opened their first supermarket in Braddock, Pennsylvania.^[4]

In the 1950s, the pressure it put on its suppliers led to the passing of several anti-predatory pricing laws by Congress. The threat of having to break up the A&P company because of these laws lead John and George Hartford to give an interview to Time Magazine, which put George and John Hartford on their November 13, 1950 cover.^[8] Time wrote that, next to General Motors, A&P sold more goods than any other company in the world. John was quoted in Time as saying "I don't know any grocer who wants to stay small. I don't see how any businessman can limit his growth and stay healthy".^[6] Up until 1958, the company was still controlled by the Hartford Family until efforts to make the company a publicly owned corporation ensued.

In the mid 1950's, A & P was by far the numbert one food retailer. In a few markets, A & P had up to 75 % of the market share. The company had stores in over 39 states. Downtown stores were being replaced with 15,000 to 20,000 square foot supermarkets, which was large for that time period. In many situations a 20,000 square foot store in a town would replace several 5,000 square foot smaller obsolete stores. In most locations these new stores had a colonial design with a weathervane on the top. On the west coast the stores had a round marina design.

The company continued building supermarkets with the colonial design throughout the 1960's. Most of these stores were on the edge of downtown areas. In the mid 1960's, A & P exited the west coast selling those stores to Safeway, which was the number 2 food retailer back then.

In the 1960's, A & P became less competitive in pricing and began losing market share as small regional chains began to grow in most markets. Still A & P was the leading food retailer into the early 1970's while gradually losing market share.

At the end of the 1960's, A & P slowed down building new stores. They also stopped building their legendary weathervane designs. In the early 1970's, A & P fell from the number one position. They also were being surpassed in most markets in terms of market share. The chain also began losing money every year. Stores gradually went from dominating the market to underperforming. The company still built new stores, but very few compared to competitors. In some markets, the company was as low as number 5.

By the late-1970s, ongoing decline in profits, loss of money in the majority of its stores, decline in market share, and a recession caused a change in direction. This resulted in an abrupt exit of many markets and states such as Florida, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and others. The company greatly reduced presense in the southern markets as well as New England. The company still stayed active in the Mid Atlantic region including the New York City Metro area. Still, The chain closed well over half of the stores between 1976 and 1981. In, 1979 the company was purchased by Tenglemen, a German retailer.

In 1982, A & P began building larger stores, while remodeling some older stores that had potential. In 1982, Stop & Shop exited New Jersey, and A & P purchased most of these sites. They then replaced some of their obsolete stores with the somewhat more modern Stop & Shops. In 1983, A&P bought Kohl's Food Stores (originally part of the Kohl's department store chain) in Wisconsin from BATUS. This would enable A & P to reenter Wisconsin and Illinois. The Kohl's grocery chain was eventually closed in 2003.

In 1986, A & P purchased a Long Island/Southern New England based chain called Waldbaums as well as an upscale New York City based chain Food Emporium. These stores replaced the underperforming A & P stores in many cases. The company also turned a profit that year as well. A & P appeared to have made a comeback in the late 1980's. They began building larger 40,000 square foot stores known as Future Stores. In 1989, A & P would acquire Farmer Jack stores based in Michigan and Ohio.

Still, in southern markets the chain still suffered. In the 1990's they exited states like Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, North Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Many of these sites were sold to Kroger.

In the mid Atlantic region as well as New Orleans, Midwest (Farmer Jack and Kohls), Maryland, Philadelphia, and southern New England, A & P began a major overhaul of its stores. Most of the stores below 40,00 square feet were shut down and replaced with stores ranging from 50,000 square feet to 80,000 square feet. This began in 1993. These stores now included pharmacies, larger bakeries, more general merchandice, among other things. These stores are known as Super food markets. The majority of their stores today are this size. By the late 1990's though, the company began losing money and was unprofitable by the turn of the century.

Year	No. of Stores
1876	67
1915	1600
1925	13,961
1930	16,000
1955	10,000
1965	5,000
1970	4,000
1978	3,500
1980	2,000
1990	1,000
2000	600
2002	500

A&P had gone from over 10,000 stores in 1955 to about 5,000 in 1965. The number of stores fell because in most towns, several smaller grocery stores would be replaced by one larger supermarket so that by 1970, the company was down to about 4,000 stores. Another reduction in the number of stores occurred because of its west coast exit. By 1978, the company was down to 3,500 stores due to its first round of market exits and reductions. By 1980 the company was down to about 2,000 stores and by 1990 the company had about 1,000 stores left.

In 2000, the company was down to about 600 stores. In 2002, the company declared its largest loss. At that point, A&P exited Massachusetts, Vermont (only 2 stores), New Hampshire(one store), Illinois, and Wisconsin (with the folding of Kohl's Super Food markets). The company was down to a little over 500 stores.

In 2004, A&P sold their Canadian division, as well as Eight O'Clock Coffee. The company is ranked No. 21 by Supermarket News in the 2007 "Top 75 North American Food Retailers" based on 2006 fiscal year estimated sales of $6.9 billion.^[2] It still operates over 400 stores through its A&P US unit in nine U.S. states (Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Michigan) and the District of Columbia. Sales that were almost $11 billion several years ago have fallen, primarily because of the sale of the Canada unit.^[2]

A&P still operates ten other retail banners besides A&P, which include conventional supermarkets, food and drug combination stores, and discount food stores.^[9]

The company formerly operated 237 stores through its A&P Canada unit in the Canadian province of Ontario. On August 15, 2005, the company finalized its sale of the Canadian operations to Metro Inc., a grocery retailer based in Montreal, for CAN$1.7 billion in cash and shares of Metro. It has also announced plans to divest itself of its Midwest operations.^[10]

A&P has developed a new corporate slogan, "Fresh Thinking Since 1859." It had converted over 20 retail stores to its "fresh" format in 2005 and an additional 40 stores in 2006. Its "Fresh Markets" were previously "Super Food Markets". Its Midland Park, New Jersey store, recently reopened as a Fresh Market, incorporates gourmet food, organics, an indepth wine department and several food preparation counters which allow the consumer to taste and purchase fresh meals. This store is the chain's #1 store by sales volume.^[11]

Its current Executive Chairman is Christian W.E. Haub, a member of the family that owns the Tengelmann Group of Germany. The President and Chief Executive Officer is Eric Claus. The Tengelmann Group bought a majority stake in A&P in 1979.

A&P revealed on February 27, 2007, that it was in talks to acquire Pathmark for $653 million dollars.^[12] A few days later the company had agreed to buy Pathmark for $679 million ^[13] (and ultimately bought Pathmark for $1.3 billion)^{[citation needed]}. This would allow A & P to be the numer 2 grocery retailer in New York Metro areas as well as Philadelphia.

For many decades, the A&P supermarkets pioneered in the use of store brands. Eight O'Clock Coffee, Our Own tea and Ann Page and Jane Parker foods were almost as notable to regular shoppers as the outside retail brands the store carried. (A&P's coffee line was a hallmark of the store from practically the beginning and received its Eight O'Clock moniker by 1920. It was once a bigger moneymaker than the retail stores themselves.) This practice was both successful and drew criticism. ^[14]

A&P sold off Eight O'Clock Coffee to a San Francisco investment firm in 2003 (though the retailer continues to sell it). A&P has also replaced the Ann Page and Jane Parker labels with its America's Choice and Master Choice icons.

During the generic products trend in the 1980's, A&P established its own quasi-"brand" of generic products under the name "P&Q" (Price and Quality).

• A&P Food Market (Super A&P)
• A&P Fresh Market
• A&P Sav-A-Center (Defunct)
• A&P Super Foodmart (New England division)
• Farmer Jack
• Food Basics USA
• Future Store (Defunct)
• The Food Emporium
• Kohl's Food Stores (Defunct)
• Sav-A-Center
• Super Fresh
• SuperPlus Food Stores (Defunct)
• Waldbaum's

In 2005, (August, 15th) A&P sold A&P Canada and Food Basics Canada to Metro of Quebec. The name of the Canadian units are now owned by Metro Inc.

• Except for the west coast stores (which had a marina design), A&P stores constructed between 1955 and 1970 usually featured a distinctive cupola and weathervane design on the buildings' roofs; a number of older stores were remodeled to include the feature as well, which became a store trademark. Groceteria.com article on A&P
• The publication Woman's Day was launched by A&P in 1937. Originally sold exclusively at A&P stores, Woman's Day was purchased by an independent publisher in the mid-1950s, and no longer has any connection to the supermarket chain.
• In the film Wait Until Dark, the main character sends a girl to buy groceries at A&P.
• The Pulitzer winning play Fences by August Wilson references the A&P supermarket.
• The Waitresses reference A&P in their novelty hit Christmas Wrapping.

• The Rise & Decline of the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea company, Walsh, William I., Copyright 1986 Publisher Lyle Stuart
• That Wonderful A&P!, Hoyt, Edwin P., Copyright 1969, Hawthorn Books

1. ^ The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, Inc. Announces Results for the Fourth Quarter and Full Year Ended February 25, 2006, The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, May 9, 2006.
2. ^ ^{a b c d} 2007 Top 75 North American Food Retailers, Supermarket News, Last accessed February 24, 2007.
3. ^ Top 100 Retailers: The Nation's Retail Power Players (PDF), Stores, July 2006.
4. ^ ^{a b c} Groceteria article on A&P. Accessed on 1/5/2007.
5. ^ need cite
6. ^ ^{a b} "Red Circle & Gold Leaf," Time Magazine, November 13, 1950.
7. ^ need cite
8. ^ John Hartford Time Magazine Cover
9. ^ "Company Facts" sidebar, A&P Website. Accessed 1/6/2007.
10. ^ The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company (August 15, 2005). The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, Inc. Completes the Sale of A&P Canada. Press release.
11. ^ The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company (May 10, 2005). The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, Inc. Announces Financial Results for 2004 Fourth Quarter and Full Year, Plans for Major Strategic Restructuring. Press release.
12. ^ A&P in talks to buy Pathmark for about $653 mln, Reuters, February 27, 2007.
13. ^ A&P buys Pathmark Stores
14. ^ "A & P Scare," Time Magazine, January 18, 1937.

• The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company Inc. Corporate Site
• A&P Supermarkets (New York Metro Stores)
• A&P Super FoodMart (New England Stores)
• History of A&P at Groceteria
• Gallery of A&P Advertisements at TJS-Labs
• John Hartford Foundation
• Huntington Hartford articles in New York Times