Gristedes Supermarkets

The head of Gristede's Supermarkets,John Catsimitides, was just an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican primary race in the NYC Mayoralty battle.

There was some publicity about him and Gristede's during the campaign, but I want to see if I can find a good history of the supermarket chain...

Well, not that much on Wikipedia --let me see if there is anything else on the internet 

Well, this is from a site called Funding Universe

Gristede Supermarkets

Address:

823 11th Avenue
New York, New York 10019-3535
U.S.A.

Telephone: (212) 956-5803
Toll Free: 877-GRI-XPRESS; (877) 474-9773
Fax: (212) 247-4509

Website: www.gristedes.com

Private Company
Incorporated: 1913 as Gristede Brothers, Inc.
Employees: 2,180
Sales: $279.69 million (2003)
NAIC: 422410 General Line Grocery Wholesalers; 42248 Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Wholesalers; 44511 Supermarkets & Other Grocery (Except Convenience) Stores; 44611 Pharmacies and Drug Stores; 446199 All Other Health & Personal Care Stores; 551112 Offices of Other Holding Companies

Company Perspectives:

Gristede's has been feeding New Yorkers for over 100 years. Our stores offer fresh meats, produce, dairy products, baked goods, frozen foods, gourmet foods, and nonfood items. We at Gristede's strive to make every shopping experience a great shopping experience. Our customers have come to expect the best products at the lowest prices in town.

Key Dates:

1891:

Charles and Diedrich Gristede open their first store.

1956:

Max Sloan opens his first supermarket.

1968:

Gristede Brothers is sold to The Southland Corporation.

1986:

Southland sells Gristede's to Red Apple Co.

1993:

Red Apple completes the purchase of Sloan's begun in 1991.

1997:

The two chains are combined as Gristede's Sloan's, Inc.

1999:

The stores are renamed Gristede's; cafés and pharmacies are introduced.

2002:

"Mega Stores" debut.

2003:

XpressGrocer.com is launched.

2004:

The company is taken private; the company begins fulfilling amazon.com orders.

Company History:

Gristede's Foods, Inc., owns and operates 46 supermarkets in the New York City metropolitan area. It also sells groceries online via amazon.com and its own web site, XpressGrocer .com. The company also owns and operates a warehouse that supplies these supermarkets with groceries and fresh produce and sells wholesale fresh produce to third parties. Gristede's is 92 percent owned by John A. Catsimatidis, in part through the Red Apple Group, Inc. holding company.

Gristede Brothers: 1891-1987
Charles Gristede and his brother Diedrich came to the United States from Germany in 1888, found work in grocery stores, and in 1891 opened a tiny gaslit store at 42nd Street and Second Avenue in Manhattan. This site was then far uptown from the central shopping area but close to housewives who walked or rode in private carriages to the store. A second store opened in Harlem--then a middle-class white neighborhood--in 1896. The business flourished and expanded, reaching suburban Westchester County in 1920 and Connecticut in 1926. Gristede Brothers also opened a wine and liquor store in Manhattan in 1933. When Charles Gristede died in 1948, the chain consisted of 141 stores in Manhattan, the Bronx, Westchester, and Connecticut. In 1956 it opened its first Long Island store, in Garden City.

In Manhattan, Gristede Brothers remained concentrated on the more affluent East Side, where it specialized in personal service and gourmet items and charged premium prices. It shipped items to customers around the world, including, for example, a Greek who wanted melons sent to him in Paris by air freight. The company had annual sales of about $60 million and 115 stores in all--including six liquor stores in Connecticut--when it was sold in 1968 to The Southland Corporation, owner of the 7-Eleven convenience store chain, for Southland stock valued at $11.5 million.

Southland retained the prior Gristede Brothers management and for more than a decade left the chain to its own devices. In 1977 Gristede's consisted of 120 stores, mostly ranging in size from 6,000 to 11,000 square feet and carrying 7,000 to 8,000 gourmet items, including size 23 grapefruit (about the size of a large cantaloupe), strawberries picked in California only 36 hours earlier, large Idaho potatoes already wrapped in tin foil, quiche Lorraine, and Beluga caviar.

By the early 1980s, however, Gristede's, as well as other supermarket chains with outlets in New York City, was reeling from a number of adverse conditions, including the small size of the stores, the high cost of delivery in the city, escalating rents, and competition from gourmet shops and specialty food stores. In 1980 the chain still consisted of 100 outlets, including 24 Charles & Co. sandwich shops, but by 1983, when Gristede's fell into the red, there were only 84. During 1983-84 Gristede's concentrated its operations in Manhattan, closing 36 stores and its warehouse. In 1985 there were 18 conventional supermarkets; 17 generally smaller service stores featuring telephone ordering, home delivery, and charge accounts; ten Charles & Co. sandwich shops and one gourmet shop; and one liquor store. Sales came to about $105 million in 1985.

Southland sold the Gristede's and Charles & Co. stores to Red Apple Co. in 1986 for an estimated $50 million. Red Apple, owned by John A. Catsimatidis and operating in the Bronx as well as Manhattan, now became the largest supermarket chain in New York City. Gristede's and Red Apple remained distinct, however. Red Apple had completed 14 Gristede's remodels by the fall of 1987, including adding in-store delicatessens, bakeries, salad bars, hot takeout foods, and upscale cheese, prime-meat, and seafood sections. The Charles & Co. stores were closed.