The most iconic of supermarket chains, A&P, dates back to 1859 when George F. Gilman and George Huntington Hartford started a tea and spice business in New York City. After transitioning from its original mail-order business to retail tea and coffee stores and then to neighborhood grocers, A&P introduced their first supermarkets in the 1930s. As suburbs grew in the postwar era, A&P boomed, building stores coast to coast. The chain ultimately also grew internationally and domestically by acquiring other chains, and owned recognizable chains like Farmer Jack, Waldbaum's, and Pathmark. After shrinking to their core market of the northeastern US, A&P declared bankruptcy in 2010, then again in 2015, when the chain went under finally.

At the time of their 2015 bankruptcy, A&P also owned stores under the Food Basics, Food Emporium, Pathmark, SuperFresh, and Waldbaum's banners. 10 years after the chain's final bankruptcy, it's a great time to remember the stores. Read on to see where those stores are now, and to check out featured locations from each chain!

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A&P

The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company started in 1859 as a tea and spice store. But it eventually developed the supermarket format in the northeast. At its peak, A&P had over 15,000 locations stretching literally from the Atlantic to the Pacific and later, even into Canada and Europe. By the time A&P declared bankruptcy for the last time in 2015, they were down to just 86 stores.

Read About A&P Stores

Food Basics

Food Basics was introduced as A&P's no-frills discount store brand in the early 2000s. At one time, the chain stretched from the mid-Atlantic up into Canada.

Read About Food Basics Stores

The Food Emporium

Originally owned by rival supermarket chain Shopwell, The Food Emporium became an A&P brand in the late 1980s when A&P acquired Shopwell. A&P used the brand on its higher-end stores in the New York City metropolitan area. Today, the brand is owned by Key Food Stores, which operates about a dozen stores under the name.

Read About The Food Emporium Stores

Pathmark

Two ShopRite owners, Supermarkets Operating Corporation and General Supermarkets, merged in the mid-60s forming Supermarkets General Corporation. In 1968, as they outgrew the still-small ShopRite cooperative, SGC split off from ShopRite under the name Pathmark. Pathmark pioneered the supercenter concept in the New York metro area, and even operated freestanding drug stores, gas stations, and others. The chain also owned a variety of other stores, including Rickel Hardware until the 1990s. A&P acquired Pathmark in 2008. During the bankruptcy, Allegiance Retail acquired the Pathmark name and, in 2019, opened a new Pathmark in Brooklyn.

Read About Pathmark Stores

SuperFresh

Following a labor dispute in the early 1980s, A&P closed its Philadelphia area locations and reopened them under new management as non-union stores using the name SuperFresh. The SuperFresh brand -- whose employees later unionized -- stretched from southern New Jersey into Virginia, but was most concentrated around Philadelphia and DC. By the time the chain closed, most of the stores were in the Philadelphia area, and most were acquired by ACME. The brand was acquired by Key Food Stores, which now operates around three dozen stores under the SuperFresh name from Florida to Rhode Island.

Read About SuperFresh Stores

Waldbaum's

Originating in Brooklyn, Waldbaum's was a family-owned supermarket until its purchase by A&P in 1986. The Waldbaum family initially focused on the five boroughs, later expanding out to Long Island. Eventually, some legacy A&P locations in the city and Long Island were converted to the Waldbaum's banner, and a few Waldbaum's locations opened and then shortly thereafter converted to A&P in New Jersey.

Read About Waldbaum's Stores

Featured Locations

Since 2016, The Market Report has been writing about the grocery stores of the northeastern United States. Hundreds of those stores were previously owned by A&P, and you can read more about them here. Choose a brand and then you can see the featured locations by state and city.

Where Are They Now?

At the time of its bankruptcy declaration in 2015, A&P operated 279 supermarkets under six brands. These days, more than three-quarters are still supermarkets -- 214, or 77%. Browse all of the locations here.

Archive Collection

Browse The Market Report's own collection of A&P-related items here!

Memorabilia