David's Supermarkets (often shortened to David's) was an independently owned

supermarket A supermarket is a self-service Retail#Types of outlets, shop offering a wide variety of food, Drink, beverages and Household goods, household products, organized into sections. This kind of store is larger and has a wider selection than earli ...

chain headquartered in Grandview,

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Founded in 1964, David's operated 25 stores in North Central Texas and

Northeast Texas Northeast Texas is a cultural and geographic region in the northeast corner of the U.S. state of Texas. Geographically centered on two metropolitan areas strung along Interstate 20—Tyler in the west and Longview/Marshall to the east, the areas ...

, concentrated in very small communities not served by other chains. David's was acquired by

Brookshire Brothers Brookshire Brothers, is an employee-owned American supermarket chain headquartered in Lufkin, Texas, founded in 1921 by brothers Austin and Tom Brookshire. Brookshire Brothers is a private corporation that is wholly owned by employees. Brookshire ...

in April 2014.

History

David's Supermarkets was founded in 1964 by David Waldrip with the opening of a grocery store in

Milford, Texas Milford is an incorporated rural community located in North Central Texas, in the southwestern corner of Ellis County, in the United States. The population was 722 at the 2020 census. The town is located northeast of Hillsboro and southwest ...

. Prior to 2014, the chain of stores most recently had been based in

Grandview, Texas Grandview is a city in Johnson County, Texas, United States. The population was 1,561 at the 2010 census and an estimated 1,753 in 2018. David's Supermarkets, an independent chain of grocery stores, was headquartered in Grandview before being ...

, where the company operated a distribution center. By February 2014, talks were underway for

, a grocery chain based in

Lufkin, Texas Lufkin is the largest city in Angelina County, Texas and the county seat. The city is situated in Deep East Texas and about 60 miles west of the Texas-Louisiana border. Its estimated population is 35,021 as of July 1, 2019. Lufkin was founded ...

, to acquire David's. In early April, the deal was completed. Ten of the David's locations, including a David's Express and the Pecan Foods store would have their names remain, while the other 15 will have the Brookshire Brothers name.

Competitive Strategies for Small Town Supermarkets

In recent years, the business focus of David's has been the competition with large discount retailers, such as

Wal-Mart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...

stores. For the majority of David's Supermarket locations, a Wal-Mart store, with a discount grocery department, is within driving proximity. The discounting strategy at Wal-Mart stores remains the most significant challenge for smaller community markets. The small supermarkets have found their survival strategy is local community identification, as well as convenience of location and parking, the butcher-style meat counter, farmers market-style produce merchandising, personality and recognizability of the local store personnel, competitive pricing and merchandising, and home delivery of customer orders. Other major grocery competitors in close proximity to David's Supermarket locations include

H-E-B H-E-B Grocery Company, LP, is an American privately held supermarket chain based in San Antonio, Texas, with more than 340 stores throughout the U.S. state of Texas, as well as in northeast Mexico. The company also operates Central Market, an u ...

Albertsons Albertsons Companies, Inc. is an American grocery company founded and headquartered in Boise, Idaho. With 2,253 stores as of the third quarter of fiscal year 2020 and 270,000 employees as of fiscal year 2019, the company is the second-large ...

Kroger The Kroger Company, or simply Kroger, is an American retail company that operates (either directly or through its subsidiaries) supermarkets and multi-department stores throughout the United States. Founded by Bernard Kroger in 1883 in Cincin ...

, Winn-Dixie (until 2002 when the Texas Winn-Dixie stores were liquidated),

Minyard Food Stores Minyard may refer to: * Ken Minyard (born 1939), American radio personality * Minyard Food Stores, a supermarket chain in Texas, US {{disambiguation ...

Randalls Randalls operates 32 supermarkets in Texas under the ''Randalls'' and ''Flagship Randalls'' banners. The chain consists of 13 stores located around the Houston area and 15 stores located around the Austin area as of May 2020. Randalls today forms ...

and

Piggly Wiggly Piggly Wiggly is an American supermarket chain operating in the American Southern and Midwestern regions run by Piggly Wiggly, LLC, an affiliate of C&S Wholesale Grocers. Its first outlet opened in 1916 in Memphis, Tennessee, and is notable f ...

In popular culture

In early April 2014, during a special week of shows in Dallas,

Conan O'Brien Conan Christopher O'Brien (born April 18, 1963) is an American television host, comedian, writer, and producer. He is best known for having hosted late-night talk shows for almost 28 years, beginning with ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' (19 ...

, host of TBS' ''Conan'', visited Johnson County, south of Fort Worth, to put together a video for the late-night talk show. One segment focused on O'Brien in character as a Johnson County deputy scoping out the David's Supermarket location in Alvarado. During his surveillance, he scared customers, as well as checking up on reports that the store was selling candy bars past their expiration date.John Austin,
Deputy Conan strikes again
, ''Cleburne Times-Review'', April 9, 2014. Retrieved 2014-04-10.

Locations

References

External links