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 territori ...
cooperative
A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-contro ...
founded in 1955 by Twin County Grocers in
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
. Currently, there are 66 Foodtown stores in
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
Connecticut
Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...
. Foodtown's corporate offices are located in
Iselin, New Jersey
Iselin is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) located within Woodbridge Township, in Middlesex County, New Jersey.ShopRite, each Foodtown is independently owned and operated, with some owners operating multiple stores. Foodtown's parent company, Allegiance Retail Services, also supplies Foodtown-branded items and acts as a supplier for other independent grocers that do not operate under the Foodtown banner.
History
In the 1980s and 1990s, Foodtown was a major grocer on Long Island and in New Jersey. In 1994, Foodtown's parent company, Twin County Grocers, was headed by Martin Vitale and was supplying 165 Foodtown stores, resulting in a wholesale revenue of over $1 billion. Mayfair Supermarkets and Melmarkets operated 45 of those stores, and combined were the cooperative's two largest owners.
In the mid-1990s, two major incidents nearly resulted in the demise of the Foodtown cooperative. The first incident came in 1995, when the Dutch retailer
Ahold
Koninklijke Ahold N.V. was a Dutch multinational retail company based in Zaandam, Netherlands. It merged with Belgium-based Delhaize Group in 2016 to form Ahold Delhaize.
History
Growth in the Netherlands
The company started in 1887, when A ...
purchased all forty-five of the Foodtown stores operated by Melmarkets and Mayfair Supermarkets. Shortly following the purchase, those stores were converted to Ahold's Edwards Super Food Stores banner. As these stores made up nearly half of Twin County Grocers' volume, the cooperative took a severe financial hit. The second incident came when, in the chaos resulting from the Ahold purchase, a scandal was uncovered where members of Twin County's corporate hierarchy were found to have been embezzling money from the cooperative.
In 1998, the lost volume from the Ahold acquisition and damage from the embezzlement scandal forced Foodtown's parent, Twin County Grocers, into bankruptcy. Following these events, many Foodtown stores converted to other banners or simply closed.
The Twin County CEO, Martin Vitale, eventually pleaded guilty to stealing $4.2 million from the cooperative, as well as bribing a leader in the
United Food and Commercial Workers
The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) is a labor union representing approximately 1.3 million workers in the United States and Canada in industries including retail; meatpacking, food processing and manufacturing; hosp ...
union in New Jersey. In 2004, Foodtown closed its supply warehouse.
In 2006, a Foodtown franchisee purchased several Winn-Dixie locations in south-east Florida from a bankruptcy auction. Of those, two locations (
West Palm Beach
West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth.
Etymology
The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some R ...
and
Davie
Davie is a surname and a form of the masculine given name David.
It can refer to:
Surname
* Alan Davie (1920-2014), Scottish painter and musician
* Alexander Edmund Batson Davie (1847-1889), Canadian politician and eighth Premier of British Co ...
) were branded as Foodtown, although they do not appear on the Foodtown website.
In 2012, various independent grocer cooperatives came together to form Allegiance Retail Services, with the Foodtown cooperative being the largest founding member. Allegiance is responsible for advertising, marketing programs, technological services, and negotiating with suppliers on behalf of its members. It is also responsible for producing various products under the Foodtown brand name, which are provided to all of the different members in the cooperative.
On February 10, 2016, it was announced that Allegiance Retail Services had purchased the intellectual property of former A&P division
Pathmark
Pathmark is a supermarket brand owned by Allegiance Retail Services, a retailers’ cooperative based in Iselin, New Jersey, USA. Pathmark currently has one location in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York, which it has operated since 2019.
From ...
through a bankruptcy auction. The sale included the Pathmark logo, trademarks, brand names, pathmark.com domain, and all other intellectual property associated with the Pathmark name. Since then, Allegiance has reopened the Pathmark chain with a single location in Brooklyn, New York.
On October 16, 2018, the Foodtown location in
Denville, New Jersey
Denville Township is a township in Morris County, New Jersey, located west of Manhattan. As of the 2010 U.S. census, the township's population was 16,635, reflecting an increase of 811 (+5.1%) from the 15,824 counted in the 2000 census.
...
, closed its doors. The owners of the store, the Dickerson family, had operated a market at that location since 1883 and had been members of the Foodtown cooperative for over fifty years.