Carter's Foods, more commonly known as Carter's, was an employee-owned

supermarket A supermarket is a self-service shop offering a wide variety of food, beverages and household products, organized into sections. This kind of store is larger and has a wider selection than earlier grocery stores, but is smaller and more lim ...

chain based in

Charlotte, Michigan Charlotte ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 9,074. It is the county seat of Eaton County. Charlotte is in the central portion of the county, on the boundary between Eaton Township an ...

, United States. Founded in 1952, Carter's grew to over 30 stores throughout Michigan's Lower Peninsula, including two in Charlotte. In 2006, the chain declared bankruptcy, with its remaining stores being closed or sold. Until the chain's demise, Carter's Foods was the only grocery chain in Michigan to be entirely owned by its employees.

History

Carter's Foods was founded in 1952 by Theodore Carter.WZZM 13 - Grocer Carter's closes all 14 stores - Charlotte-based company files for bankruptcy
/ref> A native of Charlotte, Michigan, Theodore had been an employee of the

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 Cinci ...

store in his hometown.Carter's Foods history
( Internet Wayback Machine archive) Carter's expanded over several decades, mainly by acquiring

IGA Iga may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Ambush at Iga Pass, a 1958 Japanese film * Iga no Kagemaru, Japanese manga series * Iga, a set of characters from the Japanese novel '' The Kouga Ninja Scrolls'' Biology * ''Iga'' (beetle), a gen ...

store. IGA also was the primary supplier for Carter's. In 1999, Sperry and Hutchinson, a company known for its S&H Green Stamps, introduced an updated rewards program, S&H Greenpoints; Carter's was the first chain in Michigan to utilize Greenpoints. In 2000, Carter's Foods became 100 percent employee-owned, becoming the only supermarket chain in Michigan to be employee-owned. Citing competition from

Walmart 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 ...

and regional supercenter chain Meijer, Carter's filed for

Chapter 7 Chapter 7 may refer to: Albums * ''Chapter Seven'' (album), a 2013 album by Damien Leith. *''Chapter VII'', a 1973 album by drummer Buddy Miles George Allen "Buddy" Miles Jr. (September 5, 1947February 26, 2008) was an American composer, drum ...

bankruptcy in 2006, after it was unable to pay several million dollars in debts to its suppliers.Traverse City ''Record-Eagle'': Carter's files for Chapter 7 bankruptcy
/ref> The last Carter's stores closed in mid-2006. Several were reverted to IGA or sold to

Spartan Stores SpartanNash (formerly Spartan Stores, Nash Finch) is an American food distributor and grocery store retailer headquartered in Byron Center, Michigan. The company's core businesses include distributing food to independent grocers, military c ...

,Oscoda ''Press'': "Court OKs sale of Carter’s stores"
/ref> while the remainder were shuttered.

References

{{Supermarkets of the United States Retail companies established in 1952 Retail companies disestablished in 2006 Defunct supermarkets of the United States Defunct companies based in Michigan Eaton County, Michigan Companies that have filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy Employee-owned companies of the United States 1952 establishments in Michigan 2006 disestablishments in Michigan