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. Strictly speaking, a supermarket is larger and has a wider selecti ...

chain headquartered in Grandview,

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Founded in 1964, David's operated 25 stores in

North Central Texas North Texas is a term used primarily by residents of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex to refer to a geographic area of Texas, generally considered to include the area south of Oklahoma, east of Abilene, Texas, Abilene, west of Paris, Texas, Par ...

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 Kilgore, Longview, Marshall to the eas ...

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

Brookshire Brothers Brookshire Brothers, is an employee ownership, employee-owned American supermarket chain headquartered in Lufkin, Texas, founded in 1921 by brothers Austin and Tom Brookshire. Brookshire Brothers is a Privately held company, private corporation ...

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, United States. The population was 722 at the 2020 census. The town is located northeast of Hillsboro and southwest of W ...

. 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 1,879 in 2020. David's Supermarkets, an independent chain of grocery stores, was headquartered in Grandview before being acquired by ...

, 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, United States and is the county seat. The city is situated in Deep East Texas and is west of the Texas- Louisiana state line. Its population is 34,143 as of 2020. Lufkin was founded in 188 ...

, 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 in the United States and 23 other ...

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 company, privately held supermarket chain based in San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas, with more than 435 stores throughout Texas and Mexico. The company also operates Central Market (Texas) ...

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 Cinc ...

Winn-Dixie Winn-Dixie Stores, Inc., is an American supermarket chain store, chain headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida. Founded in 1925, Winn-Dixie grocery stores and liquor stores serve communities throughout five southeastern states – Alabama, ...

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

Randalls Randalls Food & Drug L.P. is an American supermarket chain which operates 32 supermarkets in Texas under the ''Randalls'' and ''Flagship Randalls'' banners. The chain consists of 13 stores located around the Houston, Texas, Houston area and 15 sto ...

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 ...

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, actor, and producer. He is best known for having hosted Late-night talk show, late-night talk shows, beginning with ''Late Night with Conan O'B ...

, 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