Seen here in the 1920s, the Carlisle Meat Market would eventually become Giant Food Stores.
Photo courtesy of Giant Food Stores
Spot on
Harmons’ first store in West Valley City, Utah, shown here in the 1930s.
Photo courtesy of Harmons
New name
A store manager in Creston, Iowa, repaints the store sign after a 1952 contest to change the name of the company’s retail locations from “Supply Store” or “Service Store” to “Hy-Vee.” The moniker is a contraction of the last names of the chain’s founders, Charles Hyde and David Vredenburg.
Photo courtesy of Hy-Vee
Check it out
A photo from the grand opening of a Hy-Vee in Cedar Falls, Iowa, in 1964. The store's manager at the time was 24-year-old Ron Pearson, who would go on to be the company's second president.
Photo courtesy of Hy-Vee
The original
Russell T. Lund, Sr., built the first Lund Food Holdings store, opened as a Hove’s, in 1939.
Photo courtesy of Lunds & Byerly’s
Badda Bing
The Hove’s store was renamed Lunds in 1964.
Photo courtesy of Lunds & Byerly’s
Pick-up time
A Martin’s store photo from the 1970s.
Photo courtesy of Martin’s
Down home
Inside a Meijer store in the 1960s.
Photo courtesy of Meijer
The brothers Roche
Pat and Bud Roche at a store opening in Natick, Mass., in 1974.
Photo courtesy of Roche Bros.
At your service
A cashier works in a Roche Bros. store in Needham, Mass., in 1960.
Photo courtesy of Roche Bros.
Open up
Stew Leonard, Sr., opened his first retail store — originally called Clover Farms — in Norwalk, Conn., in 1969.
Photo courtesy of Stew Leonard’s
Got milk
Long before Stew Sr. opened a retail store, the Leonard family’s first food venture was delivering milk, also under the Clover Farms name. Customers used to be able to watch the milk packaging process inside Stew Leonard’s.