The company was A&P, formally the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, founded in 1859. It began as a tea-and-coffee business and gradually became one of America’s earliest and most influential grocery chains.
George Gilman started the enterprise in New York as Gilman & Company. It initially focused on tea and coffee, later opening multiple retail locations and building a mail-order operation. The name Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company emerged in 1869, and the familiar A&P identity became associated with its expanding store network.
A&P’s transformation into a broad grocery chain happened gradually. It added sugar, baking powder, spices, dairy products, meat, and produce, then developed private-label goods and low-cost “economy stores.” By 1900, it operated 198 stores; by 1930, it had about 16,000 locations.
The chain was not founded under the short name A&P, which is a common source of confusion: its early legal and trading names changed over time. Safeway, Kroger, and Walmart were later grocery businesses, not the 1859 pioneer referenced here.