Remembering Michigan's A&P Stores: When Did They Go Belly-Up?

I vaguely remember going shopping with my mom at an A&P store....well, wait a minute. Maybe I don't. That's a tuffie. I do recall the old A&P's and have seen plenty of 'em but I just don't remember going into one...but a vast majority of Michiganders do.

As a kid, I constantly saw those red and white A&P signs out by the road - in just about every major Michigan city - but never thought to ask what the initials stood for. When I overheard someone mention an 'Atlantic & Pacific' store, it still didn't register. I guess I just didn't care. Why would I? I was just a kid.

But, we all get older and our curiosities get greater; so I did some quick research to find out what happened to them...where did they go?

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Thanks to Supermarket News, here's an edited timeline of A&P – in other words, here are some.....

FAST FACTS:
1859: George Gilman and George Huntington Hartford open a store & warehouse in Manhattan
1868: They add coffee to their inventory...it becomes well-known as “Eight O'Clock Coffee”
1869: Re-named the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Compnay
1900: 200 stores nationwide
1912: The first A&P Economy Store in Jersey City, N.J.
1929: A&P becomes the world's largest coffee retailer
1937: A&P debuts 'Woman's Day' magazine.
1939: A&P has 1,110 supermarkets and 2,000 grocery stores
1961: A&P introduces Plaid Stamps
1969: A&P begins to decline and turns their less-profitable locations into discount “A-Marts”
1981: A&P buys seventeen Stop & Shop stores and re-names them as “Sav-A-Center”
1989: A&P buys all 79 Farmer Jack stores in Detroit
2003: A&P sells the rights to Eight O'Clock Coffee for $150 million.
2007: Farmer Jack stores in Michigan all bought or closed
2010: A&P files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
2012: A&P has 75 fewer stores
2015: A&P again files Chapter 11 bankruptcy. They close 25 of their remaining 300 stores. Over 26,000 employees are let go. The rest close by November.