The Story Behind The Oldest Grocery Chain In The US

Three hundred and seventy-two dollars, a small store on 66 Pearl Street in Cincinnati, and a motto to never sell anything you wouldn't want yourself — this is how Kroger got its start. The oldest grocery chain in the United States certainly had humble beginnings, reaching all the way back to 1883, but it has set a foundation for the modern supermarkets we're now so accustomed to.

Back in the day, there was no "one-stop shop" where people could purchase all of their groceries in the same place. Barney Kroger, a 23-year-old son of German immigrants, worked to change that. By 1901, he was the first person to put a bakery and butchery inside his grocery store, making it easier (and more affordable) for people to shop. The concept understandably took off and the number of store locations kept growing. Within the first 25 years of being in business, Kroger surpassed a hundred grocery store locations. By 1929, the number peaked above 5,000.

Kroger pioneered another thing we take for granted today: Low-priced store brands. The first own product he put on the shelves was sauerkraut made by his mother, and Kroger's private label brands are booming to this day. The same goes for grocery delivery — the chain's founder was doing it well before Instacart, by delivering the groceries to his customers on his own horse.

Being among the oldest grocery stores in the United States, Kroger has been through quite the evolution of tech, always staying at the very helm of change. It was the first grocery store chain to use electronic scanning and to scientifically test the quality of the products sold in its stores. With time, Kroger grew into a hub of many different shops, spanning far beyond just food. Its stores now include pharmacies (which fill over 200 million prescriptions per year), beauty stores, and florists (this particular expansion ended up making Kroger the largest florist in the U.S.). It's clear that, to Kroger, growth has always been the name of the game.

A significant part of the company's growth came through many mergers and acquisitions of other stores. This process first began in the 1950s and has not only expanded the empire but also eliminated a lot of the competition. As a result, some of the stores owned by Kroger still carry their previous names: Dillions, Food-4-Less, Ralphs, and others. Today, Kroger has over 2,500 store locations across the U.S. and is worth over 40 billion dollars as of January 2025. Despite the massive expansion, its headquarters have remained in Cincinnati — where it all began.