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The Great A&P and the Struggle for Small Business in America
One of The Wall Street Journal's Best Non fiction Books of 2011. From modest beginnings as a tea shop in New York, the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company became the largest retailer in the world. It was a juggernaut, the first retailer to sell $1 billion in goods, the owner of nearly sixteen thousand stores and dozens of factories and warehouses. But its explosive growth made it a mortal threat to hundreds of thousands of mom-and-pop grocery stores. Main Street fought back tooth and nail, enlisting the state and federal governments to stop price discounting, tax chain stores, and require manufacturers to sell to mom and pop at the same prices granted to giant retailers. In a remarkable court case, the federal government pressed criminal charges against the Great A&P for selling food too cheaply—and won.
The Great A&P and the Struggle for Small Business in America is the story of a stunningly successful company that forever changed how Americans shop and what Americans eat. It is a brilliant business history, the story of how George and John Hartford took over their father’s business and reshaped it again and again, turning it into a vertically integrated behemoth that paved the way for every big-box retailer to come. George demanded a rock-solid balance sheet; John was the marketer-entrepreneur who led A&P through seven decades of rapid changes. Together, they built the modern consumer economy by turning the archaic retail industry into a highly efficient system for distributing food at low cost.
The Great A&P and the Struggle for Small Business in America is the story of a stunningly successful company that forever changed how Americans shop and what Americans eat. It is a brilliant business history, the story of how George and John Hartford took over their father’s business and reshaped it again and again, turning it into a vertically integrated behemoth that paved the way for every big-box retailer to come. George demanded a rock-solid balance sheet; John was the marketer-entrepreneur who led A&P through seven decades of rapid changes. Together, they built the modern consumer economy by turning the archaic retail industry into a highly efficient system for distributing food at low cost.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 2011
About the author
Marc Levinson
20 books68 followersMarc Levinson is an independent historian, economist, and author. He spent many years as a journalist, including a stint as finance and economics editor of The Economist. He later worked as an economist at JP Morgan Chase, managed a staff advising Congress on transportation and industry issues at the Congressional Research Service, and served as senior fellow for international business at the Council on Foreign Relations.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 80 reviews
October 12, 2013
If you are one of the early Baby Boomers you certainly remember The ubiquitous A&P grocery stores. You may wonder why anyone would want to read a book about a grocery store not named Whole Foods. Actually A&P was WalMart before there was a WalMart.
The book was a very interesting read showing the determination of a pair of brothers who had inherited a tea company from their father. The story of how the government tried to repeatedly shut them down is a warning of what happens when government doesn't understand business.
A&P filed for bankruptcy in 2010 but they had really been non existent for a much longer time. Ask anyone under 30 if they have heard of A&P and unless they ask Siri on their iPod I doubt they know. I think that is sad.
How can a company that was at one time the largest retailer in the world be forgotten? A well known saying "those who do ignore history are bound to repeat it."
Many lessons can be learned from reading this book.
The book was a very interesting read showing the determination of a pair of brothers who had inherited a tea company from their father. The story of how the government tried to repeatedly shut them down is a warning of what happens when government doesn't understand business.
A&P filed for bankruptcy in 2010 but they had really been non existent for a much longer time. Ask anyone under 30 if they have heard of A&P and unless they ask Siri on their iPod I doubt they know. I think that is sad.
How can a company that was at one time the largest retailer in the world be forgotten? A well known saying "those who do ignore history are bound to repeat it."
Many lessons can be learned from reading this book.
April 2, 2018
This is a fantastic history of the relationship between small business and government in the 20th century and an excellent source for aspiring entrepreneurs. I owned a discount store from 2002-2005 and this read like a backstory to how I ended up doing what I was doing. The basic machinations of that entire enterprise were a reflection of the tactics used by the two guys who started A&P. The concept of moving merchandise at a discount and making up the difference by selling tremendous volume all started with the Hartford brothers and it is the new normal in commerce today. Highly recommended to people interested in business, history, or business history.
October 22, 2013
I thought it was a fascinating story, well-told (but not brilliantly told). I like Marc Levinson's little observations and asides throughout, like when he digresses to explain why the government's case against A&P wasn't sound.
The book had a refreshing pro-competitive, pro-business bent, while being sufficiently sympathetic to the other viewpoint. Levinson acknowledges the real human toll of "destructive competition", even while firmly endorsing it as an economic model. He's sensitive to the concerns of the modern reader, and I think he does a good job of countering some objections we might have.
For example, A&P was the first to start utilizing a supply chain that would become the much-reviled 'factory farms' of today and standardizing its produce selection. Levinson does a good job of explaining these objections in the context of the time. In the past, it was like every grocery store was a dirty little bodega in New York City. Dirty conditions, high prices, no fresh produce, little selection. The biggest difference is that you bought things in bulk, whereas now things are pre-packaged and self-serve. I think modern readers would grant that Kroger produce and selection is probably a step in the right direction compared to this situation, even though it's a bigger endorsement of standardization and centralization of production.
So I think the great strength of this book is always minding the human aspect of this story, even while being more in A&P's corner. The weakness of it was just that it wasn't transcendent. If there had been some one other layer of insight or something, or some gripping narrative thread throughout, it could be a five. But four stars, and a solid four. I would recommend to anyone to read this book.
The book had a refreshing pro-competitive, pro-business bent, while being sufficiently sympathetic to the other viewpoint. Levinson acknowledges the real human toll of "destructive competition", even while firmly endorsing it as an economic model. He's sensitive to the concerns of the modern reader, and I think he does a good job of countering some objections we might have.
For example, A&P was the first to start utilizing a supply chain that would become the much-reviled 'factory farms' of today and standardizing its produce selection. Levinson does a good job of explaining these objections in the context of the time. In the past, it was like every grocery store was a dirty little bodega in New York City. Dirty conditions, high prices, no fresh produce, little selection. The biggest difference is that you bought things in bulk, whereas now things are pre-packaged and self-serve. I think modern readers would grant that Kroger produce and selection is probably a step in the right direction compared to this situation, even though it's a bigger endorsement of standardization and centralization of production.
So I think the great strength of this book is always minding the human aspect of this story, even while being more in A&P's corner. The weakness of it was just that it wasn't transcendent. If there had been some one other layer of insight or something, or some gripping narrative thread throughout, it could be a five. But four stars, and a solid four. I would recommend to anyone to read this book.
July 21, 2012
This engaging business history traces the rise and decline of the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, which was the largest retailer in the US from 1915-1965 and the nation's largest food retailer as late as 1975. As the retail giant of its day, A&P encountered extensive political resistance for putting local stores out of business and was the target of federal regulatory actions from the 1920s through 1950s. Levinson's book shows how today's disputes over "big box" stores and online retailers like Amazon are not new and instead date back decades. Moreover, Levinson depicts the conflict as one between capitalism and competition with consumers stuck in the middle. For instance, A&P was a profitable company that was efficiently managed and so was able to pass some of the cost savings along to customers in the form of lower prices, which allowed working-class people to stretch their budgets and eat better than they once did. At the same time, A&P's opponents were privately-owned businesses that were not as competitive and needed high prices to remain viable. These opponents long had the government's ear, and as a result, federal legislators and agencies pushed for--and in many cases implemented--all sorts of policies designed to fix high prices. Overall, this book is a great read likely to be of interest to anyone with strong opinions about the effects of big-box stores, the growth of online shopping, and the wisdom of buying local.
August 4, 2011
For 43 years, A & P was the largest company in the world.
That statement alone needs much more texts about this company than there are. But we have Levinson's work now and as a student of business history I have to report that it is very good. While what happens in the last years of it's life, after the founders are gone and the generation of non-family owners takes over is not delved into greatly, the rest of the tale is very well presented so that we not only see how A&P grows but also how America grows and how the two are part and parcel of each other.
A company started before the Civil War to sell tea in New York, grows to be the world's largest company for many years. The founder passes the baton to the Hartfords who grow the company into a national chain and fully explore the meaning of what a chain is.
While doing so, the company goes from defining what the local grocery store should be to what a chain and what vertical integration should be. Creating what becomes S&H or Green stamps and grocery stores. A&P has a vibrant place in history and Levinson tells a great deal about it.
Along the way we see how the ill run mom and pop grocery store (My grandparents had one run well enough to become a great profit center during the second world war) is revamped and gives rise to their success. The A&P doing so well to squeeze margin that they are the Walmart of their day and the government must come and regulate them in order to save the mom and pops. So many years of litigation that it becomes part and parcel of the american life as does the supermarket with the rise of the automobile. And with the success of the tactics that the A&P employs or invents.
Having read many business histories, while I may never read this one again, I am glad I had a chance to read this one. There are lessons here for management, and life, and a guide to thinking about how business and government need to find a better way to partner with each other. Well worth your time and written well enough that it is more of a story, then ever a text book.
That statement alone needs much more texts about this company than there are. But we have Levinson's work now and as a student of business history I have to report that it is very good. While what happens in the last years of it's life, after the founders are gone and the generation of non-family owners takes over is not delved into greatly, the rest of the tale is very well presented so that we not only see how A&P grows but also how America grows and how the two are part and parcel of each other.
A company started before the Civil War to sell tea in New York, grows to be the world's largest company for many years. The founder passes the baton to the Hartfords who grow the company into a national chain and fully explore the meaning of what a chain is.
While doing so, the company goes from defining what the local grocery store should be to what a chain and what vertical integration should be. Creating what becomes S&H or Green stamps and grocery stores. A&P has a vibrant place in history and Levinson tells a great deal about it.
Along the way we see how the ill run mom and pop grocery store (My grandparents had one run well enough to become a great profit center during the second world war) is revamped and gives rise to their success. The A&P doing so well to squeeze margin that they are the Walmart of their day and the government must come and regulate them in order to save the mom and pops. So many years of litigation that it becomes part and parcel of the american life as does the supermarket with the rise of the automobile. And with the success of the tactics that the A&P employs or invents.
Having read many business histories, while I may never read this one again, I am glad I had a chance to read this one. There are lessons here for management, and life, and a guide to thinking about how business and government need to find a better way to partner with each other. Well worth your time and written well enough that it is more of a story, then ever a text book.
February 3, 2016
I liked it. In general, I'm fascinated with the operation of retail stores, the evolution of such, and the rise and fall of such. The parallels between the rise of chain stores and the internet, the exceeding similarities between the advent of talk radio in the early 1900s and where it is at in the early 2000s,... a lot of insightful things going on here. The history of grocery stores - from people behind counters and basically just tea and baking soda, to brands, meat counters, etc - very fascinating.
However, it often read like a child's book report, and many of the chapters felt disjointed, as if they had been written to be read separately and had built-in-redundancies incase you only read one. Not saying it should've been a pamphlet, but could have been a little shorter.
However, it often read like a child's book report, and many of the chapters felt disjointed, as if they had been written to be read separately and had built-in-redundancies incase you only read one. Not saying it should've been a pamphlet, but could have been a little shorter.
March 29, 2022
This is an interesting treatise on the origins and history of a grocery beloved by many Baby Boomers, including this listener,
My only quibble may be what others think is a strength: too many facts and figures; I would prefer more anecdotes about the people involved. That being said, it was enlightening to learn how far back the battle over “chain stores” goes, and about all of the lawsuits and other machinations used in attempts to quash them.
My only quibble may be what others think is a strength: too many facts and figures; I would prefer more anecdotes about the people involved. That being said, it was enlightening to learn how far back the battle over “chain stores” goes, and about all of the lawsuits and other machinations used in attempts to quash them.
February 28, 2013
Fascinating book, one that details the rise and fall of former retail/grocery behometh A&P. The easy reaction is that A&P was the Walmart of its day-which is true to a great extent. This book shows how the travails that A&P endured allowed WalMart to become what it is.
The book is a finely detailed account of many aspects of the grocery industry, starting with a dock front trading in the Antebellum north through the shopping center supermarkets of the 1960's. It shows how pervasive the family owned market was,how limited their merchandise, and how they typically were marginally profitable and were overcome by low overhead "economy stores" like A&P. These passages, describing the limited variety of items a market would offer, would pair well with a book tracking American eating habits and how they were influenced by what was sold.
The fight against the large "chain stores" is the bulk of the book. The philosophical and political underpinnings of the fight remain constant-the use of taxation as a regulatory tool, and the use of politics to defeat an economic/business reality. States adverse to chain stores (mostly in the south and west) attempted to tax them out of existence, and elected leaders like Wright Patman led the fight to protect their constituents jobs.
The major fight periods came in the 1930's, when the chain store struggle pitted two equally strong points of view against each other-those against chain stores wanted to protect jobs, while those in favor of them argued the economy was helped most by low prices which maximized purchase power.
The author repeatedly notes the seeming disjoint in the oppo arguments, and the difference between Monopoly and Creative Destruction. In the former, a company works to subvert competition and clear the field so it can charge any price it wants, typically very high. In the latter, a company works all the angles to offer its price at the lowest it can-in this case counting on volume to make its profit. If along the way competition is driven out because it cannot match prices and loses business...so be it.
Levinson does a marvelous job showing how A&P stayed at the top of its field for over a century through flexibility and adapting to changing economic and political circumstances, and how the lack of the same was what eventually did them in.
Marvelous read, well written and researched and made more important by its showing how the retail business is impacted not only by economic factors but also political and societal.
The book is a finely detailed account of many aspects of the grocery industry, starting with a dock front trading in the Antebellum north through the shopping center supermarkets of the 1960's. It shows how pervasive the family owned market was,how limited their merchandise, and how they typically were marginally profitable and were overcome by low overhead "economy stores" like A&P. These passages, describing the limited variety of items a market would offer, would pair well with a book tracking American eating habits and how they were influenced by what was sold.
The fight against the large "chain stores" is the bulk of the book. The philosophical and political underpinnings of the fight remain constant-the use of taxation as a regulatory tool, and the use of politics to defeat an economic/business reality. States adverse to chain stores (mostly in the south and west) attempted to tax them out of existence, and elected leaders like Wright Patman led the fight to protect their constituents jobs.
The major fight periods came in the 1930's, when the chain store struggle pitted two equally strong points of view against each other-those against chain stores wanted to protect jobs, while those in favor of them argued the economy was helped most by low prices which maximized purchase power.
The author repeatedly notes the seeming disjoint in the oppo arguments, and the difference between Monopoly and Creative Destruction. In the former, a company works to subvert competition and clear the field so it can charge any price it wants, typically very high. In the latter, a company works all the angles to offer its price at the lowest it can-in this case counting on volume to make its profit. If along the way competition is driven out because it cannot match prices and loses business...so be it.
Levinson does a marvelous job showing how A&P stayed at the top of its field for over a century through flexibility and adapting to changing economic and political circumstances, and how the lack of the same was what eventually did them in.
Marvelous read, well written and researched and made more important by its showing how the retail business is impacted not only by economic factors but also political and societal.
June 28, 2017
This is a fascinating story about how the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. moved from being a shop selling tea and coffee to the first national grocery chain and, for most of the 20th Century, the largest retailer in the world under the leadership of brothers George L. and John A. Hartford. The company faced all sorts of governmental challenges from people who were trying to preserve a system of small, independent grocers and wholesalers whose day had come and gone. They faced criticism much like Walmart faces today. People decry how the chain stores are putting the hometown merchants out of business, while ignoring hometown merchants and flocking to chain stores to shop.
February 16, 2024
A pretty good book about one of the first true retail behemoths in the United States, the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company. This book came to my attention when I read that Jeff Bezos had recommended it to his staff at Amazon.
I am (unfortunately) old enough to remember the A&P retail grocery stores. This book details the rise of the business, from a relatively small tea retailer to the gigantic retail operation it became. Before the retailer began using its size to squeeze massive efficiencies out of the operation the author gives us a look at how clever marketing by the company founder managed to create an illusion of differentiation in tea. The Hartford brothers took control of the firm, and built it into a juggernaut. The American business landscape for the sale of groceries essentially consisted of mom and pop small retailers across the country, locally owned and run. A&P most certainly, as it grew, totally disrupted that model. The book shows us the backlash against A&P that grew into a mini-political movement, with laws passed that attempted to hinder the ability of A&P to use its size to squeeze out better pricing from its vendors. That battle is covered extensively. They squeezed so hard that they became the largest retailer in the United States.
“Rather than being accused of acting like monopolists to keep prices artificially high,
the Hartfords were found to have done the opposite. They and their company, Lindley declared, had acted illegally in restraint of trade by using A&P’s size and market power to keep prices artificially low.”
Levinson, Marc. The Great A&P and the Struggle for Small Business in America (p. 2). Amazon Digital Services LLC; 2nd edition (December 16, 2019). Kindle Edition.
The changing landscape for food retailing put mom and pop stores at a severe disadvantage, and with the A&P using those economies of scale to reduce prices and exact big savings from wholesalers it was only a matter of time before the old system would be replaced by a newer, more efficient way of doing business. “Creative destruction” entered the business vocabulary.
“A contemporary of the Hartfords, the economist Joseph Schumpeter, coined the phrase “creative destruction” in 1942 to describe the painful process by which innovation and technological advance make an industry more efficient while leaving older, less adaptable businesses by the wayside.”
Levinson, Marc. The Great A&P and the Struggle for Small Business in America (p. 7). Amazon Digital Services LLC; 2nd edition (December 16, 2019). Kindle Edition.
The Great A&P revolutionized business, and the methods they used would be further refined by business moguls yet to come.
In the first half of the twentieth century, the Hartfords turned their company into one of the greatest agents of creative destruction in the United States. Although shifts in the way the world buys food are far less heralded than innovations such as cars and computers, few economic changes have mattered more to the average family. Thanks to the management techniques the Great A&P brought into widespread use, food shopping, once a heavy burden, became a minor concern for all but the poorest households as grocery operators increased productivity and squeezed out costs. The proportion of workers involved in selling groceries plummeted, freeing up labor to help the economy grow. And the company’s innovations are still evident in the supply chains that link the business world together. Although the Hartfords died decades before the invention of supercenters and hypermarkets, they employed many of the strategies—fighting unions, demanding lower prices from suppliers, cutting out middlemen, slashing inventories, lowering prices to build volume, using volume to gain yet more economies of scale—that Walmart’s founder, Sam Walton, would later make famous.
Levinson, Marc. The Great A&P and the Struggle for Small Business in America (pp. 8-9). Amazon Digital Services LLC; 2nd edition (December 16, 2019). Kindle Edition.
The political battles that engulfed A&P as it rose, as mentioned above, had to do with the grocers determination to lower costs and then prices. The essence of the argument against them was that they had an unfair advantage and should be forced to maintain higher prices, with much legislative action undertaken to try to force that result. A&P struggled at times with the onslaught against it, but the attempt to stave off this creative destruction was doomed to failure. They brought not only lower pricing but convenience, consumer packaging, and a host of other new concepts to grocery shopping that crushed the opposition.
Bezos, as I understand it, thought the book important not because of the lessons learned about business from the rise of A&P, but from its ultimate destruction. The Hartford brothers devoted their lives to the business, both building it, then maintaining it, through a core set of business principles. While they were alive the business thrived. After the deaths of the brothers the new management team simply failed to adapt to a changing climate in grocery retailing. The A&P, which had led the way in change and innovation, became the old and inflexible under the successor management. The creative destruction they had brought to grocery retailing ended up destroying the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company. It is a lesson that Bezos wants his folks at Amazon to understand and appreciate. The business titan of today can be the business failure of tomorrow, and “creative destruction” can claim any business that loses its focus. A great business (history) book for those that might be interested in that subject matter.
I am (unfortunately) old enough to remember the A&P retail grocery stores. This book details the rise of the business, from a relatively small tea retailer to the gigantic retail operation it became. Before the retailer began using its size to squeeze massive efficiencies out of the operation the author gives us a look at how clever marketing by the company founder managed to create an illusion of differentiation in tea. The Hartford brothers took control of the firm, and built it into a juggernaut. The American business landscape for the sale of groceries essentially consisted of mom and pop small retailers across the country, locally owned and run. A&P most certainly, as it grew, totally disrupted that model. The book shows us the backlash against A&P that grew into a mini-political movement, with laws passed that attempted to hinder the ability of A&P to use its size to squeeze out better pricing from its vendors. That battle is covered extensively. They squeezed so hard that they became the largest retailer in the United States.
“Rather than being accused of acting like monopolists to keep prices artificially high,
the Hartfords were found to have done the opposite. They and their company, Lindley declared, had acted illegally in restraint of trade by using A&P’s size and market power to keep prices artificially low.”
Levinson, Marc. The Great A&P and the Struggle for Small Business in America (p. 2). Amazon Digital Services LLC; 2nd edition (December 16, 2019). Kindle Edition.
The changing landscape for food retailing put mom and pop stores at a severe disadvantage, and with the A&P using those economies of scale to reduce prices and exact big savings from wholesalers it was only a matter of time before the old system would be replaced by a newer, more efficient way of doing business. “Creative destruction” entered the business vocabulary.
“A contemporary of the Hartfords, the economist Joseph Schumpeter, coined the phrase “creative destruction” in 1942 to describe the painful process by which innovation and technological advance make an industry more efficient while leaving older, less adaptable businesses by the wayside.”
Levinson, Marc. The Great A&P and the Struggle for Small Business in America (p. 7). Amazon Digital Services LLC; 2nd edition (December 16, 2019). Kindle Edition.
The Great A&P revolutionized business, and the methods they used would be further refined by business moguls yet to come.
In the first half of the twentieth century, the Hartfords turned their company into one of the greatest agents of creative destruction in the United States. Although shifts in the way the world buys food are far less heralded than innovations such as cars and computers, few economic changes have mattered more to the average family. Thanks to the management techniques the Great A&P brought into widespread use, food shopping, once a heavy burden, became a minor concern for all but the poorest households as grocery operators increased productivity and squeezed out costs. The proportion of workers involved in selling groceries plummeted, freeing up labor to help the economy grow. And the company’s innovations are still evident in the supply chains that link the business world together. Although the Hartfords died decades before the invention of supercenters and hypermarkets, they employed many of the strategies—fighting unions, demanding lower prices from suppliers, cutting out middlemen, slashing inventories, lowering prices to build volume, using volume to gain yet more economies of scale—that Walmart’s founder, Sam Walton, would later make famous.
Levinson, Marc. The Great A&P and the Struggle for Small Business in America (pp. 8-9). Amazon Digital Services LLC; 2nd edition (December 16, 2019). Kindle Edition.
The political battles that engulfed A&P as it rose, as mentioned above, had to do with the grocers determination to lower costs and then prices. The essence of the argument against them was that they had an unfair advantage and should be forced to maintain higher prices, with much legislative action undertaken to try to force that result. A&P struggled at times with the onslaught against it, but the attempt to stave off this creative destruction was doomed to failure. They brought not only lower pricing but convenience, consumer packaging, and a host of other new concepts to grocery shopping that crushed the opposition.
Bezos, as I understand it, thought the book important not because of the lessons learned about business from the rise of A&P, but from its ultimate destruction. The Hartford brothers devoted their lives to the business, both building it, then maintaining it, through a core set of business principles. While they were alive the business thrived. After the deaths of the brothers the new management team simply failed to adapt to a changing climate in grocery retailing. The A&P, which had led the way in change and innovation, became the old and inflexible under the successor management. The creative destruction they had brought to grocery retailing ended up destroying the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company. It is a lesson that Bezos wants his folks at Amazon to understand and appreciate. The business titan of today can be the business failure of tomorrow, and “creative destruction” can claim any business that loses its focus. A great business (history) book for those that might be interested in that subject matter.
May 6, 2017
A fascinating and very well-written account of what had to be (before it went bankrupt in 2010) one of the least fascinating places in America--the A & P grocery chain. It is the story of two brothers--the dour, straight-laced George L Hartford and his younger brother, the brilliant and visionary John A. Hartford--who utterly transformed America's musty grocery business by creating what eventually became the largest retail firm (by far) in the world. The upshot was a populist revolt that, despite the disappearance of A & P, continues to rock our world today. Who knew??
Want to read
August 27, 2011I found this through his interview on Fresh Air on NPR on August 23, 2011
January 31, 2017
When I was very, very young, the A&P was our corner grocery. Since we didn't have a car, we walked down to that A&P a _lot_. It quickly converted into a Butera and now is a Supermercado of some sort, but I remember the A&P logo on it most strongly.
When I mentioned I was reading this book to a buddy about 10 years younger than me, it was made clear that he had never even _heard_ of A&P. Given that A&P was the world's largest company for 43 straight years, I find this kind of amazing. They were the Wal*Mart of America for a very long time.
So I grabbed this book when it popped up on my radar. In The Great A&P, Mark Levinson does yeoman's work in describing how A&P came to occupy such a domineering position and why they fell so hard, so fast, that adult Americans today can credibly say they've never heard of them even though there were thousands of A&P stores across the country in living memory.
Telling this story is complicated by the fact that a) A&P wasn't a publicly-traded firm and b) the men of the Hartford family who ran it were notoriously private. Therefore, I can appreciate the archaeology the author had to do to bring this story to light with any level of detail.
The rise of A&P in the late 19th and early 20th Century consumes the first half of the book, where the reader is given a lovely look into the frankly disgusting world of pre-refrigeration grocery selling. A somewhat predictable tale of effective utilization of economies of scale plus advertising mastery thus follows, with the rapid advances of transport and refrigeration technologies playing a strong role in the changeover of America's food shopping habits from being primarily conducted at tiny corner stores run by independent owners to the chain store-dominated landscape we're all too familiar with today.
Where the book gets particularly interesting is in the government's rather persistent attempts to curb A&P's growth, if not destroy them outright. Thanks to one particularly stubborn Southern Congressman who made his nut latching on to the issue of chain stores being bad for America (just in case you thought idiot populism was something new in our culture...), A&P found itself fighting the Federal Government from about 1930 through to the Eisenhower presidency nonstop. And while I'm generally in favor of strong government regulation of just about everything (because almost all entrepreneurs are also raving psychopaths who should be prevented from having unlimited funds to push their agenda in all possible arenas but I disgress...), Levinson makes a very, VERY strong case that the government's arguments against A&P were entirely baseless from any economic or consumer-protectionist perspective.
I enjoyed this book quite a bit, both for the history aspect of how shopping for food, something every person has to do on a regular basis, changed over time, with a lot of that change pushed by A&P's innovations in its own business in ways that quickly reverberated through all retailers of food in the country. I further enjoyed the bizarre history of the government's attempts to take A&P down for literally being TOO GOOD for consumers, by lowering prices too much. It's a clear case of the kind of almost vindictive government overreach that leads far too many people to assume that ALL regulation is bad, and is precisely the sort of thing those of us who believe in strong but careful government regulation need to look out for.
The last bit of the book covers how, after finally putting the government's crusade against it to bed, mostly successfully, a change in previously-entrenched leadership quickly led to the rather rapid demise of America's largest chain. While those of us who have been living in the Age of Disruption (*rolleyes*) are unfortunately used to seeing legacy industries with tens of thousands of workers suddenly go under in disturbingly quick fashion, A&P might've been the first to go through this process, and it did so before Silicon Valley was around with its life mission of murdering traditional companies for profit.
I would've liked for Levinson to spend more time on this process, but it's presented more as an epilogue to the story than an integral part of it. I guess it would be hard to spin a dramatic, engaging narrative out of bad managers consistently making wrong little decisions (and avoiding making any big ones) day after day for years until younger, more aggressive and more nimble competitors are eating your lunch and you go under.
So, in the end, I can recommend this book to anybody interested in the various topics covered within. It's a deep look at a by-gone era of American business and government, with a side order of weird, private bachelor dudes running a company together for many, many decades with very little in the way of outside input and doing it damned well. Levinson obviously saw something uniquely American in The Great A&P and told that story here well.
When I mentioned I was reading this book to a buddy about 10 years younger than me, it was made clear that he had never even _heard_ of A&P. Given that A&P was the world's largest company for 43 straight years, I find this kind of amazing. They were the Wal*Mart of America for a very long time.
So I grabbed this book when it popped up on my radar. In The Great A&P, Mark Levinson does yeoman's work in describing how A&P came to occupy such a domineering position and why they fell so hard, so fast, that adult Americans today can credibly say they've never heard of them even though there were thousands of A&P stores across the country in living memory.
Telling this story is complicated by the fact that a) A&P wasn't a publicly-traded firm and b) the men of the Hartford family who ran it were notoriously private. Therefore, I can appreciate the archaeology the author had to do to bring this story to light with any level of detail.
The rise of A&P in the late 19th and early 20th Century consumes the first half of the book, where the reader is given a lovely look into the frankly disgusting world of pre-refrigeration grocery selling. A somewhat predictable tale of effective utilization of economies of scale plus advertising mastery thus follows, with the rapid advances of transport and refrigeration technologies playing a strong role in the changeover of America's food shopping habits from being primarily conducted at tiny corner stores run by independent owners to the chain store-dominated landscape we're all too familiar with today.
Where the book gets particularly interesting is in the government's rather persistent attempts to curb A&P's growth, if not destroy them outright. Thanks to one particularly stubborn Southern Congressman who made his nut latching on to the issue of chain stores being bad for America (just in case you thought idiot populism was something new in our culture...), A&P found itself fighting the Federal Government from about 1930 through to the Eisenhower presidency nonstop. And while I'm generally in favor of strong government regulation of just about everything (because almost all entrepreneurs are also raving psychopaths who should be prevented from having unlimited funds to push their agenda in all possible arenas but I disgress...), Levinson makes a very, VERY strong case that the government's arguments against A&P were entirely baseless from any economic or consumer-protectionist perspective.
I enjoyed this book quite a bit, both for the history aspect of how shopping for food, something every person has to do on a regular basis, changed over time, with a lot of that change pushed by A&P's innovations in its own business in ways that quickly reverberated through all retailers of food in the country. I further enjoyed the bizarre history of the government's attempts to take A&P down for literally being TOO GOOD for consumers, by lowering prices too much. It's a clear case of the kind of almost vindictive government overreach that leads far too many people to assume that ALL regulation is bad, and is precisely the sort of thing those of us who believe in strong but careful government regulation need to look out for.
The last bit of the book covers how, after finally putting the government's crusade against it to bed, mostly successfully, a change in previously-entrenched leadership quickly led to the rather rapid demise of America's largest chain. While those of us who have been living in the Age of Disruption (*rolleyes*) are unfortunately used to seeing legacy industries with tens of thousands of workers suddenly go under in disturbingly quick fashion, A&P might've been the first to go through this process, and it did so before Silicon Valley was around with its life mission of murdering traditional companies for profit.
I would've liked for Levinson to spend more time on this process, but it's presented more as an epilogue to the story than an integral part of it. I guess it would be hard to spin a dramatic, engaging narrative out of bad managers consistently making wrong little decisions (and avoiding making any big ones) day after day for years until younger, more aggressive and more nimble competitors are eating your lunch and you go under.
So, in the end, I can recommend this book to anybody interested in the various topics covered within. It's a deep look at a by-gone era of American business and government, with a side order of weird, private bachelor dudes running a company together for many, many decades with very little in the way of outside input and doing it damned well. Levinson obviously saw something uniquely American in The Great A&P and told that story here well.
September 13, 2022
Levinson's institutional history of the American grocery store A&P traces it from its beginning in the 19th-century to its eventual dissolution at the end of the 20th-century. While an economic success throughout most of the 20th-century the company, that very success led to attacks from small businesses and government leaders including those who viewed the business as a monopoly. It is a fascinating study of the conflicting impulses between capitalism and healthy competition.
"The Great A&P transformed the humble, archaic grocery trade into a modern industry, but its relentless expansions posed a mortal threat to a sector of the economy upon which so many families and communities depended."
"...tea consumption had soared since 1843, when China opened additional ports to U.S. trade. By 1860, an average of one vessel a week was arriving in New York from China. Clipper ships frequently made the run in less than three months..." 16
"A&P Baking Powder was an important product in the history of retailing. With it, the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, and many of its competitors, began a transition from being tea merchants to being grocers. It was a transition that would dramatically change Americans' daily lives." 40
"The cardboard box was the result of an accident at the Metropolitan Paper-Bag Manufactory in New York. The paper bag had been invented to replace cotton bags unavailable during the Civil War, and Metropolitan's founder, the inventor Robert Gair, developed the earliest method of mass-producing bags printed with the name of a retailer or manufacturer." 41
"The birth of the Economy Store coincided with an important political shift, for it was in 1912 that chain retailing first surfaced as a national political issues. Chains, which originated in the tea trade, were expanding across the retail sector." 63
"In 1920, two years after the war's end, the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company sold $235 million of groceries from 4,588 stores. It had become the largest retailer in the world." 74
"As the Great Depression arrived, three technological developments were reshaping the grocery trade. The most important was refrigeration...The second big change sweeping through the food industry was packaging. Cellophane, a clear film derived from wood fibre, was invented in France in 1908, but it arrived in North America only after DuPont licensed the patents in 1923...The other technology buffeting the food trade in 1930 was the automobile." 125-126
"Stopping deflation became one of the administration's first economic objectives." 140
"The supermarket was the fourth retailing revolution through which George and John Hartford had guided the Great Atlantic & Pacific. With their father they had turned George Gilman's tea company into the first grocery-store chain in the 1890s. Starting in 1912, their Economy Store had changed the grocery trade from a haphazard enterprise of uncertain profitability into a large-scale business based on careful control of costs and prices. IN 1925, the Hartfords had reorganized the company to take advantage of vertical integration...Now with little ado, they brought about yet another transformation by moving quickly from the combination store to the supermarket." 211
"Through the first half of the twentieth-century, George L, and John A. Hartford stood at the centre of a conflict between competition and capitalism that raged all across America." 261
"The Great A&P transformed the humble, archaic grocery trade into a modern industry, but its relentless expansions posed a mortal threat to a sector of the economy upon which so many families and communities depended."
"...tea consumption had soared since 1843, when China opened additional ports to U.S. trade. By 1860, an average of one vessel a week was arriving in New York from China. Clipper ships frequently made the run in less than three months..." 16
"A&P Baking Powder was an important product in the history of retailing. With it, the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, and many of its competitors, began a transition from being tea merchants to being grocers. It was a transition that would dramatically change Americans' daily lives." 40
"The cardboard box was the result of an accident at the Metropolitan Paper-Bag Manufactory in New York. The paper bag had been invented to replace cotton bags unavailable during the Civil War, and Metropolitan's founder, the inventor Robert Gair, developed the earliest method of mass-producing bags printed with the name of a retailer or manufacturer." 41
"The birth of the Economy Store coincided with an important political shift, for it was in 1912 that chain retailing first surfaced as a national political issues. Chains, which originated in the tea trade, were expanding across the retail sector." 63
"In 1920, two years after the war's end, the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company sold $235 million of groceries from 4,588 stores. It had become the largest retailer in the world." 74
"As the Great Depression arrived, three technological developments were reshaping the grocery trade. The most important was refrigeration...The second big change sweeping through the food industry was packaging. Cellophane, a clear film derived from wood fibre, was invented in France in 1908, but it arrived in North America only after DuPont licensed the patents in 1923...The other technology buffeting the food trade in 1930 was the automobile." 125-126
"Stopping deflation became one of the administration's first economic objectives." 140
"The supermarket was the fourth retailing revolution through which George and John Hartford had guided the Great Atlantic & Pacific. With their father they had turned George Gilman's tea company into the first grocery-store chain in the 1890s. Starting in 1912, their Economy Store had changed the grocery trade from a haphazard enterprise of uncertain profitability into a large-scale business based on careful control of costs and prices. IN 1925, the Hartfords had reorganized the company to take advantage of vertical integration...Now with little ado, they brought about yet another transformation by moving quickly from the combination store to the supermarket." 211
"Through the first half of the twentieth-century, George L, and John A. Hartford stood at the centre of a conflict between competition and capitalism that raged all across America." 261
May 20, 2021
Jeff Bezos recommends this book
The title is the hook dear reader to convince you that this book is worth reading. The lore goes that Bezos recommended this book to his S-team, his highly successful lieutenants responsible for Amazon’s success.
The story in here is really about how A&P, a retailer that has now been all but forgotten, came to dominate America’s retail industry throughout the early 20th century. It also, in methodical detail, expounds on the efficiencies that big retail behemoths bring compared to mom and pop stores.
A&P was a pioneer in discount retailing and was known to aggressively engage in the same tactics that Amazon & Walmart stand accused of, pressuring suppliers to give volume discounts, better predict demand for items through data driven analysis, squeeze every last ounce of productivity out of labour and supply chains. Oh and it was virulently anti-Union, exactly like AMZN and Walmart.
The author goes into excruciating detail on how A&P came to became the single largest grocer & retailer over the early 20th century and until after WW-2. It also improved American’s standard of living by lowering food prices and providing more nutrition per dollar compared to mom and pop stores.
For all of its services in raising American standards of living, it faced intense legislative scrutiny in the New Deal years and was taxed to the hilt, along with other chain retailers to equal the playing field with mom & pop stores.
The author documents how A&P and the chain retailers rose to the legislative scrutiny, by lobbying and organising propaganda to convince the American public of the benefits of chain retailers. Post WW-2, with the rising standard of living, public sentiment took a U-turn and the New deal era thinking of scrutinising big chain retailers held no credence.
How did a company that was the largest chain retailer in mid 20th century become extinct. The jolly old Capitalism or Creative Destruction. A&P’s secret sauce were really their two secretive brothers who were sort of co-founders. With the death of the two founders, new management couldn’t innovate to keep up with newer age retailers. And what excessive taxation, legislative scrutiny couldn’t accomplish, Capitalism very slowly did.
The main takeaways for me were how propagating the right culture over successive generations of management is crucial, the crucial and pivotal role that big businesses play in our society by raising our standards of living and how the legislative scrutiny of them is often built on flimsy grounds.
The title is the hook dear reader to convince you that this book is worth reading. The lore goes that Bezos recommended this book to his S-team, his highly successful lieutenants responsible for Amazon’s success.
The story in here is really about how A&P, a retailer that has now been all but forgotten, came to dominate America’s retail industry throughout the early 20th century. It also, in methodical detail, expounds on the efficiencies that big retail behemoths bring compared to mom and pop stores.
A&P was a pioneer in discount retailing and was known to aggressively engage in the same tactics that Amazon & Walmart stand accused of, pressuring suppliers to give volume discounts, better predict demand for items through data driven analysis, squeeze every last ounce of productivity out of labour and supply chains. Oh and it was virulently anti-Union, exactly like AMZN and Walmart.
The author goes into excruciating detail on how A&P came to became the single largest grocer & retailer over the early 20th century and until after WW-2. It also improved American’s standard of living by lowering food prices and providing more nutrition per dollar compared to mom and pop stores.
For all of its services in raising American standards of living, it faced intense legislative scrutiny in the New Deal years and was taxed to the hilt, along with other chain retailers to equal the playing field with mom & pop stores.
The author documents how A&P and the chain retailers rose to the legislative scrutiny, by lobbying and organising propaganda to convince the American public of the benefits of chain retailers. Post WW-2, with the rising standard of living, public sentiment took a U-turn and the New deal era thinking of scrutinising big chain retailers held no credence.
How did a company that was the largest chain retailer in mid 20th century become extinct. The jolly old Capitalism or Creative Destruction. A&P’s secret sauce were really their two secretive brothers who were sort of co-founders. With the death of the two founders, new management couldn’t innovate to keep up with newer age retailers. And what excessive taxation, legislative scrutiny couldn’t accomplish, Capitalism very slowly did.
The main takeaways for me were how propagating the right culture over successive generations of management is crucial, the crucial and pivotal role that big businesses play in our society by raising our standards of living and how the legislative scrutiny of them is often built on flimsy grounds.
January 12, 2022
A good book, providing a detailed history of America’s first mega retail chain and its effect on American views towards big business. The author, economic journalist Marc Levinson, provides a consumer-centric case study of American Retail through its first big firm: the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company, or, more simply, The A&P. From its humble beginnings as one of many tea importers on the NYC waterfront through to its early 20th century domination of the grocery market and finally to its slow demise, Levinson provides both narrative and analysis of The A&P. He carefully explains the nature of the early grocery sector and how A&P was able to lean forward with vertical integration and volume focused marketing to rise to dominance. Much of the book is spent discussing the long struggle between A&P (along with other early mega-retailers) and the local proponents of small business. Levinson adroitly argues the merits of both sides, but clearly favors the advantage to consumers from big business retailing. A great book for anyone wanting to learn about the predecessors to Amazon and Walmart. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the history of pre-WWII big business in America.
February 22, 2018
Well researched and written, this is not just a history of a company, the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company. It's also a broader history of the grocery segment of small business and how their struggle to survive against chain stores, particularly the A&P, changed the buying habits & expectations of Americans. I was surprised to find myself routing for the goliath in the fight to preserve the small grocer against the impact of the chain store. The author does an excellent job in explaining how the individuals who led the fight to close down or restrict chains like A&P used hazy or foggy arguments. The legislation against chain stores during the life of A&P turned the expected impact of monopolies upside down. This book is a unique and interesting history of the interaction of business and government. Finally, this is also a history of leadership. The history of A&P shows how a company benefits from the right combination of leadership, at the right time, and also how fealty to experience, employee loyalty, competence, & adherence to rules can drive a company to success but can also cause its downfall.
August 7, 2019
Fascinating story of the rise and fall of the Great A&P, the company that all but invented chain grocery and once was the largest firm of any kind in America, but is now nearly forgotten. The history of the how food distribution in the US changed from the Civil War to the 1950s is worth knowing, and the tale of the two very different brothers who rode those changes and kept up with innovations for so long is interesting, but the real focus of the book is the fascinating question of what should be the purpose of competition law. For the case against A&P comes at the high water mark of the theory that competition law should protect other businesses from a bigger company that has economies of scale, even if it causes higher prices for consumers. That theory has been trashed for years by the Chicago school, but as the author illustrates, it has more appeal in the context of the Depression. In a world of 25% unemployment and snowballing deflation, you're going to worry about one company taking away net jobs from the rest of the industry, and "lower prices" doesn't sound like such a great defense.
April 21, 2019
Excellent business book on early grocery and supermarket pioneer; its development via "creative destruction" and how it ultimately lost its way through excessive conservatism and drive for profits. The author makes a convincing case that A&P's initial focus on the consumer created a path for giant superstores like WalMart (and to some degree, left unsaid, Amazon). While A&P's founding brothers were colorful characters, this is a serious business book; A&P's political challenges with anti trusters is a deep focus in the second half of the book, and its use of third parties to speak out for it represents brilliant PR strategy that remains a great case study. In the author's uncharacteristically harsh conclusions, he rails against anti chain zealots, mostly democrats, as anti progressive. He doesn't, however, make much of an effort to reconcile this with his own acknowledgement that A&P's practices (and by extension, superstores) may have hurt localism, food quality, local businesses and family farms.
January 7, 2018
A fascinating look at the rise and fall of the Great A&P - the largest retailer for nearly 40+ years - the Walmart/Amazon of the first half of the 1900s. They went from tea company to small grocery store chain to vertically integrated stores to a supermarket chain. Nearly 16,000 stores at its peak! It’s no exaggeration to say they wrote the original operations/marketing playbook on how to always offer the lowest prices, keep margins low and make up in volume.
The book does a great deep dive on the Hartford brothers’ (A&P owners) maniacal focus on leveraging data from stores, pushing the boundaries of truly, efficient operations and supplier negotiations. A good deal of time is also spent on A&P’s battles with anti-trust crusaders and the effects on its business.
Overall, it's a really fun, informative read, especially if you’re interested in the history of retail.
The book does a great deep dive on the Hartford brothers’ (A&P owners) maniacal focus on leveraging data from stores, pushing the boundaries of truly, efficient operations and supplier negotiations. A good deal of time is also spent on A&P’s battles with anti-trust crusaders and the effects on its business.
Overall, it's a really fun, informative read, especially if you’re interested in the history of retail.
November 17, 2018
Levinson masterfully weaves two stories together: the first story is the founding and growth of the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company from humble (and somewhat shady) beginnings to the largest retailer of any kind in the United States in the 1950's. The second story recounts the efforts to dismantle this company by Texas' congressman Wright Patman, and others in the US government, from the 1930's-1950's. While regulatory or legal attempts to destroy A&P largely failed, the death of John Hartford, one of the brothers who oversaw the huge growth in the company, eventually resulted in its demise as the company management failed to keep up with the changing retail market. If, like me, you remember shopping at the local A&P, smelling the 8 O'clock Coffee grinding, watching the checkers as they punched numbers into the cash registers, you'll like this book.
August 6, 2017
Superb and detailed work on the origins of A&P, the demise of the mom and pop grocer and legislation that would inhibit the growth of chain stores. Lobbyists and government officials, later to include John Kenneth Galbraith devised impossible legislation to try and restrict volume pricing and distribution efficiencies. All of the common tactics we see in today's stores were illegal - coupons, discounts, volume pricing, loss leaders and more. Really an historical eye opener
March 17, 2021
Eighty years ago, The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company was not just the largest grocery chain in America, is was the largest retail company in the world. And until last month, I had never heard of it.
This is a good story, and Levinson does a good job telling it. I'm amazed at how much of the "ancient history" and politics of A&P parallels exactly the trajectory of Wal-Mart and later Amazon a century later.
This is a good story, and Levinson does a good job telling it. I'm amazed at how much of the "ancient history" and politics of A&P parallels exactly the trajectory of Wal-Mart and later Amazon a century later.
February 27, 2019
This was an interesting look at the growth and demise of a retail giant. As I was reading it, I thought several times how much of what the author wrote was just what I have heard about the rise of first Walmart and then Amazon. In the conclusion, the author notes that same comparison. A & P was an innovator driven by a visionary.
Read
July 23, 2021Knowing the past helps to understand the present
After reading a book about Jeff Bezos and Amazon, this was suggested. It was very interesting to learn of A&P's dominance, as well as it's role in developing retail sales . Many similarities to Wal-Mart and Amazon, which was well summed up in the last chapter.
After reading a book about Jeff Bezos and Amazon, this was suggested. It was very interesting to learn of A&P's dominance, as well as it's role in developing retail sales . Many similarities to Wal-Mart and Amazon, which was well summed up in the last chapter.
November 27, 2019
Possibly the best biz book read this year. Took me 3 days, but also in an attempt to get my pace back up.
Still a very relevant cautionary tale. The analyses by the author were also illuminating and cogent.
Still a very relevant cautionary tale. The analyses by the author were also illuminating and cogent.
July 27, 2022
In depth history of A&P. This was an excellent and well researched book. There are definite parallels to Walmart (mentioned in the book) and Amazon (not mentioned, as it wasn't quite the behemoth it is today.
May 31, 2018
Fascinating story of the rise of the first grocery chain and its rapid fall. Very well written,too.
July 4, 2019
Solid history if a bit too long. I didn’t necessarily need in-depth histories of some of the more ancillary characters.
April 23, 2020
Exceptional book. The history of A&P is amazing and there are a lot of management lessons to take away.
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