Genuardi's

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Genuardi's Family Markets
Type	Grocery
Founded	Unknown
Headquarters	Norristown, Pennsylvania
Industry	Retail
Products	Bakery, dairy, deli, floral, frozen foods, general grocery, meat, pharmacy, produce, seafood, snacks, and liquor.
Website	Genuardis.com

Genuardi's is an upscale chain of food stores located in the states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware in the United States. Genuardi's has been a regional division of Safeway Inc. since 2001.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Beginning 1.2 The First Supermarket 1.3 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s 1.4 1980s, 1990s, and 2000 1.5 Safeway buyout of Genuardi's Family Markets 1.6 2000s 2 Facts/Trivia 3 Sources 4 External links

[edit] History

[edit] Beginning

In 1920 Gaspare and Josephine Genuardi owned a farm near Norristown, Pennsylvania and grew fruits and vegetables. The Genuardi's went around to their neighbors delivering the quality produce to them. Gaspare had a strong sense of customer service which is the cornerstone of Genuardi's. Gaspare and Josphine were the parents of nine children. Of the nine were Charlie, Frank, Tom, Joe, and Jim who helped out with the business and keeping the tradition of customer service alive as their father showed. The five sons soon became known as the Genuardi's brothers by the customers.

[edit] The First Supermarket

The Genuardi's brothers opened a corner store then a Superette. The brothers still kept the reputation for servicing the customer and suppling what items they want. The success helped the business grow and in 1954 the first Genuardi's supermarket opened in Jeffersonville, just outside of Norristown on Main Street.

[edit] 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s

The five Genuardi's brothers expanded their supermarkets throughout the western Philadelphia suburbs, spanning Bucks, Delaware, Chester, and Montgomery counties. Genuardi's supermarkets became the largest, most respected, and independent supermarket in the Philadelphia region. The Genuardi's brothers hired trusted and knowledgeable employees and promoted them to management positions keeping in mind the value of a family business.

[edit] 1980s, 1990s, and 2000

Genuardi's continued to add more stores and expanded into two adjoining states, Delaware and New Jersey. But as the 1990s approached the five Genuardi's brothers decided to transfer ownership of Genuardi's to a third generation of family, which consist of Jim Jr., Joe Jr., Charles A., Larry, Tom Jr., Michael, Anthony, Skip, and David Genuardi. Charles A. was named President/CEO of Genuardi's Family Markets. The third generation of Genuardi's kept the family tradition of legendary customer service and providing the customers with the items they favored. Genuardi's continued to be very successful and was the second supermarket chain right behind Acme Markets in sales.

Genuardi's logo "Difference is our Family Pride"

[edit] Safeway buyout of Genuardi's Family Markets

In December of 2000, news spread that the Genuardi family had sold the company to Safeway Inc., based in California. Upon taking over Genuardi's, Safeway quickly rebranded their Delaware stores to the Safeway banner to incorporate them in with Safeway's Washington, D.C. division (Also known as Eastern). There were issues and local outrage over the Safeway takeover due to the fact of incredibly high prices--which has not been fixed to this day, the changeover of many products to Safeway's own brands, and the use of a "loyalty card", which was not needed under Genuardi's previous ownership. Genuardi's has remained non-union, despite heavy unionization in Safeway's other chains.

[edit] 2000s

In 2005, grocery delivery was added to select Genuardi's stores. This allows customers to order groceries via the Genuardi's/Safeway websites and have it delivered by truck in a set timeframe.

In 2006, Safeway modified the previous late '90s Genuardi's logo by moving the decorative "G" to the other side of the word Genuardi's, and a new slogan, "Ingredients For Life". This slogan is used across all of Safeway Inc's. divisions, following a massive campaign of remodeling and upgrading their stores to Safeway's "lifestyle" format. In June of 2006, it was announced that any remaining store-branded products carrying the Genuardi's name would be removed by 2007 in favor of the Safeway Select brand.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Facts/Trivia

Genuardi's has many stores in the Philadelphia suburbs, including New Jersey and Delaware. There is not one single Genuardi's inside the Philadelphia city limits, especially in South Philadelphia where there is a heavy Italian population and would seem to fit in.

Up until the Safeway buyout, Genuardi's was the only supermarket in the Philadelphia area that did not require a club card for sales and discounts.

Since the Safeway buyout, many low-volume Genuardi's stores have closed, among them the stores in Pottstown, PA, East Windsor, NJ, and Bensalem, PA. Other stores in Delaware have been converted to the Safeway format. These stores were in good locations but suffered after the takeover due to loss of customers and sales when Safeway whitewashed the previous characteristics of the stores. Two of the spaces that housed these stores have since been filled by competitors ShopRite and Giant.

[edit] Sources

• Genuardi's Family Market Employee Handbook, 1995
• Discussions with current and past employees and managers

[edit] External links

• Genuardi's Homepage