Delchamps

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Delchamps was a chain of American grocery stores, based in Mobile, Alabama.

The chain was founded by Alfred Frederick Delchamps in November 1921 at the corner of Lawrence and Canal streets in Mobile, which he operated along with his brother, Oliver. The company is credited with bringing the supermarket concept to its home state in 1955.

The chain was a fixture in the middle Gulf Coast areas, with more than a hundred stores at its 1990s peak in Alabama, Mississippi, Florida and Louisiana.

In 1997, the chain was purchased by Jackson, Mississippi-based Jitney Jungle, itself a well-known brand name in its home state and neighboring Louisiana. A total of 114 Delchamps stores were purchased, with a handful being closed and another small group being re-branded as Jitney Jungle. However, the purchase and Jitney's takeover by an investment firm proved to be ill-advised, and by 1999 the combined chains went into bankruptcy. The next year some stores were sold off to competitor Winn-Dixie; most of those locations have since closed in the wake of that chain's own troubles and retrenchment toward its northern Florida base. Nineteen other locations were sold to Bruno's Supermarkets and converted to their brands. At least one location in Hoover, Alabama was later converted to a Publix supermarket.