First delicatessens in United States

Delicatessen is an adaptation, borrowing from the French, and German words referring to the place where one bought delicatesse, ‘delicious things’, such as cured meats and cheese. Germans prefer to open so-called delicatessens, retail stores that sold specialty food items.

According to Artemas Ward chronicler of the nineteenth century grocery trade, the first delicatessen in America opened on Grand Street in New York City around 1868. At that time, Manhattan’s Lower East had a substantial German immigrant population.

The deli evolved from an effort of the residents who began selling homemade foods from their tiny tenement apartments and pushcarts. At some point, the first budding entrepreneur saw a business opportunity and moved the home or mobile operation into storefront.

At the delicatessens, one could grocery shop for kosher foods, fresh meats, salads, fish, bread, pickles, knishes and other products or sit at the counter or tables to enjoy a gargantuan corned beef sandwich or piece of cheesecakes. German delicatessens stores in New York did a brisk business especially at Christmas time by purveying dozens of kind of sausages, smoked goose breast, apricot jam, honey cake and plum duff.

Delicatessens attracted not only German Americans but also passerbies who were enticed by the windows displaying foreign and ‘fancy’ foods.

As the flood of German immigrants into New York continued into the 1920s, the German delicatessen evolved. Some of the delis began to look less like meat shop and more like restaurants. Although centered in New York, where there were over five thousands delis by the mid 1930s, these institutions quickly spread across the United States.
First delicatessens in United States

Early days of 7-Eleven

In 1927 Southland Ice Company, 7-Eleven’s predecessor was founded. Customers of the 21 ice houses parked their automobiles beside elevated wooden docks, where blocks of ice were tied to their running boards.

In addition to selling blocks of ice to refrigerate food, an enterprising ice dock employees began offering milk, bread and eggs on Sundays and evenings when grocery stores were closed.

This notably cut back on the demand to journey prolonged spaces to the foodstuff stores for fundamental articles.

In the 1930s, Southland vertically integrated by acquiring its first milk-processing plant, Oak Farm Dairies in Dallas.

Later, to meet the unique shopping pattern of early morning and night shift workers, the store further extended the business hours to 24 hours a day and seven days a week and so the convenience store concept was born.

In 1946 the company changed the name of the stores to 7-Eleven, which reflected its hours of operation.

However the great depression in 1931 plunged Southland into bankruptcy. Despite the financial confusion, profits from the Southland Stores continued to climb, and with the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, ice and beer sales surged.

Beginning in 1964, 7-Eleven began selling coffee to go. Two years later 7-Eleven began selling Slurpees.

The company also began to increase its geographic reach, first in Texas, then in the United States, and finally throughout the world.
Early days of 7-Eleven

History of Hy-Vee

The Midwest grocery store chain known today as Hy-Vee, Inc., started in Beaconsfield in 1930.  Charles Hyde and David Vredenburg already had separately owned or managed several stores in Iowa and Missouri before starting their partnership's first store, in Beaconsfield, Iowa, that sold groceries and dry goods such as clothing.

For a few years both founders continued to run separate stores and stores with other partners, while also running some stores together.

However, in 1934 these general stores with such names as The Supply Stores, Hyde Service Store, and Vredenburg Grocery began selling only groceries.

They incorporated in 1938 and adopted the Hy-Vee name in 1952. It was a combination of their last names.

The new identity chose Dwight Vredenburg, 23 year old son of David Vredenburg, as its president. Its 1938 annual sales were about $1.5 million. By the end of 11939, there were 23 stores of Hy-Vee.

In the 1970s Hy-Vee continued to grow by opening new stores, building more warehouse space, and adding new technology. A 1971 addition of 78,000 square feet brought the total capacity of the Chariton warehouse up to 430,000 square feet.

Hy-Vee entered the Kansas City in 1988 and in 1997, purchased seven former Shmucks Markets to convert to Hy-Vee.
History of Hy-Vee