A&P was America's grocery icon that filed bankruptcy twice in five years

The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, known as A&P, was founded in 1859 in New York City. It grew into the largest grocery retailer in the United States, with 15,000 stores at its 1930 peak and $2.9 billion in annual sales. For decades it was an icon of American retailing — the company that invented the modern supermarket format.

A&P's decline was long and self-inflicted. For generations the company distributed most of its profit as dividends and resisted debt, which starved the business of capital for store investment. It focused heavily on its own private-label manufacturing while customers increasingly wanted national brands. Competitors like Walmart expanded aggressively, drawing customers away. By the 2000s, A&P was a shadow of its former self but still operating hundreds of stores.

The decisive blow came in 2007, when A&P paid $1.4 billion to acquire Pathmark, a struggling competing chain in the same Northeast markets. The acquisition loaded A&P with debt at exactly the wrong moment — the Great Recession hit, and the integration was poorly managed. A&P filed for Chapter 11 in December 2010, listing $2.5 billion in assets against $3.2 billion in debt. It emerged in early 2012 as a private company owned by its creditors, but the recovery was short-lived.

Sales continued to fall, and the debt burden was still too heavy. On 19 July 2015, A&P filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy a second time. It immediately closed 25 stores and began selling off its remaining locations — 76 stores to Albertsons, 25 to Stop & Shop, 23 to Key Food, and others. By 25 November 2015, all A&P supermarkets had closed. A 156-year-old American institution, once the world's largest retailer, was liquidated entirely.