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Richmond Area Chain Grocery Timeline

Updated 22 June 2026 (Originally published 21 June 2026)

A brief timeline of some key moments in Richmond-area chain grocery history:

1879:

  • The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company opens its first Richmond store at 709 West Broad Street.

1918:

  • The first Piggly Wiggly in Richmond opens at 116 West Broad Street.

1926:

  • The Norfolk-based David Pender Grocery Company (layer Colonial Stores) acquires Richmond’s 21-store Blue Ribbon chain.

1928:

  • Washington-based Sanitary Grocery Company (to be part of Safeway Stores within months) acquires the Richmond Piggly Wiggly and Yellow Front Stores.

1937:

  • Ukrop’s Market opens at 3111 Hull Street and becomes an affiliate of the Richmond Food Stores co-operative (later Richfood).

1938:

  • Chain supermarkets arrive in Richmond with two Pender-owned Big Star stores (at 2626 West Broad and 2405 Chamberlayne Avenue), three new A&P stores (2030 Chamberlayne Avenue, 3201 West Broad Street, and 3140 West Cary Street) and a new Sanitary store (3142 West Cary Street). Chain supermarkets will arrive in Petersburg and Hopewell within the next two years as well.

1939:

  • Lukhard and Smither open a store at 4107 Rappanhannock Street (now MacArther Avenue). The Lukhard’s chain will grow in the coming years and will shut down in 1996.

1941:

  • Sanitary Stores rebrands as Safeway.

1941 (approximately):

  • Siegel’s opens at 426 6th Street.

1947:

  • Pender’s, Big Star, and Little Star stores rebrand as Colonial Stores.

1948:

  • The Northside Foodland begins a tenure that will span 70 years at 2919 North Avenue.

1958:

  • Maryland-based Giant Food opens its first area store at Southside Plaza. While Giant will never be a major player in the area, this particular location will continue to operate inder a variety of owners and names for almost 70 years (and is still open as of this writing).

1959:

  • Food Fair opens its first Richmond location at 1640 West Broad Street.

1962 (approximately):

  • Sam Ukrop splits his stores from the rest of the family chain, ultimately adopting the Foodtown name.

1963:

  • Maxam, a discount department store chain, opens at 4717 Jefferson Davis Highway (now Richmond Highway), with a grocery department managed by Norfolk-based Farm Fresh, marking the beginning of the latter chain’s rocky tenure in Richmond. Maxam will be acquired and rebranded as King’s in 1965.

1969:

  • One of a handful of Safeway International upscale stores nationwide opens at 3507 West Cary Street in what is still known (decades after the store closed and was torn down) as the International Shopping Center.

1971:

  • Colonial Stores opens its first Big Star Foods at 5921 Midlothian Mall. Eventually all the chain’s stores will either close or rebrand to the new format.

1979:

  • Food Fair rebrands its Richmond stores as Pantry Pride, a transition which has already occurred throughout most of the chain.

1982:

  • Big Star closes its Richmond locations. Many are acquired by Chuck’s, a small local chain.

1984:

  • A&P purchases the Virginia Pantry Pride stores, retaining the name for two years.
  • The region’s first Food Lion store opens at 11304 Midlothian Turnpike.

1986:

  • A&P rebrands its area stores (including Pantry Pride) as Super Fresh.

1988:

  • Kroger opens its first area store, a Welcome Supermarket at 10400 Midlothian Turnpike. It closes after a month and is sold to Farm Fresh, which reopens it under its new format, The Grocery Store. While this will soon become the chain’s primary brand in Richmond, this particular location will soom be converted to Rack-n-Sack, Farm Fresh’s discount warehouse concept.

1992:

  • Local entrepreneur Johnny Johnson acquires four Nick’s Market stores to establish the Community Pride chain. He will eventually purchase three Farm Fresh Rack-n-Sack stores. All will close or be under different ownership by 2004.

1993:

  • Safeway exits the Richmond area. Many of its stores are acquired by Farm Fresh and become The Grocery Store outlets.

1995:

  • Farm Fresh sells half its local stores, many of them the ones it recently acquired from Safeway, to Maine-based Hannaford Brothers, which is expanding into the South. Most of Farm Fresh’s remaining The Grocery Store outlets in the area will close within a couple of years.

1996:

  • A&P begins converting most of its Super Fresh stores to the more “upscale” Farmer Jack format.

1999:

  • A&P closes the remaining Super Fresh and Farmer Jack stores and exits the region.
  • Supervalu purchases Richfood Holdings, inclduing the Richfood-owned Farm Fresh chain.
  • Hannaford Brothers is acquired by Delhaize, the Belgian owner of Food Lion. For antritrust reasons, most of the Hannaford stores are sold to Kroger, returuing that chain to the area for a more successful run.

2003:

  • The Market at Tobacco Road opens at 2320 East Main Street under the supervision of Johnny Johnson. Farm Fresh will untimately take over the store as something of a “last stand” in Richmond. It will be sold to an independent operator in 2018 when the chain folded and is as of this writing on of only a handful of stores operating under the Farm Fresh name.

2008:

  • Trader Joes and Whole Foods prepare to enter the region.

2010:

  • Ukrop’s is acquired by Royal Ahold NV and the stores are slated to be rebranded as Martin’s.

2014:

  • Aldi plans its first area store at 1776 North Parham Road.

2016:

  • Publix plans its first area store at 5400 Wyndham Forest Dr.
  • Royal Ahold NV (owner of Martin’s) and Delaize (owner of Food Lion) merge, forcing teh divestuture of the Martin’s stores. Publix acquires most of them, giving the chain an instant presence in the region.
  • Wegmans and Lidl prepare to enter the region.