Business history: Top 10 US retailers in 1957

 

Retail sales:  Business Week, 5/10/1958

'The Food Chains Lead the Way"

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Related reading:

Whatever Happened To A&P Grocery Stores?  (Tasting Table, 10/22/2023)

A&P had grown by driving smaller stores out of business with low prices, but it couldn't keep up with the competition. The company was slow to expand from cities into the new suburbs in the post-war period, and larger grocery stores that offered more convenience — with a better selection of non-food items like cleaning supplies — picked away at its market share. Through the latter half of the decade, A&P was criticized for its refusal to innovate. It stayed focused on basics like eggs and milk as other stores started offering more specialty products that appealed to evolving tastes. Stores also retained a dated appearance and branding, even as higher-end stores like Whole Foods offered a brighter, more inviting environment. By the time A&P filed for its first bankruptcy in 2010, it had only 395 stores, mostly back in the Northeast. Read More: 

Who Killed Sears? Fifty Years on the Road to Ruin.  (Investopdia, 3/3/2024)

In 1969, Sears, the largest retailer in the world, began construction on the world's tallest skyscraper. The Sears' Tower's completion four years later may not mark the company's peak, but its retail dominance began to fade around that time. In the 1980s, it adopted a "socks and stocks" strategy, expanding into financial services beyond its existing insurance business. In 1981, the company purchased Dean Witter Reynolds Organization Inc., a stockbroker, and Coldwell, Banker & Co., a real estate broker. It launched Discover Card through Dean Witter in 1985.

Note card from late 1970s