Editing Supermarket (section)

===Early experiments in building large stores and chain stores===

The concept of an inexpensive food market relying on economies of scale was developed by [[Vincent Astor]], but he was ahead of his time. He founded the [[Astor Market]] in 1915, investing $750,000 of his fortune into a 165′ by 125′ (50×38-metre) corner of 95th and Broadway, [[Manhattan]], creating, in effect, an open-air mini-mall that sold meat, fruit, produce and flowers.<ref>{{cite web|title=Opening of the Astor market, New York City, 1915|url=https://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3c06967/|publisher=[[Library of Congress]]|year=1915}}</ref> The expectation was that customers would come from great distances ("miles around"), but in the end, even attracting people from ten blocks away was difficult, and the market folded in 1917.<ref>{{cite magazine| magazine=The Western Fruit Jobber|volume=IV|title=The Retailer| issue=3|date=July 1917|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yRMkAQAAIAAJ&q=%22astor%20market%22&pg=RA2-PA52}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|work=The New York Times|title=The Astor Legacy in Brick and Stone|last=Gray |first=Christopher|date=10 September 2006}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |work=The New York Times|title=Streetscapes: Thalia Theater; a closed revival house that may itself be revived|last=Gray|first=Christopher|date=5 July 1987 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/07/05/realestate/streetscapes-thalia-theater-a-closed-revival-house-that-may-itself-be-revived.html}}</ref>

[[The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company]] (A&P), which was established in 1859, was an early grocery store chain in Canada and the United States. It became common in North American cities in the 1920s. Early chains like A&P did not sell fresh meats or produce. During the 1920s, to reduce the hassle of visiting multiple stores, U.S. grocery store chains like A&P introduced the combination store.<ref name="Levinson_Page_127">{{cite book |last1=Levinson |first1=Marc |title=The Great A&P and the Struggle for Small Business in America |date=2011 |publisher=Hill and Wang |location=New York |isbn=9781429969024 |page=127 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZphE-pqXb1wC&pg=PA127 }}</ref><ref name="Deener_Page_72">{{cite book |last1=Deener |first1=Andrew |title=The Problem with Feeding Cities: The Social Transformation of Infrastructure, Abundance, and Inequality in America |date=2020 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |location=Chicago |isbn=9780226703077 |page=72 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=98byDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA72 |access-date=January 8, 2023}}</ref>  This was a grocery store which combined several departments under one roof, but generally maintained the traditional system of clerks pulling products from shelves on request.<ref name="Levinson_Page_127" /><ref name="Deener_Page_72" />  By 1929, only one in three U.S. grocery stores was a combination store.<ref name="Deener_Page_72" />