Albers in Richmond, VA

[Dave]

In 1924, there was a Jonathan Albers in Richmond who was a supervisor for Plant-Lipford Co., the operator of the local Piggly-Wiggly stores. By 1926, Albers was operating 20 locations on his own under the name of Blue Ribbon Grocery. By 1931 the Blue Ribbon locations were gone, with six of the locations being taken over by Pender's, which had 37 locations in Richmond in 1931 as opposed to none in 1926.

Would Jonathan Albers be any relation to the Cincinnati Albers that were merged with Colonial in 1955? By 1941, there was no one listed with the name Albers at all in the city directory. Around that time, there was also an Albers Co. in Richmond that manufactured flavoring extracts - that company was also gone by the end of the 1930's.

[tobyradloff2]

Recently I picked up a book called "All American Ads 60's" and found an advertisement for "Albers Pancake Mix" in that book. (The books feature print ads from various eras that appeared in popular magazines). In the ad, Albers Pancake Mix was made by Carnation, which, I think, manufactured a full line of baking mixes under the "Albers" name...any connection with the defunct Albers supermarket chain, I don't know offhand. The Albers Pancake Mix ad in that book was dated 1960.

[rich]

There used to be a document online from a court case that laid out some history of super markets (including various early, unrelated Big Bears), but I couldn't find it today. I bring this up because it tells the story of how Michael Cullen took the idea of super marketing (although he wasn't the first to have it) to the executives of Kroger (where he worked) and they passed on it. Cullen went home to Long Island and started King Kullen. The head of Kroger at that time was William Albers---he didn't meet Cullen, but he left Kroger a couple years later and started his own chain in Cincinnati and the term "super market" is attributed to him. No mention of any connection to Richmond. Albers is a fairly common German name, so it could easily be a coincidence----many Germans in Cincinnati; not many on the East Coast, S of DC.

Albers Milling was a company that Carnation bought. Among other things, it produced Friskies pet food. Probably no relation to the Ohio chain.