Groceteria.com

Just wondering if any of you might have any knowlege if there was ever a connection between National Tea and the Big Bear stores of northern North Carolina. I keep finding snippets that refer to "National Food Stores" as the parent company of Big Bear/NC in the 1960s, but I know it was also regarded as a locally-owned chain, founded by the Hutchens family.

Big Bear rebranded as Food World (no relation to the deep south chain of the same name) in about 1972, and was acquired by Ruddick Corp. and merged into its Harris-Teeter chain in 1984. The stores were centered in the NC Triad and parts of southern Virginia.

Any National Tea experts have any idea if there was ever a North Carolina operation? I know that National had a habit of purchasiing regional chains and continuing to operate them under their own names.

BTW, the Big Bear stores in NC were definitely NOT affiliated with any of the other assorted Big Bear chains around the country.

In case anyone cares, I found my answer.

The National Foods in question here was purely local and was established in the 1920s by one George Hutchens. He operated stores in High Point NC under the National Foods name until he moved to the supermarket format in the late 1930s, using the Big Bear banner (which he stole from the OH/PA/WV chain of the same name). However, he retained National Foods as the name of the company. There was no connection with National Tea.

Hutchens stopped using the Big Bear name and switched to Food World about 1971. I suspect this happened because the geography of the chain was trending northward into Virginia, and Hutchens wanted to be prepared should his trade area ever overlap with the "other" Big Bear chain.

Ironically, there was a "Food World" in Columbus' Big Bear country in the 70s. It was an entity that took over former Albers & Big Star stores in Cincinnati & Columbus. It didn't last long.

The Big Bear name originated in an early super market in NJ that predated the Columbus chain: http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:7ca ... cd=6&gl=us