C&S Wholesale Grocers

C&S Wholesale Grocers is an American wholesale distributor of food and grocery store items with its headquarters in Keene, New Hampshire, United States. C&S is the tenth-largest privately held company in the United States, as listed by Forbes. C&S owns the Piggly Wiggly grocery brand (which is independently franchised to store operators) as well as the Best Yet private label brand. C&S is the largest wholesale grocery distributor in the United States, based on revenue.

C&S provides more than 95,000 (SKUs) food and nonfood items to 5,000 corporate customers, including produce, meat, dairy products, delicatessen products, fresh/frozen bakery items, health and beauty aids, candy, and tobacco. C&S has 14,000 associates in 15 states, and storage space of more than 15 million square feet.

C&S customers include Giant-Carlisle, Giant-Landover, Stop & Shop, Safeway Inc., Winn-Dixie, Target Corporation, and independent store/supermarket owner/operators.

C&S was founded by Israel Cohen and Abraham Siegel in 1918 in Worcester, Massachusetts. It began as a small grocery distribution center in a three-story building on Winter Street. In 1929 the original building flooded, prompting a move to a new, larger location on Hygeia Street. In the 1940s, as the popularity of supermarkets grew, C&S made several improvements to their distribution process including a warehouse "roller system", and staffing trucks with one employee who acts as driver and salesman, thus cutting delivery costs in half.