Foodtown (United States)
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| Supermarket cooperative | |
| Founded | 1955 |
| Headquarters | Iselin, New Jersey, U.S. |
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Number of locations
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73 |
| Products | Bakery, dairy, deli, frozen foods, grocery, meat, pharmacy, produce, seafood, snacks, liquor |
| Parent | Allegiance Retail Services |
| Website | Foodtown.com |
Foodtown is a northeastern United States supermarket cooperative founded in 1955 by Twin County Grocers. Currently, there are 73 Foodtown stores in New Jersey, New York and eastern Pennsylvania. Foodtown's corporate offices are located in Iselin, New Jersey.
Much like other retailers cooperatives, such as ShopRite, each Foodtown is independently owned and operated, with some owners operating multiple stores. Foodtown's parent company, Allegiance Retail Services, supplies Foodtown-branded items and acts as a supplier for other independent grocers that do not operate under the Foodtown banner.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Foodtown was a major grocer on Long Island and in New Jersey. In 1994, Foodtown's parent company, Twin County Grocers, was headed by Martin Vitale and was supplying 165 Foodtown stores, resulting in a wholesale revenue of over $1 billion. Mayfair Supermarkets and Melmarkets operated 45 of those stores, and combined were the cooperative's two largest owners.
In the mid-1990s, two major incidents nearly resulted in the demise of the Foodtown cooperative. The first incident came in 1995, when the Dutch retailer Ahold purchased all of the Foodtown stores operated by Melmarkets and Mayfair Supermarkets. Shortly following the purchase, the 45 supermarkets were converted to Ahold's Edwards Super Food Stores. As these stores made up nearly half of Twin County Grocers' volume, the cooperative took a severe financial hit. The second incident came when, in the chaos resulting from the Ahold purchase, a scandal was uncovered where members of Twin County's corporate hierarchy were found to have been embezzling money from the cooperative.
In 1998, the lost volume from the Ahold acquisition and damage from the embezzlement scandal forced Foodtown's parent, Twin County Grocers, into bankruptcy. Following these events, many Foodtown stores converted to other banners or simply closed.
The Twin County CEO, Martin Vitale, eventually pleaded guilty to stealing $4.2 million from the cooperative, as well as bribing a leader in the United Food and Commercial Workers union in New Jersey. In 2004, Foodtown closed its supply warehouse.
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