Joseph E. Grosberg
| Joseph E. Grosberg | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born | December 27, 1883 |
| Died | July 25, 1970 (aged 86) Miami Beach, FL, United States |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Ethnicity | Jewish |
| Spouse | Rachel (Kadisky) Greenberg Grosberg |
| Children | Mildred Grosberg Bellin, Rosalind Cohen, Marian Champagne |
| Relatives | Jacob Grosberg (father), Anna Lasky Grosberg (mother) |
Joseph E. Grosberg (December 27, 1883 – July 25, 1970) was a pioneer in the American supermarket and wholesale foods industries. He was a founder and the president of Central Markets, a chain of grocery stores in upstate New York that established some of the first supermarkets in the United States, and is now known as Price Chopper. He was also a noted philanthropist, especially known for his support of Jewish causes as well as charitable activities in Schenectady and the Capital District of New York.
Grosberg was born in 1883 in Russia. His father, Jacob Grosberg, immigrated to the United States through Germany to avoid being drafted into the Russian Army and in doing so, changed his surname from Gans to the more-German-sounding Grosberg. After Jacob established himself in the US, he sent a cabin class ticket for his wife (and presumably his oldest child, Joseph) to join him, but as was common those days when women traveled without a male accompanying them, Anna was put into the lower-class steerage section on the ship and her cabin class accommodations given to someone else. Jacob Grosberg later hired an attorney to write a letter to the shipping company complaining about the injustice, and the cost of his wife's passage was eventually reimbursed to him.
The oldest of eight children, Joseph sold newspapers on a street corner as a young boy to help support his family. Grosberg started in the grocery business in 1903 when he and his father, Jacob Grosberg, opened a retail grocery store, J. Grosberg & Son. A year later, the younger Grosberg entered the wholesale business, bringing wholesale groceries to the Schenectady, New York area.
In 1930, Joseph Grosberg merged his wholesale business with that of Lewis Golub. In addition, he maintained the Grosberg Grocery Company of Amsterdam and headed Municipal Grocery Stores, Inc., a cooperative organization of independent grocers operating more than 400 stores throughout the New York state.
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