Brookshire Grocery Company

International Directory of Company Histories, Volume 74 (2003) by Jason Gallman, Ed Dinger

Brookshire Grocery Company

1600 West South West Loop 323 P.O. Box 1411 Tyler, Texas 75710 U.S.A. Telephone: (903) 534-3000 Fax: (903) 534-2206 Web site: http://www.brookshires.com

Private Company Incorporated: 1928 Employees: 12,000 Sales: $1.9 billion (2003 est.) NAIC: 445110 Supermarkets and Other Grocery (Except Convenience) Stores

The Brookshire Grocery Company operates more than 150 supermarkets in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. In addition to the standard fare of grocery items, company stores feature specialty departments including bakeries, delicatessens, floral shops, fresh fish and seafood counters, salad bars, and pharmacies. Many of the stores also sell gasoline. Long known for its concentration on customer service, the Texas-based company has three main operations: Brookshire Grocery, full-service supermarkets, which average around 40,000 square feet; Super 1 Stores, a no-frills, self-service warehouse format, which range from 80,000 to 100,000 square feet; and Ole Foods, supermarkets that cater to the Hispanic market. The nearly $2 billion company also boasts two distribution centers, two bakery plants, a dairy plant, a fleet of some 350 trucks, and its own manufacturing complex. Founded during the late 1920s, the company is widely respected for its long tradition of friendly service, clean stores, and technological innovation.

Early History

The humble origins of the Brookshire Grocery Company date back to 1928 and a 25-foot x 100-foot store in Tyler, Texas. The store was one of several stores in east Texas operated by the company's founder, Wood T. Brookshire, and his five brothers under the name Brookshire Brothers. The Brookshire brothers set out to build a local chain of grocery stores at a time when the chain store concept, which originated in the latter half of the 19th century with grocery giants such as the Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company (A & P) and the Kroger Company, had captured the imagination of many aspiring entrepreneurs. With mammoth chains such as A & P adding 10,000 stores during the decade, the Brookshire brothers attempted to build their own grocery empire by carving out a profitable niche in the east Texas market.

In keeping with the most progressive grocers of the era, the Brookshires adopted the self-service concept in their first stores. Customers, instead of first placing an order for a sales clerk to fill, made their own selections while following a more or less prescribed path designed to expose them to the appeal of the goods on the shelves. This innovative strategy, the forerunner to the modern supermarket, enabled grocers like the Brookshires to reduce operating expenses and, in turn, cut prices and build a strong customer base.

During the early 1930s, the supermarket gradually replaced the small grocery store. Like other grocers of the period, Brookshire operated its stores on a self-service basis and furnished its customers with larger displays of a wide variety of groceries as well as fresh meats, fruits, and vegetables. By dealing in a larger volume, the company was able to market its goods at aggressively low prices, while increasing profits and expanding its business.

In 1939, the Brookshire brothers dissolved their partnership, and Wood became the sole owner of three stores in Tyler, known by the trade name Brookshire's Food Stores, which later became the foundation for the 100-store company of the 1990s. Despite the economic hardships of the Great Depression, the company managed to expand its operations through the late 1930s: By the end of the decade, the fledgling grocery chain had opened its fourth store in the Tyler and Longview area, including the first air-conditioned store in east Texas.

The Postwar Period

The years following the war, however, also brought a new challenge to Brookshire Grocery and the rest of the industry. For more than a century, grocery stores were located on the Main Streets of the country and the downtown areas of large cities. As the population shifted from the cities to the suburbs following the war, though, serious parking problems arose in traditional shopping areas, creating the need for a new retail facility and a new grocery store location: the suburban shopping center. Not to be left behind by this change in the industry, Brookshire constructed its first shopping center store before the close of the 1940s.

With the favorable economic conditions of the 1950s and the Eisenhower years, came further expansion for the company. To keep up with the growing demand from new stores in Corsicana, Marshall, Paris, Greenville, and Mt. Pleasant, Brookshire constructed its first grocery warehouse in 1953. With the onset of a new decade, the 17-store chain extended its operations beyond the Texas state line for the first time, venturing into the Louisiana market and opening stores in Bossier City and Natchitoches. New stores in Wills Point, Terrell, Palestine, and Mineola, Texas, brought the total number of Brookshire stores to 31 by the end of the decade. In 1968, to better supply these existing stores and prepare for continued growth, the company erected a 175,000-square-foot distribution center in Tyler.