![]() ![]() The stores continued to operate as “Worth Food Marts” but were no longer “friendly home-owned stores.” In 1955 Covey sold his twenty-one Worth stores to Food Mart Inc. Covey once said to a man who had moved from east Texas to Dallas: “You’ve got only two moves to make-to Fort Worth and then to heaven.” President Covey, a past president of the chamber of commerce, had become a civic booster in the mold of Amon Carter. (Photo from University of Texas at Arlington Libraries.)īy 1949 there were sixteen Worth Food Markets. ![]() The building in the background is the Woodlea Apartments (1920). 1 ( Hedrick, 1929) at 526 South Henderson Street in 1941. Note the congratulatory ad for Boswell’s milk. ![]() General offices and warehouse were located in the Texas & Pacific freight terminal. In 1940 Worth Food Markets-now with eleven stores-celebrated their fifth anniversary. To stress that fact, in August 1935 Covey paid his employees in silver dollars, which would end up in cash registers across town-a demonstration of Worth Food Markets’ impact on the local economy. Worth Food Markets could reassure shoppers: “Yes, we are a chain, but we are a home-owned chain. Stressing “home-owned” localized the concept of chain stores. The concept of chain stores was beginning to carry the connotation of stores owned by strangers who lived elsewhere, spent their profits elsewhere. 14 on Parkhill Drive, repeated the “home-owned” mantra.īecause by 1935 outside grocery chains were setting up shop in Fort Worth: Piggly Wiggly, Safeway, Tote’m (owned by Southland Ice Company of Dallas). Likewise, this 1935 ad, featuring store no. 1 and 2 at 526 South Henderson Street and 3204 Camp Bowie Boulevard and reassured readers, “We live in Fort Worth, we buy in Fort Worth, we sell in Fort Worth” and “Worth Food Markets are friendly home-owned stores.” One of the new chain’s first ads in the Star-Telegram featured stores no. Two years later Worth Food Markets had fifteen stores. In 1933 Covey converted the Alexander-Bale and Helpy-Selfy stores into a new chain: Worth Food Markets. The Alexander-Bale company had opened two stores here in 1928. Jack Long had founded the Helpy-Selfy stores (another early chain) here in 1927. By 1933 he was president of the Alexander-Bale and Helpy-Selfy grocery stores. He worked as a clerk for Waples-Platter grocery wholesaler and in 1932 started his own grocery business.Ĭovey prospered. When Covey was fourteen his Bantam hen won a fifty-cent prize in competition at the Clifton Trade’s Day.īy 1920 Covey was living in Polytechnic. (Photo from University of Texas at Arlington Library Star-Telegram Collection.) He grew up in Bosque County, where as a boy he picked cotton. Simon Homer Covey was born in Coryell County in 1893. Three early locally owned grocery chains were Worth Food Markets, Buddie’s, and A. They had the buying power of volume and could pass that power along to consumers in the form of lower prices. They published big ads in local newspapers. They were purpose-built, usually low, flat-roofed, plain brick buildings. They were usually located on an arterial street. These stores were larger than mom-and-pop neighborhood stores and stocked a greater selection. Then came something new: locally owned chain grocery stores. Typical neighborhood stores were Franko’s on the North Side, Lidell’s on the South Side, Houlihan’s on the East Side, and Roy Pope’s on the West Side. Sometimes Mom and Pop lived above or behind their store. Many were mom-and-pop neighborhood stores located on residential streets. The vast majority of them were (1) small, (2) locally owned, and (3) one-off (not part of a chain). As this city directory list shows, in 1935 Fort Worth had hundreds of grocery stores. We can trace the beginning of our transition to 1935. And they provided a stage in our transition from shopping at small, locally owned grocery stores to shopping at big, out-of-town chain grocery stores (Target, Walmart, Sam’s, Costco, Aldi, Kroger, Whole Foods, Fiesta Mart, Albertson’s, Brookshire’s). Davis grocery stores, totaling almost one hundred, operated in Fort Worth for a combined sixty-seven years. If you lived in Fort Worth during the second half of the twentieth century, you probably shopped at these supermarkets: ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |