The Great A&P and the Struggle for Small Business in America (46 page)

7
. Other tea companies also added new products around this time; see Hall, “Barney Builds a Business.”

8
. Levenstein,
Revolution at the Table
, 32–33. The wartime sugar tariff, enacted in 1864, was five cents per pound, nearly 50 percent of the average import price; it fell to two cents in the 1880s; Stanwood,
American Tariff Controversies
, 129; Taussig,
Tariff History
, 285; U.S. Bureau of the Census,
Historical Statistics of the United States
, 331, 901–902. U.S. government policy in this period focused on extracting more value from sorghum, a drought-tolerant grass, rich in sucrose, which was grown across the Midwest. Sorghum was used mainly for animal feed, but the government supported a major effort to make white sugar from it. The leader of this effort was Harvey W. Wiley, chief chemist of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, who was later known for his role in winning enactment of the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. See Oscar E. Anderson,
Health of a Nation
, 27–29, 32–66.

9
. Port Chester ledger, HFF.

10
. Avis H. Anderson,
A&P
, 29, 38. Bullock, “History of the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company Since 1878,” 62, dates the sale of baking powder to 1890, but advertisements and trade cards show it was sold much earlier.

11
. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Chemistry,
Foods and Food Adulterants, Part 5: Baking Powders
(Washington, D.C., 1889), 562–66.

12
. Ibid., 588; Law, “Origins of State Pure Food Regulation,” 1117. Several A&P trade cards bore the Doremus endorsement, which was dated July 7, 1888.

13
. Levenstein,
Revolution at the Table
, 25; Smith,
Robert Gair
, 73.

14
.
AG
, February 15, 1870, carried an early advertisement for “Metropolitan Paper-Bag Manufactory, Robert Gair Manufacturer and Printer of Paper and Cotton Bags and Jobber of Paper and Twine, 143 Reade St New York.” See also Smith,
Robert Gair
, 42, 64–66, and Wilbert Henry Ruenheck, “Business History of the Robert Gair Company, 1864 to 1927” (Ph.D. diss.), 9–17.

15
. Hunt,
Fruits and Vegetables
, 9, 35, 43; U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Chemistry,
Foods and Food Adulterants, Part 8: Canned Vegetables
(Washington, D.C., 1893), 1020; Brown and Philips, “Craft Labor and Mechanization in Nineteenth-Century American Canning,” 746; Levenstein,
Revolution at the Table
, 37.

16
. Levenstein,
Revolution at the Table
, 34.

17
. Avis H. Anderson,
A&P
, 15–16, 74;
Atlanta Constitution
, October 15, 1882;
Summit County (Ohio) Beacon
, January 3, 1883.

18
. Furnas, “Mr. George & Mr. John,” 54; “Red Circle and Gold Leaf,”
Time
, November 13, 1950; John A. Hartford to Arthur Buysee, March 26, 1937, file 157, HFF.

19
.
Orange Chronicle
, March 1, 8, and 15, 1890; “Divided on Whisky,”
NYT
, June 12, 1890; “Sold Out the Ticket,”
NYT
, November 11, 1890.

5: THE DEATH OF GEORGE F. GILMAN

1
.
George F. Gilman v. Anna K. Gilman
, 52 Maine 165, 176 (1863).

2
. On Nathaniel Gilman’s death and burial, see “Deaths,”
JOC
, December 28, 1859; “Long Fight Presaged over Gilman Millions,”
NYT
, March 24, 1901; “Will of Nathaniel Gilman,”
NYT
, April 19, 1860; “For the New Surrogate, the Interminable Case of Nathaniel Gilman,”
NYT
, December 31, 1887. Joanna’s court case is
George F. Gilman v. Joanna B. Gilman
, 53 Maine 184, 193 (1865). Anna Gilman seems to have been obsessed by the belief that she and her mother were being treated unfairly and continued legal actions for many years.

3
. “Long Fight Presaged over Gilman Millions.”

4
. “George Francis Gilman Dead,”
NYT
, March 4, 1901; “Gilman’s Place of Residence a Big Issue,”
NYT
, March 13, 1901; “Black Rock Mansion Seized,”
New-York Tribune
, March 23, 1901; “Gilman’s Idiosyncrasies,”
Hartford Courant
, October 28, 1901; “The House That Premiums Built Will Fall,”
Bridgeport Post
, November 22, 1926; Mary K. Witkowski,
Bridgeport at Work
(Charleston, S.C., 2002), 83; “Gilman Horses Sold,”
New-York Tribune
, April 17, 1901.

5
. “Gilman Chattels at Auction,”
New-York Tribune
, May 16, 1901; “Frazier Gilman’s Petition,”
NYT
, April 10, 1901.

6
. “Mrs. Hall At Last Tells Her Secret,”
NYT
, April 11, 1901.

7
. “Gilman’s Tea Business,”
Hartford Courant
, October 25, 1901;
Hartford v. Bridgeport Trust Company
, 143 F. 558;
Norton v. Hartford
, 113 F. 1023 (1902).

8
. According to “Gilman Heirs Fight New Claim,”
Evening World
, June 6, 1901, the lawyer representing Gilman’s heirs asserted in court that “there was nothing in the books to show that Hartford had a dollar’s interest, and he appeared as a salaried official or employee.” “Accuses Gilman Partner,”
NYT
, June 7, 1901; “The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company Certificate of Incorporation,” HFF. Hartford’s status as a Home Insurance director is confirmed in that company’s advertisement in
NYT
, July 11, 1900, and his role at Second National Bank of Orange in
NYT
, January 10, 1901. Pierson,
History of the Oranges to 1921
, has an undated photograph of George H. after page 270.

9
. “No Tangible Assets,”
Hartford Courant
, March 26, 1901;
Bridgeport Trust Company, Administrator, Appeal from Probate
, 77 Conn. 657 (1902).

10
.
In re Administrators of the Goods
, 82 A.D. 186 (1902); “Certificate of Amendment of Charter and Increase of Capital Stock,” October 20, 1902, HFF;
Hall v. Bridgeport Trust
, 122 F. 163 (1903);
Hall v. Gilman
, 79 N.Y.S. 303 (1902); “Gilman Estate Settled,”
New-York Tribune
, July 1, 1903;
In re Administrators of the Goods
, 92 A.D. 462 (1904); “Ends Claim on Riches,”
NYT
, January 9, 1904.

11
.
AG
, August 12, 1903. The October 1902 amended certificate of incorporation lists Geo. L. Hartford as president, not George H. Hartford; it is unclear whether this was an error.

6: GEARING FOR BATTLE

1
. Financial information was included in George H. Hartford’s court filings in his request for an injunction against the Gilman estate,
Hartford v. Bridgeport Trust Company
, 143 F. 558, and was reported in “Gilman’s Tea Business,”
Hartford Courant
, October 25, 1901, and “Legal Notes,”
NYT
, April 18, 1903; David Nasaw,
Andrew Carnegie
(New York, 2006), 587.

2
. On Goldberg, Bowen, see
AG
, January 3, 1900, 10. The motto belonged to
American Grocer
and appeared just below the publication’s name.

3
. On bargaining and the social tensions involved in grocery shopping, see Tracey Deutsch,
Building a Housewife’s Paradise
, 14–22. On incorrect measures, see
AG
, October 26, 1910, 11. The advice on barrels appeared in
AG
, July 15, 1903, 8; Bacon,
Beauty for Ashes
, 75; Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture,
Annual Report, 1908
, 26–29. When the Connecticut legislature appropriated $2,500 for special tests of food purity, state officials found that 254 of 848 samples were not as claimed;
AG
, July 22, 1896. On similar tests in Minnesota, see
AG
, October 17, 1906, 10. On the hazards of cans, see
AG
, February 18, 1903, 11.

4
.
AG
, September 16, 1896, 9; October 27, 1897, 7; December 1, 1897, 8.

5
. Barger,
Distribution’s Place
, 148.

6
. Bullock, “History of the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company Since 1878,” 61–62, estimates that Great Atlantic & Pacific had approximately 150 stores in 1890 and reached 200 only in 1901. On competing chains, see Bullock, “History of the Chain Grocery Store” (Ph.D. diss.), 51–53, 60–61, 70–72; Hall, “Barney Builds a Business,” 306, 310;
AG
, July 7, 1897, 7; July 15, 1908, 14; and July 26, 1905, 6.

7
. The new Tunison Grocery Company in East Orange, New Jersey, for example, billed itself as a “low price store” at its opening in 1898.
AG
, January 26, 1898, 10; March 29, 1905, 5; June 17, 1903, 10; and November 25, 1908, 8. The Art Deco logo appears on premium coupons dated 1903 in HFF; the globe logo in
New Orleans Daily Picayune
, January 15, 1901, 1; the one-line logo in
Washington Evening Star
, January 12, 1906, 10.

8
.
AG
, April 1, 1903, 15.

9
. The claim to being a “direct importer” was made frequently in Great Atlantic & Pacific’s advertising; see, for example, the advertisement reprinted in
AG
, September 16, 1896, 9. The leading coffee importers are listed in
AG
, January 12, 1898, 22; and January 18, 1905, 26.
AG
, November 10, 1909, 23, reports Great Atlantic & Pacific receiving relatively modest consignments of coffee aboard two steamships arriving from Santos, Brazil. On the battle between the coffee and the sugar interests, see “The Sugar-Coffee Fight,”
NYT
, October 6, 1898, and
AG
, October 14, 1896; December 23, 1896; January 20, 1897; and January 3, 1900.

10
. Reported inventory at the time of George Gilman’s death was over $830,000, and monthly sales were slightly above $400,000; “Gilman’s Tea Business.”
AG
, February 1, 1905, 7, cited an unnamed grocery in a “great manufacturing center” that turned its stock eleven times a year, versus six times for Great Atlantic & Pacific. By comparison, food retailers in the late twentieth century typically carried inventories equal to about three weeks’ sales.

11
. The store count was given as 198 in June 1903, when a federal judge approved the terms of the Hartfords’ takeover; “Gilman Estate Settled,”
New-York Tribune
, July 1, 1903. The company is estimated to have had 450 stores by 1912; see Avis H. Anderson,
A&P
, 18. The number of wagon routes is taken from
Jersey City of To-Day
(Jersey City, 1910), 105; see also Bullock, “History of the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company Since 1878,” 65. One example of the company’s new advertising style appeared in the
New York Evening World
, March 28, 1904.

12
. Rick James, “Warehouse Historic District, Jersey City, NJ, State & National Registers of Historic Places Nomination,” 2003,
www.jclandmarks.org/nomination-warehousedistrict.shtml
, accessed June 1, 2009;
Jersey City of To-Day
, 105.

13
. J. C. Furnas, “Mr. George & Mr. John,”
Saturday Evening Post
, December 31, 1938, 38.

14
. Avis H. Anderson,
A&P
, 16, has a 1903 photograph of a store promoting A&P Elgin Creamery butter. A&P gelatin was advertised in the
Daily Picayune
, June 15, 1901, 1. Grandmother made one of her earliest appearances in
Cleveland Medical Gazette
3 (1888), 290.

15
. On the use of the A&P brand in newspaper advertising, see
AG
, October 31, 1906, 14; lima bean prices are from
AG
, October 30, 1912, 14. On manufacturer resistance, see
AG
, March 18, 1908, 9.

16
. Wage and price measurements were primitive in the early twentieth century, but the government’s Bureau of Labor estimated that wages rose significantly faster than food prices; see
AG
, July 22, 1908, 10. On canned salmon, see
AG
, September 15, 1909, 32. On Uneeda Biscuits,
AG
, May 29, 1907, 10.

17
. Photographs of stores showing premium selections are in Avis H. Anderson,
A&P
, 15–16. The coupons were published in various shapes and sizes; HFF owns a selection.

18
. Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., “Premium Catalog” (n.d., but after 1907), HFF. The catalog includes a large selection of furniture, including a couch-bed (650 points) and a carved rocking chair with an imitation leather seat (367 points). Customers who aspired to such gifts would have needed to collect coupons for years. On the relationship with Sperry & Hutchinson, see
AG
, June 5, 1912, 14.

19
.
AG
, May 3, 1911, 8.

20
.
AG
, July 17, 1907, 8.

21
.
AG
, January 24, 1900, 7; February 8, 1902, 10; December 5, 1906, 12; U.S. Senate, Committee on Post Office and Post Roads,
Hearings of the Subcommittee on Parcel Post Under Sen. Res. 56
, November–December 1911 (Washington, D.C., 1912), 22, 29, 404–42. Retailer opposition delayed enactment of a parcel-post law until 1912.

22
.
AG
, January 28, 1903, 6; January 4, 1905, 12; June 7, 1905, 6; October 18, 1905, 10; January 10, 1906, 7; July 4, 1906, 7; September 12, 1906, 8; January 1, 1908, 8; May 5, 1909, 8.

23
. Resolution of Boston Wholesale Grocers Association, January 20, 1908, RG 233, Records of the U.S. House of Representatives, 60th Cong., Petitions and Memorials, Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, box 703, HR60A-H16.3, NARA-LA;
AG
, January 4, 1905, 8; August 7, 1912, 7.