The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, better known as A&P, was an American chain of grocery stores that operated from 1859 to 2015. From 1915 through 1975, A&P was the largest grocery retailer in the United States.
A&P's final headquarters, now demolished and replaced with an upscale townhome development, in Montvale, New Jersey
George Huntington Hartford, mid-1870s
A 1888 advertisement for A&P from a Norfolk, Virginia, guidebook, listing the range of items carried
An A&P supermarket, in Snowdon, Quebec, 1941
A chain store or retail chain is a retail outlet in which several locations share a brand, central management and standardized business practices. They have come to dominate the retail and dining markets and many service categories, in many parts of the world. A franchise retail establishment is one form of a chain store. In 2005, the world's largest retail chain, Walmart, became the world's largest corporation based on gross sales.
Heritage W.H. Smith stall at Pickering railway station in North Yorkshire
Opening the first of its chain of teashops in 1894, branch of Lyons in Reading, Berkshire pictured in 1945
A Subway franchise restaurant