How 10 Popular Grocery Stores Actually Got Their Names
How did our favorite grocery store chains get their names? And was there, dare I say, some drama involved? One could only hope. As I soon found out, there are plenty of reasons to pop some popcorn and go down this rabbit hole with me to find out how the names Aldi, Walmart, Costco, H-E-B, and more came to be.
So with the voracity I typically reserve for binging seasons of Real Housewives, I discovered a lot of good dirt for all of the other food-word nerds out there. Here’s how some of the most famous and cheapest grocery store chains got their names (and in some cases almost lost them).
1. Walmart
Walmart was started by Sam Walton of the Walton Family, who first opened a store called Walton’s Five & Dime in Oklahoma City during the 1950s. Twelve years later, he opened a single “Wal-Mart Discount City” store in Rogers, Arkansas. The name combined the first three letters of Walton’s last name with the word “mart,” a shortened version of “market.” Eventually, Walton dropped the “Discount City” (as well as the dash), way more Walmarts were opened, and the rest is history!
2. Costco
Fun fact: The first “Costco” (then known as Price Club) was opened in 1976 and operated in a San Diego converted airplane hangar. Costco and Price Club would eventually merge in the ’80s, briefly becoming PriceCostco (I know), and then dropping the “Price” (because yes, the Price family was also exiting the business). In 1997, all Price Clubs became Costco locations, becoming the low-Cost Company (get it?) that still stands today.
3. Aldi
A pair of German brothers are who we have to thank for both Aldi and Trader Joe’s. Those brothers in question were named Theo and Karl Albrecht, and both were pretty obsessed with being frugal. Well, that absolutely translated to the naming Aldi, the increasingly popular no-frills grocer. Similar to Walmart, Aldi combines the first two letters of the brothers’ last name “Albrecht” with the German word for “discount” (which is “Diskont”).
4. Trader Joe’s
While Trader Joe’s very much seems like it could be an imaginary character like Ronald McDonald or the Easter Bunny, the store is actually named after a Trader by the name of Joe who first started the grocer. His name was Joe Coulombe, and he opened the first Trader Joe’s store in Pasadena as a way to offer products that could be found on the so-called “culinary high seas.” This is also why employees wear tropical shirts and communicate by bell, as if they’re on a boat. The more you know!
5. Target
It’s hard to believe, but Target didn’t have a name until just a few months before its doors first opened in 1962. As the story goes, the director of publicity, Stewart K. Widdess was tasked with coming up with the name and identity of this new store. His team considered 200 options in total, with a so-called “flash of red-and-white inspiration” leading them to the word “target” and a bull’s eye as its logical logo.
6. Kroger
Much like many others on this list, Kroger is named after its founder (Barney Kroger, in this case) and thankfully has a much shorter name now. In 1883, Kroger invested his life savings of $372 (over $11,000 dollars today) to open a single grocery store in Cincinnati. The name of the store was originally known as “B.H. Kroger & Co., proprietors of The Great Western Tea Co.,” which thankfully was whittled down to “Kroger Grocery & Baking Co” and again to just our beloved “Kroger.”
7. H-E-B
Okay, deep down I may still have the sense of humor of a 7-year-old, but the origin of H-E-B’s name really gave me a chuckle. The history is pretty to the point, too; it’s simply named after Howard E. Butt, the son of the founder, wait for it, Florence Butt. I’ve just got to say, bless the Butt family, and bless their lovely grocery store chain.
8. Lidl
Some names simply just won’t work for a grocery market, and that’s a fun part of the story behind Lidl. In the 1930s, two business partners named Josef Schwarz and A. Lidl owned a food wholesaler business called Lidl & Schwarz. Once Josef passed in 1977, his son Dieter found he could not legally use the Lidl name to name his stores — nor could he use his own last name (“Schwarz markt” means “black market” in German). So Dieter purchased the rights of the name from a Lidl descendant for 1,000 German marks (around $530 bucks), and the Lidl name got to stay.
9. Publix
As someone who essentially grew up inside of a Publix (eating many free cookie samples), I am shocked I never knew the origin of the store’s name. As I found out, it’s pretty anticlimactic. Apparently the store’s founder (George Jenkins) was fond of a theater chain that was also named Publix, so he simply gave his stores the same name. Really! He named his original stores “Publix Food Market,” which then grew and expanded into the Publix Super Markets where one can still enjoy many, many cookie samples and pub subs.
10. Whole Foods
Unlike many of the other stores, Whole Foods is not named by any founder but is simply just advertising what is inside: whole (primarily organic) foods. Whole Foods was first opened in the 1980s when four Austinite business people dreamt up a natural foods store, but with supermarket power. At the time there were less than half a dozen natural food stores in the U.S., so Whole Foods quickly won over a whole lot of hearts.
What grocery stores should we add to the list? Tell us about it in the comments below.
Further Reading
We Asked 3 Chefs to Name the Best Ice Cream, and They All Said the Same Thing
The One Cookware Brand That Gordon Ramsay Can’t Stop Talking About
