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The Shelby Report of the Midwest • JANUARY 2014
Schnucks Anniversary Special 1939
2014
FIRST GENERATION
–1960 Schnucks’ first Teamster of Local 688 works on the dock checking orders to ensure proper filling.
–1939 Edwin (Pop) and Anna (Mom) Schnuck open a corner confectionery at Warne and Labadie in north St. Louis. It measures about 1,000 s.f. and has a back room big enough for a meat cooler, meat racks and a meat scale for Pop’s wholesale meat business.
1945
Pop Schnuck passes.
Ed Schnuck establishes his second store at 4147 W. Carter Ave. in north St. Louis in 1945 after leaving McDonnell Aircraft following the end of World War II.
–1940 The Schnucks convert their confectionery store into a self-service grocery store.
1951
SECOND GENERATION
1961–
The debut of the new 35,000-s.f. Gravois store is the biggest and best grand opening ever held in the city of St. Louis. Offering Schnucks’ first home center with drugs, cosmetics, records, toys, socks and party supplies, it also is equipped with Schnucks’ first floral department. Schnucks runs a 12-page advertising insert in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that includes a letter from Don and Ed emphasizing the home-owned nature of Schnucks. The same ad introduces customers to Schnucks’ slogan: “The Friendliest Stores in Town.”
–1943 Mom and Pop Schnucks’ son Edward (Ed) and his wife Bernice Meyer Schnuck open their fist store at the corner of Margaretta and Taylor. –1945 Daughter Annette and husband Raymond Hanhardt take over Mom’s original store.
1963– Schnucks starts buying produce directly from California so customers have the option of buying fresh produce nearly every month of the year instead of just in the summer.
Ed Schnuck establishes his second store at 4147 W. Carter Ave. in north St. Louis in 1945 after leaving McDonnell Aircraft following the end of World War II.
Schnucks opens a 26,000-s.f. discount food store, Labor Discount, the day after closing its original flagship store on Manchester and Newstead.
Pop Schnuck purchases another store in north St. Louis near Walnut Park for his son Don, who soon will come home from the Navy.
1964– On Dec. 1, Schnucks opens its first two Food Town stores. One is in Cool Valley and the other is in Sunset Hills.
–1946 Ed establishes two additional stores in north St. Louis at Carter and Harris and the other at Page Avenue and Temple.
In June, the company opens a 29,000-s.f. store in Crestwood.
Don comes home from the Navy and he and his wife Doris begin running the store Pop Schnuck bought for him.
1965– The company now has eight Schnucks stores and two Food Town stores.
1954
Pop Schnuck opens a 2,700-s.f. store, giving him the opportunity to move from the wholesale meat business into a bigger retail enterprise.
Anna (Mom) and Edwin (Pop) Schnuck visit the Dellwood store prior to its grand opening.
–1947 Schnucks opens another location, its seventh store in eight years. The family then begins advertising as the “Schnuck 7 Markets.”
1967– Schnucks opens its third Food Town store in the River Roads Shopping Center. Its fourth Food Town store opens at Cross Keys Shopping Center. Schnucks opens its own warehouse under the name Schnuck Distributing Co. Inc. Schnucks opens its 28,000-s.f. Creve Coeur location, which is equipped with a restaurant.
–1948 Annette and Raymond Hanhardt sell the original Labadie and Warne store to focus more on their own larger store in north St. Louis. Ed and Bernice sell their three stores as well. Ed goes to work with Pop Schnuck at the “big” Manchester location.
1968– Schnucks announces its discontinuation of trading stamps. One week later the company debuts its Schnucks soldier and “Revolutionary Low Prices” campaign in print, TV, radio, direct mail and billboards. The Schnucks soldier continues to be one of the most recognized corporate symbols in the St. Louis area.
1970 Schnucks celebrates the grand opening of its first Medi Mark The Family Pharmacy at the Hampton and Gravois store.
By the end of 1948, three stores remain: the 2,700-s.f. store owned by Pop and Ed Schnuck on Manchester; Don and Doris’ store at Geraldine and Harney in north St. Louis; and Annette and Ray Hanhardt’s north St. Louis store on Shreve.
There are three more Food Town store openings by the end of 1968. Schnucks now has seven Food Town Stores and nine Schnucks Supermarkets.
–1951 Pop, Ed and Don Schnuck join in a partnership to open their first jointly-owned store. They open the Brentwood store with $1,800 cash on hand on June 18, 1951.
Schnucks opens new bakery at Bridgeton after outgrowing the Mrs. Alison’s Cookie Co. plant.
–1953 Pop, Ed and Don Schnuck incorporate as “Schnuck Giant Value Markets Inc.” out of concern that Schnucks was not a good commercial name for a grocery chain.
1970– Schnucks announces plans to open 12 new supermarkets in St. Louis and out-of-state areas over the next two years and to continue development of a 55-acre distribution complex in Bridgeton in north St. Louis County.
1971
–1954 As the number of customers grows, a 2,000-s.f. addition to the Brentwood store is needed.
Schnucks buys 25 Bettendorf-Rapp stores in St. Louis on Oct. 6, 1970. Ownership is effective Oct. 12, 1970, and the company more than doubles in size.
Remodeling of the Manchester store begins. –1955 Schnucks opens two newly constructed stores under the Schnucks Giant Value Markets name: a 10,000-s.f. store at 9474 Lackland Rd. and a 17,000-s.f. store at Chambers Road and West Florissant in Dellwood, Mo. –Mid 1950s Local unions are formed and Schnucks becomes a union company. –1957 Mom Schnuck passes. –1958 Schnucks opens a 26,000-s.f. store at Florissant and Charbonier in north St. Louis County. It is the company’s biggest store to date. When opening this store, Schnucks drops its Schnuck Giant Value Markets name and becomes Schnucks. –1959 Schnucks operates five stores and the number of associates employed by the company exceeds 200.
1969–
THIRD GENERATION 1970 Brothers Donald O. and Edward J. Schnuck lead the family’s acquisition of the Bettendorf-Rapp chain of stores.
1971– Schnucks becomes the first grocery retailer in the St. Louis area to provide unit pricing information to customers with new Tela-Price shelf tags. Schnucks continues to grow outside St. Louis by opening Venture stores in Overland Park, Kan., Independence, Mo., and Peoria, Ill. The new Bridgeton center opens and includes a 170,000-s.f. grocery/GM warehouse and 1.74 million cubic foot refrigerated/frozen foods warehouse. Craig Schnuck joins Schnucks full-time in June. By the end of 1971, Schnucks has a total of 47 Schnucks, Food Town and Venture stores and employs more than 3,000 associates in six Midwestern cities. 1972– An electronic cash register is installed at the original Woods Mill store, and a second Medi Mark pharmacy opens. UPC scannable barcodes are introduced. 1973–