A native of Waterville, Maine, he moved to New York City when he joined his father's leather tanning business.
Initially he opened stores in New York City and also operated a nationwide mail order business selling tea and coffee.
[2] Born in Waterville, Maine, George Gilman came from a wealthy family that traced its ancestry back to the Mayflower.
That year, George Gilman's firm entered the tea and coffee business using the storefront at his Gold Street warehouse.
"[3] The A&P Historical Society describes early stores as "resplendent emporiums" painted in vermilion and equipped with a large gas light T sign.
A clerk stood behind a long counter to serve customers (self-service did not become common until the 1930s) and the cashier's station was shaped like a Chinese pagoda.
[4] While Gilman continued to provide the marketing concepts, he came to rely on the management skills of George Huntington Hartford (1833–1917).
However; by 1871 Hartford was in a position of authority and was dispatched by Gilman to open a store in Chicago after the great fire.
By then, the firm operated 70 lavishly-equipped stores and a mail order business with combined annual sales of $1 million ($31,572,414 today).
[2] After his wife died the next year, Gilman became even more eccentric by removing all clocks and mirrors so he would not be reminded that he was becoming older.
[2] Gilman never had children and died from nephritis in March 1901 without a will, starting a legal battle among his numerous heirs.
Evidence provided to the court established that Hartford received half of A&P's profits since 1878 and that all of the company's leases were in his name.