George Huntington Hartford (September 5, 1833 – August 29, 1917) headed the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company (A&P) from 1878 to 1917.
[1] "To immortalize outstanding American merchants", Joseph Kennedy in 1953 commissioned a bronze bust of Hartford, four times life size, along with seven other men, in what came to be known as the Merchandise Mart Hall of Fame in Chicago.
[3] Time wrote, "the familiar red-front A & P store is the real melting pot of the community, patronized by the boss's wife and the baker's daughter, the priest and the policeman.
The New York Times, in an editorial on September 7, 2011, wrote that Hartford's sons George and John "were among the 20th century's most accomplished and visionary businessmen".
[4] The Wall Street Journal, in an editorial on August 29, 2011, wrote, "Together the brothers, neither of whom had finished high school, built what would be, for 40 years, the largest retail outlet in the world.
[6] George received minimal formal education and at age 18 sailed to Boston, Massachusetts, where he worked as a dry goods store clerk.
By 1860, the Hartford brothers returned to Augusta, Maine where John was listed in the census as a merchant and George as a box maker.
While John Hartford quickly left the firm, George joined Gilman as a clerk by 1861; he later was promoted to bookkeeper, then cashier in 1866.
[6] When the incumbent Mayor decided not to seek reelection in 1878, the local Democratic organization experienced difficulties finding a candidate and ultimately asked George Hartford.
As a Catholic, Hartford was acceptable to the large Irish and German immigrant communities, and as a businessman, he appealed to many Republicans.
Mayor Hartford was a progressive, building schools, installing electric lighting and starting a municipal water system.
Company lore is that George convinced his father to expand the product line to include A&P branded baking powder.
However, other new grocery chains were expanding more rapidly and blanketing their respective territories while the tea company's stores were spread over a much larger area.
His son, Huntington Hartford developed Paradise Island, Bahamas, founded the Gallery of Modern Art in New York City, and was one of the world's wealthiest men in the 1960s.
Mr. Hartford stepped into the battle by asserting that in 1878, Gilman give him half of the company in an unwritten partnership agreement.
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.
Food prices were a political issue in that year's presidential race and a few chains experimented with a low cost no frills format.
[1] After long debate, the elder Hartford and his first son, George agreed to John's proposal to experiment with a low cost economy store.
This marketing decision came to pass after A&P faced a lawsuit against the creators of Cream of Wheat that were angered at A&P for attempting to undercharge for their product.
Hartford also instituted a pension plan that allowed employees to invest in company stock that they could retain after retirement.