[1] IGA was started in May 1926 when a group of 100 independent retailers in Poughkeepsie, New York, and Sharon, Connecticut, led by J. Frank Grimes, organized themselves into a single marketing system.

Today, many IGA grocery stores are still located in smaller cities and towns throughout the United States.

The company supplies groceries, promotional materials, and other things to a large number of locally-owned Australian supermarkets and a few other brands like Foodland and Friendly Grocer.

In Canada (apart from British Columbia), IGA is a group of independent grocers supplied by Sobeys, which franchises the name.

The IGA operations in Atlantic Canada were sold to Loblaw Companies Limited (except for Edmundston, Shediac and Dieppe, which runs as IGA-Co-op, previously acquired by Sobeys New Brunswick) and were restructured under its existing brands.

[5][6] IGA Extra locations are larger and carry a wider variety of general merchandise, more akin to the hypermarket model.

They include a pharmacy, large bakery, a bank, a bistro, a post office, and a larger selection of food items.

IGA Extra launched in the early 2000s to take the place of Sobeys locations in the Quebec City and Montreal areas.

The store has 47 locations in the country, mostly in Metro Manila and Luzon - from Gapan, Nueva Ecija in the north to Tanauan, Batangas in the south.