Carl Sr. believed that if he could sell milk through his own store, he would not have to deal with delivery middlemen and thus pass the resulting savings on to customers.

The first United Dairy Farmers store, at 3955 Main Avenue (now Montgomery Road) in Norwood, Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati, opened on May 8, 1940.

[2] Today, the chain has stores throughout the Greater Cincinnati area as well as Dayton, and Columbus.

Since 2001, many locations have sold gasoline under the Mobil brand, but are now supplying their own fuels via purchasing through independent wholesalers.

[5] In April 2017, UDF left the Cleveland market and sold its four stores to Uptown Mart.