Michael J. Cullen (1884–1936) was an American entrepreneur and salesman known as the founder of the King Kullen grocery store chain, widely considered to be the first supermarket founded in America. He is recognized by the Smithsonian Institution as the inventor of the modern supermarket.
History
Cullen was born in 1884 as the child of Irish immigrants. His surname derives from the Irish name O' Cuileannain or Ó Cuilinn. He joined The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company in 1902 at the age of 18 and worked for the firm for 17 years. In 1919, Cullen joined Kroger Stores and worked for the company until 1930. While working as a Kroger regional manager in southern Illinois, he developed the idea of a supermarket. In 1930, at age 46, he wrote a letter to the president of Kroger, proposing a new type of food store with a focus on low prices, larger square footage, cash sales, no delivery service, and low-rent locations with plenty of parking. Cullen dramatically proclaimed: "I would lead the public out of the high-priced houses of bondage into the low prices of the house of the promised land."
Cullen's letter went unanswered. The store carried a range of approximately 1,000 items, including automotive accessories and hardware, as well as groceries. Success was rapid. People came from miles around. To many of his customers, Cullen offered convenient and affordable food. Bold newspaper ads described the store as the "World's Greatest Price Wrecker." One sign of the supermarket's success in slashing labor costs, overhead, and food prices was that the percentage of disposable income spent by American consumers on food plunged "from 21 percent in 1930 to 16 percent in 1940".
Meanwhile, King Kullen continued to grow and expand through the leadership of Cullen's wife and the support of family members. However, relative to competitors, its rate of growth has been slow. From 17 stores in 1936, the firm grew to 52 stores in 2009 (effectively 35 stores in 73 years). As of 2010, King Kullen was the 72nd largest supermarket chain in the United States, with 52 stores and US$940m in sales in 2009. It is currently owned and operated by the third generation of Cullen's descendants.
As of October 2016, the chain has 34 King Kullen locations, and also operates five "Wild by Nature" natural and organic markets.
See also
- Piggly Wiggly, pioneered self service in 1916