There were A&P’s located at several locations in Clintonville. An A&P used to be located where Blockbuster at Hudson and High Street is today. The Great American Tea Company began in the mid-1800s selling tea, coffee and spices at value prices in New York City. In 1870 the company was renamed the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, in honor of the first transcontinental railroad and hopes of expanding across the continent. It was the first national supermarket chain in the United States; by 1930 it had 16,000 stores. The company pioneered “frequent customer” programs; one of its most popular programs was plaid stamps. I remember saving up stamps and pasting them into coupon books to redeem them for things like Lazy Susans. In 1980 the company underwent a restructuring and the Tengelmann Group owns controlling interest.

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