National Supermarkets

 If you grew up or lived in St. Louis you know the old National Supermarket jingle by heart, “At National Supermarkets… You are Important to Us!” It has been over 13 years now since the 1995 buy-out of National Supermarkets, an icon of St. Louis that was dismantled piece by piece. Once the 2nd largest grocer in the area, it was bought-out in 1995 by Schnucks, Inc. who subsequently raped and pillaged the stores, keeping the best for themselves and letting the others go to ruin before selling them off.   

National Supermarkets Logo and Sign

This article is dedicated to National Supermarkets, the former employees and all hundreds of thousands of people who shopped there over the years. Most of the information on this page comes from old newspaper articles, past employees and my personal experiences with National.   

National Supermarkets was born out of the National Tea Company and was a subsidiary of Loblaw’s of Canada. The National Tea Company had roots dating as far back as the late 1800′s. A 1955 article courtesy of Time Magazine highlights the change and growth of the National Tea Company including the recent expansion into the Missouri market. Almost fourty years later you can read the 1994 Company Profile courtesy of the St. Louis Post Dispatch of National Supermarket’s St. Louis Headquarters.   

National Supermarkets Store with Kare Pharmacy

Do you remember the barrel days at National? It was when you could walk into National and buy things in bulk out of a barrel. It was very popular in the 1980′s and National’s parent company Loblaw was responsible for this supermarket phenomenon. Read the 1983 Time Magazine article that talked about the new buying in bulk phenomenon hitting the stores.   

Schnucks-National Buyout and Fallout

The buyout was one looked at closely by many across the country, the head of the FTC at the time wrote about the buyout in a paper she presented on ensuring a competitive marketplace. Little did she know that Schnucks would do all it could to make sure that competitiveness would be stripped as soon as the buyout was approved.   

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