Foodtown

Foodtown is a northeastern supermarket cooperative founded in 1955 by Twin County Grocers in New Jersey. Like ShopRite and C-Town, each Foodtown is independently owned and operated, with some owners running multiple locations. The cooperative grew significantly through the 1980s, reaching a peak of 165 stores by 1994 and generating over $1 billion in wholesale revenue. The mid-1990s nearly ended it entirely — in 1995, Dutch retailer Ahold purchased 45 Foodtown-affiliated stores and converted them to a different banner, dealing the cooperative a severe financial blow. An embezzlement scandal within Twin County's leadership soon followed, forcing Twin County Grocers into bankruptcy in 1998. The cooperative survived, restructured, and in 2012 became the largest founding member of Allegiance Retail Services, which now handles advertising, marketing, and supplier negotiations on behalf of all member stores. Today, Foodtown operates 73 independently owned stores across New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania.