Issue #104: The King Is On The Move

Last week, in writing about some of the grocery stores of the future, I stumbled upon some references to how the supermarket of today got created. It was a fascinating story. You would have thought it would have come from a Kroger, Safeway, Albertsons, Publix, etc. Nope. One of the main origins of the modern-day grocery store originated on Long Island by a small chain still operating today, known as King Kullen. It has a fascinating history and truly pioneered the grocery store of today. That was enough to get me excited to dive in. Then, this week major news dropped: The King (not LeBron James), King Kullen, was acquired by a fellow Long Island grocery store, Giunta’s Meat Farms. Before we dive into the acquisition, let’s examine how King Kullen got here.

1884 - Michael J. Cullen is born to Irish immigrants in Newark, New Jersey

1902 - He starts working at The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company and works there for 17 years

1919 - Michael switches over to Kroger Stores and eventually rises to the rank of regional manager for Southern Illinois

1930 - Cullen develops the concept for a new modern-day supermarket and writes a letter to the president of Kroger proposing a new food store with a focus on low prices, larger square footage, cash sales, no delivery service, low-rent locations, and plenty of parking

August 1930 - After the letter went unanswered, Cullen quit his job, moved his family to Long Island, and opened a store in Queens adjacent to a big shopping district with 1,000 items, from everything from automotive to groceries

1936 - Buoyed by the Great Depression, Cullen’s do-it-yourself, no-frills store grows to 17 locations when plans to nationally expand are cut short by his sudden death

1950s - New innovations like conveyor belts, air conditioning, automatically opening exterior doors, tile floors (easier to clean than wood), and in-store music systems were introduced

1960s - King Kullen goes on an acquisition spree, purchasing the nine-store Blue Jay Markets, and the Hinsch Produce Company

1982 - King Kullen launches in-store bakeries

1995 - King Kullen opened Wild by Nature, a grocery store for natural products, which now has four locations

2019 - Stop & Shop announces intent to purchase King Kullen's 32 stores and its 5 Wild by Nature stores

June 2020 - The deal falls apart due to “unforeseen changes in the marketplace”

July 2026 - Giunta’s Meat Farms, another family-owned supermarket on Long Island, is buying the grocer for an unspecified amount

For starters, let’s focus on what King Kullen pioneered. Larger stores in more warehouse-style buildings, shopping carts, national brands, free parking, lowering the total operating cost in a low margin buisness. These are just some of the many aspects of King Kullen that were quickly copied by today’s leading chains. In 1934, four years after Cullen started his store, there were fewer than a hundred of these stores in the country. Now there are tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands. However, the challenge with pioneering all these new methods is that King Kullen never truly got to capitalize on it due to Michael Cullen’s sudden death. King Kullen never ended up expanding that rapidly and just focused on its existing stores for the most part, with slow growth here and there. In the ~90 years after his death, about 35 stores were added, many of which ended up closing.

On the acquisition front, it is clear this is something that has been on the mind of the family for a little bit. Some stores have closed over the past couple of decades as the business gets more competitive and the margins continue to shrink. Plus, if not for the COVID-19 pandemic, King Kullen probably would be part of the Stop & Shop / Ahold Delizene empire. Instead, King Kullen finds a home with a like-minded, family-run company. The combined entity will run 38 stores across Long Island under three different banners. It will be interesting to see what, if any, consolidation occurs, as some of the stores may have some overlap.

In 2011, Delivery Hero was founded in Berlin, Germany. It now spans over 60 countries where it offers food ordering and delivery. Interestingly, it took a pause from 2018 to 2021 from operating in its home market after selling its German operations to a Dutch competitor Takeaway.com / Just Eat Takeaway. The Uber and Delivery Hero connections go back a while. In 2016, Delivery Hero acquired Singapore-based Foodpanda, and then in 2024 Uber tried to buy that business from Delivery Hero before being blocked by government regulators in Taiwan. Fast forward to 2026, Delivery Hero reached an agreement with Uber to be acquired for almost $15B. The addition of Delivery Hero brings Uber up to 99 markets, with 14 markets that Delivery Hero operated in prior being sold to SSW partners for $1.6B. With DoorDash aggressively making acquisitions over the past couple of years, in particular in European food delivery, it was only a matter of time before Uber made a move. Additionally, it helps Uber grow its food delivery presence, which is not as strong as its rideshare business, increasing the number of markets with both services from 34 to 58. It will be interesting to see what happens here, as well as what happens to the assets acquired by SSW Partners.

Thank you to Ed Lavery at Calebrate for sharing awesome data and insights for this section!

Smash Foods, known for its jams and protein bites, announced a funding round of $18M led by L Catterton, with participation from Eclair Partners and The Family Fund. Notably, this is just one year after a Series A raised $5.5M led by Eclair Partners. Smash Foods started as a “superfood jam”, traditional jams with chia seeds added to them. It then expanded to put the jams in other products, which has been the main catalyst for the recent explosive growth. The first filled product was protein bites filled with jam and nut butter. The latest product is a toastie, similar to a Pop-Tart, using the filled jam. L Catterton seldom gets involved in CPG, so here are some things about the retail side of the business that must have stood out to them.

The past couple of years have not been the best for Burger King, as it tried to re-invent itself for the modern consumer. In Q1 2026, that effort started to pay off, with a 5.8% increase in same-store sales compared to the prior year, at the same time. That was not enough, so Burger King United States President Tom Curtis publicly shared his phone number, or a phone number associated with him. The goal was to listen to customers and get store-level feedback. Now, based on that feedback, Burger King will be rolling out two initiatives.

In an era so focused on digital and delivery, it is refreshing to see a focus on the in-store customer. Both these initiatives are going to be costly, but have clear long-term benefits. Let’s see if this is enough to close the gap.

Every so often, Dan Frommer, of the New Consumer, and Coefficent Capital, an early-stage CPG VC fund, partner to release a consumer trends report with a CPG lens. I always find a ton of interesting insights, and I thought I would share a couple on AI and Fiber that interested me.

AI:

Fiber:

Have a favorite insight? Don’t be afraid to drop a reply!

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