Kings Food Markets is an upscale food market chain headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey, with stores in northern New Jersey, Long Island New York, and Connecticut. Founded in 1936, Kings was bought by UK retailer Marks & Spencer in 1988 and later sold to a US investor group consisting of Angelo, Gordon & Co. and MTN Capital Partners LLC in 2006.
Kings operates today in a competitive market in New Jersey alongside other chains such as ShopRite and Stop & Shop. Many features of today's mid-market stores have been offered at Kings for decades. The chain operates either in, or in close proximity to, affluent suburban towns, and its stores offer a mix of traditional and upmarket grocery items. Kings also offers "COOKINGSTUDIO" cooking classes at its Short Hills, NJ location.
In the 1980s, Kings was one of the last supermarket chains to offer traditional S&H Green Stamps.
Kings was acquired by the British firm Marks and Spencer plc in 1988 but achieved little in terms of expansion into new affluent markets. Marks and Spencer plc later made a number of attempts to sell the chain, putting its desire to further invest in the chain into doubt. New York-based Gristedes made a bid for Kings, but the chain was eventually sold in 2006 to a US investor group.
In 2009, King's acquired Balducci's.
Famous quotes containing the words kings and/or markets:
“As great as kings may be, they are what we are: they can err like other men.”
—Pierre Corneille (1606–1684)
“When the great markets by the sea shut fast
All that calm Sunday that goes on and on:
When even lovers find their peace at last,
And Earth is but a star, that once had shone.”
—James Elroy Flecker (1884–1919)