New Deal Supermarket - History of New Deal Brand

History of New Deal Brand

New Deal was founded in 1933 at 406 14th Street in Modesto, California by Walter Heckendorf Sr. The name New Deal derived from President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal plan to lift the nation out of the Great Depression. The supermarket version sharing this name still defines the meaning stimulating the economy by helping the consumer save emphasizing the thought of buying more for less. Basically the name says it all. By 1980, this chain business had expanded to 15 locations, with stores in Turlock, Modesto, Stockton, Manteca, Merced, Oakdale and Los Banos. The original store was deemed too small that year and was sold. The building still stood until February 2008 as home to the Fair Mart Market. The Fair Mart burned at this time and the remaining structure was demolished. In 1991, the Heckendorf family sold the chain to Provigo Corporation, following this sale, New Deal Markets private brand became President's Choice. By 1994, that company had closed stores in Modesto and Merced. In 1995, the chain was down to 10 stores. It was sold to Bay Area Food, which operated two other chains—a price imapact warehouse grocery chain known as Cost Less Foods and cost plus 10% chain known as Best Deal Grocery. By 1997, four more stores were closed, reducing the chain to six outlets—five in Modesto and one in Oakdale. Following this, New Deal Market switched to Fleming as its grocery supplier and therefore switched its store brand to the Fleming owned Best Yet brand. The other stores' names were changed as a result. Following the closure of the Oakdale Road store in 2005, the rights to the New Deal Market brand and remaining assets were sold to Taylor-Johnson Foods, which announced they intend to expand and keep the New Deal Supermarket brand a household name on the West Coast. Taylor-Johnson Foods, later Johnson Grocery Company, has announced plans to acquire the brand in Mississippi by opening select stores around its capital city, Jackson. Many of these stores are former Jitney Jungle locations. From 2005 to 2009, New Deal Markets was supplied by grocery wholesaler AWG and sold the Best Choice and Always Save brands. By 2009, the chain terminated its supplier agreement with AWG and switched its supplier affiliation to Topco and their Food Club and Valu Time brands.