John Augustine Hartford

Who was John Augustine Hartford?

John Augustine Hartford was the longtime President of the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company, serving in that position for 35 years from 1916 until his death. His father, George Huntington Hartford left the control of the company's voting stock to a trust that gave total control to John and his older brother George Ludlum Hartford who served as Chairman. John, who one company historian named the "Merchant Prince", ran the business operations side of the empire, while his brother George ran the financial side. Time Magazine interviewed John and his brother George who were on their cover in November 1950. Time wrote that "going to the A&P was almost a American Tribal rite". Wall Street Journal in an editorial on August 29, 2011 wrote "Together the brothers, neither of whom had finished high school, built what would be, for 40 years, the largest retail outlet in the world." New York Times in an editorial on September 7, 2011 wrote that John and George Hartford "were among the 20th century’s most accomplished and visionary businessmen."

Born and raised in Orange, New Jersey, John Hartford started his career at A&P in 1888 after finishing high school. Far more outgoing that either his father or older brother, John traveled extensively and became the team's representative in the far flung empire. After his father acquired ownership of the company from the estate of George Gilman, the company's founder, John lead the company's expansion and the firm became the largest grocery chain by 1915. He reinvented the company three times: the economy grocery store concept in 1912; the combination grocery/meat/produce store in the mid-1920s; and the self serve supermarket in the late 1930s. As a result, he was responsible for improving the country's nutrition by lowering the cost of food and expanding the diet of the average American.