Farmer Jack

Farmer Jack was a supermarket chain based in Detroit, Michigan. At its peak, it operated more than 100 stores, primarily in metropolitan Detroit. There was a store in Evart, MI in the late 70s/early 80s. In its final years, the chain operated as the Midwest subsidiary of the New Jersey–based A&P Corporation. A&P closed the Farmer Jack chain on July 7, 2007.

Farmer Jack stores were typically in suburban neighborhoods, usually anchoring strip malls. In addition to offering groceries, each store operated full-service produce, floral, delicatessen, bakery, pharmacy, meat, and seafood departments, with some locations including a bank.

Farmer Jack's beginnings were in 1924, when Jewish-Russian immigrants Tom Borman and Sam Burlak opened a neighborhood grocery store, Tom's Quality Meats, at 12th and Forest in Detroit. In 1927, his brother Abraham "Al" Borman opened a store on Kercheval on the city's east side. The brothers eventually formed a partnership, which ended in 1945, with Tom developing Lucky Stores, and Al developing Food Fair markets. In 1955, the two operations merged into Food Fair, operating under the corporate entity Borman Food Stores Inc. Four years later, the renamed Borman's Inc., sold more than 400,000 shares of stock, with the brothers retaining control. Proceeds from the stock sale fueled a buying binge: Borman's bought State Super Markets of Ferndale; American Stores Inc., acquired nine Lipson-Gourwitz Co. markets in Detroit, planning an expansion to 46 stores.

In 1966, Borman announced the opening of three suburban shopping centers that would contain gas stations, car washes, garden supply stores, Yankee discount stores, and food stores, operating under the new moniker of Farmer Jack. By 1972, Detroit became a major zone of grocery store competition, with six chains competing in the region, including Chatham and Great Scott! In a speech, Paul Borman claimed A&P's move to discount-type stores had nearly destroyed the supermarket industry.

Borman acquired the 13-store Arnold Drug pharmacy chain in 1965, but dissolved this division in 1981 in order to cut financial losses.

In 1987, Borman's was flush with cash, and took advantage of Safeway's troubles as an opportunity to diversify its store base beyond Michigan when it bought that chain's 60-store Salt Lake City division. Those stores were throughout Utah, southern Idaho, and in adjacent towns in Nevada, Eastern Oregon, and Wyoming. The Safeway stores were renamed Farmer Jack; the company planned to remodel and update them, as Safeway had not invested much in the division. The expansion was short-lived and by the end of 1988, Farmer Jack sold the 60-store division to various retailers including 29 stores to Boise, Idaho-based retailer Albertsons. Later in 1987, a lengthy strike by Detroit-area clerks and cashiers, who were not supported by meat cutters or Teamsters, depleted Borman's cash reserve and forced the company to buy out 800 workers at the cost of $12.9 million ($30.5 million in 2024).^{[citation needed]} The 1987 strike started a period of losses that would prompt the sale to A&P.

In 1989, beginning a decade of merger mania in the supermarket business, A&P paid $76 million ($167 million in 2024) for 79 Farmer Jack stores operated by Borman's. The buyout made A&P the top player among grocery stores in southeastern Michigan, with a 36% share. By 1994, all A&P stores in metro Detroit had been converted to Farmer Jack stores.

In the mid-1990s, A&P rebranded select stores within the East (mostly in Virginia and South Carolina) to the Farmer Jack banner; while they shared the same name, these stores were not controlled by the Midwest division. These stores were closed or sold by 1999.