Carter's Foods

orphan|date=May 2007Infobox Defunct Company
company_name = Carter's Foods
company_
fate = Bankrupt
foundation = 1952
defunct = mid-2006
location = Charlotte, Michigan, USA
industry = Retail
key_people = Theodore Carter (founder)
products = bakery, beer, dairy, deli, frozen foods, general merchandise, liquor, meat, produce, seafood, wine

Carter's Foods, more commonly known as Carter's, was an employee-owned supermarket chain based in Charlotte, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1952, the chain grew to over thirty locations throughout Michigan's Lower Peninsula. In 2006, the chain declared bankruptcy, with the last of its stores being shuttered or sold. Until the chain's demise, Carter's Foods was the only grocery chain in Michigan to be entirely owned by its employees.

History

Carter's Foods was founded in 1952 by Theodore Carter. [http://www.wzzm13.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=57819 WZZM 13 - Grocer Carter's closes all 14 stores - Charlotte-based company files for bankruptcy] ] A native of Charlotte, Michigan, Theodore had previously been an employee of the Kroger store in his hometown. [http://web.archive.org/web/20040225064526/cartersfoods.com/historytext.htm Carter's Foods history] (Internet Wayback Machine archive)] Carter's expanded over the next several decades, mainly by acquiring IGA locations. IGA was also the primary supplier for the Carter's chain.

In 1999, Sperry and Hutchinson, a company known for its S&H Green Stamps, introduced a new rewards program called S&H Greenpoints; Carter's Foods was the first chain in Michigan to utilize the Greenpoints system. [ [http://www.greenpoints.com/info/inf_pressrelease.asp?Article=carters.html Carter's brings S&H back home to Michigan] ] Starting in 2000, Carter's Foods became 100 percent employee-owned, and thus became the only supermarket chain in the state to be employee-owned.

Carter's had seen a decline revenues for several years, citing competition from Wal-Mart and regional supercenter chain Meijer. The chain filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2006, after it was unable to pay several million dollars in debts to its suppliers. [ [http://www.record-eagle.com/2006/jul/14carters.htm Traverse City "Record-Eagle": Carter's files for Chapter 7 bankruptcy] ] The last fourteen Carter's stores closed in mid-2006. Several were reverted to IGA or sold to Spartan Stores, [http://www.oscodapress.com/articles/2006/09/07/news/news03.txt Oscoda "Press": "Court OKs sale of Carter’s stores"] ] while the remainder were shuttered.

References