By GREGORY ZELLER //
The line of succession continues at America’s First Supermarket.
The Board of Directors of the Hauppauge-based King Kullen Grocery Co. has appointed James Cullen Jr. chairman, following the semi-retirement of longtime Chairman Ronald Conklin. Now the chairman emeritus, Conklin – who will remain an active board member – was first named co-chairman back in 2006.
Cullen, a member of the board’s Executive Committee, is the grandson of King Kullen founder Michael Cullen and the son of James Cullen Sr., who chaired the board until his death in 1974.
While the “Cullen” name returns to the board’s center seat, the familial line of succession has remained essentially unbroken: Conklin is the son-in-law of John Cullen, another former board chairman and the deceased son of James Sr.
James Cullen Jr.: Chip off the old block.
Michael Cullen is an innovator of historical proportions, credited with inventing “America’s first supermarket” in August 1930, when he opened the King Kullen Grocery Co. in a refurbished garage at the intersection of 171st Street and Jamaica Avenue in Jamaica, Queens.
The son of Irish immigrants, Cullen cut his teeth at the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., the now-defunct national grocery chain known best as A&P, which ceased operations in 2015. He also managed dozens of small markets for the Kroger Grocery & Baking Co. – still a thriving national chain, known simply as Kroger.
At Kroger, Cullen began to cultivate plans for chains of supersized markets – of “monstrous size,” he said in a written pitch to Kroger management, located close to populations centers with “plenty of parking spaces” and “eighty percent self-service.”
According to the story, Kroger management ignored his ideas, and the undaunted entrepreneur relocated his family to Long Island to pursue his vision. When it opened in Jamaica in 1930, Cullen’s creation checked off the five boxes defining the modern supermarket, according to the Smithsonian Institution: separate departments, self-service, discount pricing, chain marketing and volume dealing.
By 1936, there were 17 King Kullen supermarkets, and America’s First Supermarket was off the races – even surviving Cullen’s sudden death just six years after opening that first store. Cullen’s wife, Nan Cullen, took the reins and was no innovation slouch, shepherding the introduction of shopping carts, conveyor belts, air conditioning and automatic doors, among other customer-friendly upgrades.
Packing them in: Cullen’s ingenious “supermarket” redefined the grocery genre.
Today, after COVID killed a pending 2020 acquisition by rival Stop & Shop, the King Kullen Co. – which peaked around 55 stores in 1983 – operates 29 supermarkets and five Wild by Nature Markets in Nassau and Suffolk counties.
King Kullen President and Chief Operating Officer Joseph Brown thanked Chairman Emeritus Conklin for “many years of service and innumerable contributions to King Kullen,” and congratulated James Cullen Jr. – who helped steer the company for years as its real estate executive – for assuming the chairmanship.
“As chairman, he will continue to guide our organization through a number of strategic initiatives,” Brown said in a statement. “This is an exciting period for King Kullen and I look forward to working with Jim on these various projects.”
