Cub Foods: A Discount Supermarket Pioneer
Today, discount supermarkets are growing by leaps and bounds. But, when Cub Foods opened its doors in 1968 in Fridley, it was at the forefront of a grocery shakeup.
Cub--originally an acronym for Customers United for Buying--was the brainchild of Stillwater residents Charles Hooley, Jack Hooley, Robert Thueson, and Culver Davis, Jr. Their stores were unlike anything else on the local grocery scene. To keep prices low, items were displayed in their original packaging in a warehouse setting. Store staff did not spend time individually tagging items with prices. Instead, customers were given a grease pencil, and they copied prices from signs onto the cans, boxes, and bags themselves. Cashiers simply added up the markings. Customers bagged their groceries and carried them out of the store themselves.
Hopkins-based SuperValu bought Cub Foods in 1980.
Photo from the Jeffrey P. Grosscup Collection in the Hennepin County Library Digital Collections. The executive pictured here is unidentified. If you recognize him, please contact us!
