Pathmark Supermarkets are a chain of grocery stores located in the eastern United States. They have store locations in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware, and are headquartered in New Jersey. The first Pathmark store opened in 1968, when a conglomerate called Supermarkets General separated from an existing cooperative. They started with 81 stores, 33 of which had pharmacies. There
. were also Pathmark drugstores and gas stations separate from the grocery chains. Pathmark Supermarkets were innovators in their fields. Not only were they one of the fastest growing grocery chains during the 1970s, but they were the first to introduce the use of computer scanners. In addition, they were one of the few stores open twenty-four hours a day at that time. Due to this convenience, they became some of the most successful supermarkets in their area. The chain continued to expand, and by 1982 they were the tenth largest grocery chain in the United States. During the 1980s they partnered with Barnes and Noble by putting miniature Barnes and Noble bookstores in their supermarkets. However, during the late 1980s they began to lose money and were eventually acquired by A&P after several failed mergers and sales to other companies. In 2008 a new type of Pathmark store was introduced, the Pathmark Sav-A-Center. This was a remodel of the old Pathmark Supermarkets based on low costs and a price impact format. These stores were successful and later that year A&P switched all the Pathmark stores to that format. Pathmark has three store brands. These are Food Basics, Home Basics and America's Choice. Food Basics and Home Basics are advertised as low-cost alternatives to popular items and feature distinctive yellow packaging. They also carry Wild Oats store brand food items and are known for carrying a wide selection of Kosher and ethnic food items. http://pathmark.com/default.asp or http://www.progressivegrocer.com/top-stories/headlines/industry-intelligence/id34430/pathmark-store-boasts-bigger-better-kosher-selection/
