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Kroger is one of the most well-known supermarket chains. Whether it was for groceries, a bottle of wine, or even makeup or clothing, chances are you've bought there at some point. The grocery shop has a long history and has undergone numerous transformations since its inception. Even though Kroger has risen from humble beginnings to become a household name, most of its customers would be astonished to learn these facts about the store.

They've been in operation for almost a century.

Kroger is a much older company than most people know. Bernard Henry Kroger, the company's founder, was the son of German immigrants. His father, John Henry Kroger, was a Cincinnati merchant who ran a dry goods store. Kroger was inspired to start his own business in 1883 after witnessing his father's business fail. When he founded the company, he was only in his early twenties, and he would eventually pass it down to his son, Bernard H. Kroger Jr.

At the age of 13, he dropped out of school.

It's great enough that Kroger launched his company when he was in his early twenties, but what's even more remarkable is that he dropped out of school at the age of thirteen. His father's dry goods firm was wrecked by the financial collapse of 1873, and he died soon after, forcing the young Kroger to drop out of school and labor to help support his family. Despite his lack of education, the knowledge he received from his father helped him become a salesperson, which led him Kroger finally going into business for himself.

It began as a tea business.

While you can now get anything from bananas to toilet paper at Kroger, it used to have a considerably smaller selection. Kroger got his start in the business sector by selling tea. Kroger founded the Great Western Tea Company with a buddy in 1883. The following year, he bought out his partner and developed the firm under that name before rebranding it Kroger Grocery and Baking in 1902.

Kroger was the first to provide an on-site bakery.

Grocers selling bread and other baked goods at the turn of the century had to buy them from bakeries and resale them in their stores. Kroger was dissatisfied with this concept and chose to create his own bakery. This not only reduced the cost of procuring baked goods, but it also allowed Kroger to sell them for less, resulting in higher profit margins and changing the grocery store baking sector.

Kroger was the first grocery store to sell fresh meat.

While current consumers are accustomed to purchasing all of their food from a one location, this is a relatively recent concept. A butcher would usually sell meat, a baker would sell bread, and a grocer would sell groceries. Kroger's use of on-site meat counters was groundbreaking at the time, making him the first retailer in the country to sell meat and groceries under one roof.

Because of his low prices, the founder got death threats.

Kroger's prices were so low that he put other business owners out of business. Bakery chains were afraid he would knock them out of business when he started selling his own bread. His competitors began to threaten him with death. "If you don't raise the price of bread immediately, you will be killed or shot," one of the notes brought to his home stated. Kroger, on the other hand, was unfazed by the threats and responded by expanding his bakeries.

They made product testing mandatory.

Kroger was well-known for his commitment to offering high-quality products to his customers. Because of its commitment to quality and customer service, the firm became the first grocery chain to monitor product quality. This is something that retailers are expected to do nowadays, and we can thank Kroger for putting the policy in place in the 1930s. The breakthroughs don't stop there. Kroger was also one of the first grocery stores to test electronic scanners, doing so in 1972.

The first store where you could do your own grocery shopping was Kroger.

Groceries were regularly delivered to the home in the nineteenth century. The consumer would place their order, which would then be delivered by horse-drawn cart (although Kroger delivered groceries with Model T trucks beginning in 1913). Kroger revolutionized the delivery business when it introduced self-service shopping to the public in 1916, allowing customers to go to the store, shop, and bring their purchases home instead of waiting for a delivery.

They turned down the opportunity to open the world's first supermarket.

If former manager Michael Cullen had been listened to in 1930, Kroger may have been the country's first supermarket. Cullen envisaged huge stores with plenty of parking and a wide range of low-cost goods. Cullen believed that "expected increased use of the automobile and home refrigeration would allow customers to forego daily journeys to the butcher, baker, etc., in favor of weekly trips to the supermarket–where everything could be acquired under one roof," according to Forbes.

Kroger restaurants will be phased out in the near future.

Your supermarket shopping is going to become even more enjoyable. Kroger will open its first restaurant, Kitchen 1883, in the near future. If the debut is a success, these restaurants will most likely be available in Kroger stores around the country. After a day of shopping, rest with a hearty supper from the menu, which will include comfort cuisine and even hand-crafted beverages.

Read more at feed.kroger.com.