Olean Wholesale Grocery was a

retailers' cooperative A retailers' cooperative is a type of cooperative which employs economies of scale on behalf of its Retailing, retailer members. Retailers' cooperatives use their purchasing power to acquire discounts from manufacturers and often share marketing e ...

serving independent

supermarket A supermarket is a self-service Retail#Types of outlets, shop offering a wide variety of food, Drink, beverages and Household goods, household products, organized into sections. Strictly speaking, a supermarket is larger and has a wider selecti ...

s in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

, and

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

. It was founded in 1922 and is a member of Retailer Owned Food Distributors & Associates. It distributed

Shurfine Western Family Foods was founded as the Pacific Mercantile Cooperative on March 3, 1934, by a group of retailer-owned grocery wholesalers. Western Family Foods was established December 19, 1963. The company supplied independent grocery stores ...

, ShurSaving, TopCare, ValuTime and

Western Family Western Family Foods was founded as the Pacific Mercantile Cooperative on March 3, 1934, by a group of retailer-owned grocery wholesalers. Western Family Foods was established December 19, 1963. The company supplied independent grocery stores ...

products in its stores, along with national brands. It was headquartered in the town of Olean, New York, just east of the city of the same name. In August 2015, Olean Wholesale Grocery filed a lawsuit against

Chicken of the Sea Chicken of the Sea is a packager and provider of seafood, owned by the Thai Union Group in Samut Sakhon, Thailand. The brand is attached to tuna, salmon, clams, crab, shrimp, mackerel, oysters, kippers and sardines in cans, pouches and cups ...

and

Bumble Bee Foods Bumble Bee Foods, LLC, is an American company that produces canned tuna, salmon, other seafoods, and chicken under the brand names "Bumble Bee," "Wild Selections," "Beach Cliff," "Brunswick," and "Snow's." The brand is marketed as " Clover L ...

accusing the companies of violating the

Sherman Antitrust Act The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 (, ) is a United States antitrust law which prescribes the rule of free competition among those engaged in commerce and consequently prohibits unfair monopolies. It was passed by Congress and is named for S ...

and artificially propping up the cost of canned

tuna A tuna (: tunas or tuna) is a saltwater fish that belongs to the tribe Thunnini, a subgrouping of the Scombridae ( mackerel) family. The Thunnini comprise 15 species across five genera, the sizes of which vary greatly, ranging from the bul ...

. The resulting pressure effectively killed a proposed merger between the two companies. In late 2018,

C&S Wholesale Grocers C&S Wholesale Grocers, LLC is a national wholesale grocery supply company in the United States, based in Keene, New Hampshire. In 2021 it was the eighth-largest privately held company in the United States, as listed by Forbes. C&S operates and ...

announced its intent to purchase Olean Wholesale Grocery, with the purchase slated to close in early 2019. C&S then announced plans to shut down the OWG facility in late 2019.

References

{{Reflist Companies based in Cattaraugus County, New York Economy of the Northeastern United States American companies established in 1922 Retail companies established in 1922 Supermarkets of the United States Retailers' cooperatives in the United States Cooperatives based in New York (state)