Purity Supreme, Inc. was a corporation involved in the operation of

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. This kind of store is larger and has a wider selection than earli ...

s and other stores.

Background

From 1984 it was a division of Supermarkets General Holdings Corporation. It operated from a headquarters located in North Billerica, Massachusetts. At its height, the company operated 64

supermarkets A supermarket is a self-service shop offering a wide variety of food, beverages and household products, organized into sections. This kind of store is larger and has a wider selection than earlier grocery stores, but is smaller and more limit ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...

, and

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

. They also operated 63 owned and franchised Li'l Peach convenience stores and 23

drugstores A pharmacy (also called "drugstore" in American English or "community pharmacy" or "chemist" in Commonwealth English, or rarely, apothecary) is a retail shop which provides pharmaceutical drugs, among other products. At the pharmacy, a pharmacis ...

in Massachusetts. They also ran the successful Heartland Foods, a warehouse-style supermarket chain. In 1984, at the time of the buyout by Supermarkets General, Purity, had an annual sales of $800 million (~$ in ) with 28 supermarkets, 13 warehouse stores and 23 drugstores. Purity Supreme and Li'l Peach had combined sales of about

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1.3 billion in 1990 before the company was bought out again by Freeman Spogli & Co., an investment firm for about US$300 million (~$ in ), including the acquisition of debt. In 1995, Purity Supreme was acquired by competitor Stop & Shop, agreeing with regulators to sell 15 stores to address

antitrust Competition law is the field of law that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies. Competition law is implemented through public and private enforcement. It is also known as antitrust l ...

concerns. Stop & Shop continued to operate 56 stores under the Purity Supreme name until 1997 when it renovated and converted all but three of them into Stop & Shop stores. The three remaining Purity Supreme stores were closed. Purity Supreme was led for most of its existence by Leo Kahn who started Purity Sav-Mor Markets with some of its first stores in Billerica, Chelmsford and Bedford. In 1968, Kahn bought out the Supreme Market chain of Boston and thus Purity Supreme was born.

References

Retail companies disestablished in 1995 Companies based in Billerica, Massachusetts Defunct supermarkets of the United States Defunct companies based in Massachusetts {{US-retail-company-stub