IGA, Inc.

IGA, Inc.
Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Retail
Founded	May 1926; 98 years ago
Founders	Independent retailer owners
Headquarters	Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Area served	22 countries
Parent	Sobeys (in Canada)
Website	iga.com

IGA, Inc. is an international chain of grocery stores. Unlike chain stores IGA franchises are independently owned and operated. Many of these stores operate in small-town markets and belong to families that manage them. IGA was founded in the United States as the Independent Grocers Alliance in 1926. The headquarters is in Chicago, Illinois, in the United States.^[1]

History

IGA was started in May 1926 when a group of 100 independent retailers in Poughkeepsie, New York, and Sharon, Connecticut, led by J. Frank Grimes, organized themselves into a single marketing system. Guidance from the IGA management came in the form of marketing and access to a consistent supply chain. After a few years, the company began making its own canned food brand.

By the end of its first year, the group had expanded to include more than 150 retailers. In 1930, over 8,000 grocery stores were using the IGA name. As of 2024, IGA operates with over 6200 different locations worldwide.

William Olsen was the company CEO until 1988, when he was replaced by Thomas Haggai, who retired in 2016.^[2]

The company uses the "Hometown Proud Supermarkets" slogan. Today [as of when?], many IGA grocery stores are still located in smaller cities and towns throughout the United States.^[2]

The stores in the alliance remain independently owned and operated. The alliance oversees several resources shared among the member stores, including, most visibly, the IGA store brand products and the logistical network that distributes them. The alliance also provides training and assessment programs and an online advertising platform. It regularly coordinates promotional events and charity fundraising events that benefit store communities.

As of 2023, IGA was in 22 countries.^[3] There were 763 locations in 38 states and territories in the US. The states with the highest concentration are North Carolina, South Carolina, and Kentucky.^[4]

Australia

The IGA brand in Australia is owned by Metcash, an Australian conglomerate retailer and wholesaler. The company supplies groceries, promotional materials, and other things to a large number of locally-owned Australian supermarkets and a few other brands like Foodland and Friendly Grocer. Collectively, it is the fourth-biggest competitor in major Australian supermarkets, after Coles, Woolworths and Aldi. There are 1,400 independently owned IGA stores throughout Australia, with most running their own IGA Community Chest, which raises funds to support local communities and charities.

Canada

Logo used in Quebec and New Brunswick since January 1990. Before that, the international IGA logo was used.

IGA store (left) on Dundas Street in Toronto, September 1957.

In Canada (apart from British Columbia), IGA is a group of independent grocers supplied by Sobeys, which franchises the name. Acquired by Sobeys as part of its purchase of the Oshawa Group Ltd., it now operates primarily in Quebec.

The IGA operations in Atlantic Canada were sold to Loblaw Companies Limited (except for Edmundston, Shediac and Dieppe, which runs as IGA-Co-op, previously acquired by Sobeys New Brunswick) and were restructured under its existing brands. The company-owned stores west of Quebec now mainly operate under the Sobeys banner. In Ontario, IGA stores have been converted to the Foodland banner.^{[citation needed]} There are, however, many IGA stores still operating in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. An IGA store opened in Emerald Park, Saskatchewan, in 2016.^[5]^[6]

IGA Extra locations are larger and carry a wider variety of general merchandise, more akin to the hypermarket model. They include a pharmacy, large bakery, a bank, a bistro, a post office, and a larger selection of food items. IGA Extra launched in the early 2000s to take the place of Sobeys locations in the Quebec City and Montreal areas. In 2015, several Co-op Atlantic stores became IGA stores supplied by Sobeys Quebec after Co-Op decided to exit the grocery store business.

In Quebec, IGA also operates smaller supermarkets. These include Bonichoix and Tradition (a brand introduced in 1999).

In British Columbia (except for the towns of Fort Nelson, Chetwynd, and Golden), IGA stores (previously Marketplace IGA) are for the most part independently owned and are operated by Georgia Main Food Group.^[7] These stores use the international logo. In many rural locations such as the Fernridge IGA in Langley, British Columbia (district municipality), they are connected to and supplied by their local Federated Co-operatives store, in this case Otter Co-Op.

Dominica

HHV. Whitchurch is the only known company in Dominica that follows the IGA. It has one location in Dominica, in Roseau. It is located in Old Street, Box 771, Roseau, and is one of the popular supermarkets in the country.

Philippines

Walter Mart Supermarket is the first and only alliance member in the Philippines. The store has 47 locations in the country, mostly in Metro Manila and Luzon - from Gapan, Nueva Ecija in the north to Tanauan, Batangas in the south.^[8]

Gallery

Bowman IGA Foodliner in Bowman, South Carolina, in December 2008. This location closed after it caught fire on September 24, 2017; there are no plans to reopen it.
New IGA storefront in Springboro, Ohio, in June 2009. This location closed in 2014 and was demolished in 2016.
IGA Extra Langelier in Montreal, Quebec, in December 2006.
Trenton Marketplace IGA in Trenton, Maine, in Hancock County in June 2014. In July 2020 the store was sold and affiliation changed to Shop&Save/Hannaford.
Pat's Foods IGA in Calumet, Michigan, in August 2010.
Tatsuda's IGA in Ketchikan, Alaska, in June 2007. Established in 1916, the business predates the establishment of the IGA brand seen on its storefront. This location closed in 2020 after a landslide hit the store and was later demolished.