This would be the time to recount the entire tale of the A&P chain, wouldn't it? Oh, just go here.

It says A&P was founded in 1863.

It doesn't tell you how the heir to the A&P fortune, who died in 2008, was once one of the world's richest men, and died having gotten rid of much of it. Among his other accomplishments, he commissioned 2 Columbus Circle, the infamous Lollipop Building, a conspicuous mausoleum now rehabbed beyond recognition.