Michael J. Cullen

Michael J. Cullen (* 1884, † 1936) is considered the inventor of the supermarket.

Cullen's parents were Irish immigrants. He served an apprenticeship in the food retail sector, worked with 18 years at The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company, and in 1930 the district director of the Kroger Grocery & Baking Co. in Southern Illinois. With the world economic crisis of 1929 and the high personnel costs had passed to over 5000 mostly small branches of Kroger - now the third largest retailer in the United States - into the public eye. Close Cullens proposal to the President of Kruger, WH Albers, some of the small branches and to open it outside the city ten times larger stores with self-service and lower margin, remained unanswered.

He announced it, moved with his family to Long Iceland, rented a vacant garage in Jamaica Avenue in Queens, and opened on 4 August 1930, the first King Kullen Supermarket Grocery Company. In 1936 he had 17 markets.