The most telling comment made by Ukrop's President and CEO Robert "Bobby" Ukrop went unnoticed by most of the high powered financial media in attendance.
"Bobby" Ukrop confirms sale of supermarket chain
In announcing the buy out of the family owned and Richmond based supermarket chain to the Giant-Carlisle division by Dutch-based Royal Ahold, Bobby said "We played a lot bigger than we were".
It was a most fitting epitaph for this beloved supermarket chain that has come to symbolize Richmond Virginia as much as the statues on Monument Avenue, or Mr. Jefferson's State Capital, or the hills and valley's and Honored Dead of Hollywood Cemetery.
Vintage Ukrop's c1990, (since replaced by modern store)
It was fitting because in the end, Bobby's words took this supermarket chain full circle, and reminded those of us who grew up with Ukrop's of it's beginnings as a small Mom and Pop operation down on Hull Street in Richmond's south side.
In the final analysis, the Ukrop's Supermarket chain is neither small enough nor large enough to survive in it's present form.
It's too big to be a niche player, like so many of the small "speciality" operations like Ellwood Thompson's that dot the Richmond retail food landscape.
And it's not big enough to compete with the likes of Wally World or Sam's Club or Food Lion when it comes to having the economic clout necessary to get the best deals and prices from suppliers.
"Bobby" Ukrop in 1965
Now as the Ukrop's Supermarket's are poised to join those other legends of Richmond retail that exist only as memories, it can be said that the Ukrop's chain was not so far from it's Mom and Pop roots after all.
TvNB
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