Feature Photo: GeekyTV, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
I had a good friend who used to work at Waldbaum’s in the 1970s. He worked in the deli department. I would go in there and see him every once in a while, and he always seemed to be having a lot of fun. There were a lot of young people working in the department and throughout the store, and it almost seemed like a high school. I mean, I was pretty young at the time; it seemed like a fun place to work.
It was pretty inspiring. Eventually, I wound up applying for a job at A&P because I wanted that kind of fun, that kind of social life, in a workplace I thought supermarkets would provide. And it most certainly did, but that’s a story for another time and place. I bring up A&P because it is completely connected to the history of Waldbaum’s and, sadly, its demise.
My friend who worked at Waldbaum’s became a very famous comic book artist. I won’t mention his name for privacy reasons, but he actually did put me in an episode of Godzilla and a few other comics. Nothing is cooler than being turned into a comic book character, especially when you’re drawn by a legendary artist. You never know what’s going to happen to your friends.
Nonetheless, I know that most people are reading this article not to learn about my history but the history of one of their most loved supermarkets of all time, Waldbaum’s. Before megastores, online ordering, and self-checkout lanes defined the grocery experience, there was Waldbaum’s. For more than a century, Waldbaum’s was far more than just a place to buy bread and milk; it was an essential fixture of neighborhood life across New York City and Long Island. From the bustling deli counters and bakery aisles to the young people working their first jobs and the familiar face of Julia Waldbaum on hundreds of store-brand products, the supermarket chain became part of the daily rhythm of New York family life.
The rise and fall of Waldbaum’s is a classic New York story: a small family business that grew from Brooklyn into a regional supermarket powerhouse, only to disappear as an operating chain after its corporate parent collapsed.
The Brooklyn Roots: Izzy Waldbaum’s Butter-and-Egg Shop
Waldbaum’s began in 1904, when Israel “Izzy” Waldbaum, an Austrian immigrant, began selling butter and eggs at 911 DeKalb Avenue in Brooklyn. The little shop was a long way from the sprawling supermarkets that later carried the family name, but the emphasis on food, price, and personal service established the foundation of the business.
By the late 1940s, the Waldbaum family was operating a small chain of Brooklyn stores. Following his father’s death, 21-year-old Ira Waldbaum left his studies at New York University and took over the family business. Industry accounts place Ira in charge by 1949.
One remarkable part of the company’s early history came in 1938, when identical twin brothers Ernest and George Brown, who were Black, were promoted from stockboys to checkout clerks at a time when Black cashiers were unusual in predominantly white neighborhoods. Both men later rose into executive positions with Waldbaum’s.
The First Waldbaum’s Supermarket and the Postwar Expansion
By 1951, Waldbaum’s had opened its first full supermarket in Flushing, Queens. The timing could hardly have been better. New York’s postwar population was pushing farther into Queens and onto Long Island, where new housing, automobile ownership, and suburban shopping centers were reshaping the way families bought groceries.
Waldbaum’s followed that growth. Net sales reached $55.2 million by 1960, and the company went public in 1961 while the Waldbaum family retained control. In 1964, the company moved its headquarters from Brooklyn to Garden City. Ten years later, in 1974, Waldbaum’s moved its headquarters and distribution operations farther east to Central Islip.
The expansion was dramatic. The chain grew from about 80 stores in 1970 to 138 by the end of the decade. By 1979, sales had reached approximately $1.1 billion. Contemporary company histories describe Waldbaum’s by that point as the second-largest company by sales on Long Island and its third-largest employer.
Julia Waldbaum: The Face of the Brand
Few supermarket chains ever had a public face quite like Julia Waldbaum.
Julia was not a fictional advertising character. She was Izzy Waldbaum’s widow, an active participant in the family business, and for years the company’s secretary. During the 1960s, her photograph and recipes appeared on almost all of Waldbaum’s roughly 400 private-label products.
Her connection to the stores was personal. Historical accounts describe Julia visiting locations, inspecting products, removing damaged produce, dusting cans, and checking meat. Even after A&P acquired the company, she continued making surprise visits. Waldbaum’s current brand history also recalls recipes from her own kitchen and her determination to remain accessible to customers.
That was a powerful form of branding because it did not feel like branding. For generations of shoppers, Julia Waldbaum really was the woman whose name was on the store.
Waldbaum’s Becomes a Long Island Institution
By the 1970s, Waldbaum’s had become one of the defining supermarket names of Long Island and New York’s outer boroughs. Its deli and appetizer departments were especially important to the chain’s identity, and the company built a strong following among Jewish shoppers while adapting its food offerings to the many other ethnic communities it served.
For generations of Long Islanders and New Yorkers, a trip to Waldbaum’s became part of ordinary life. The deli counter, bakery, grocery aisles, neighborhood clerks, and teenagers working their first jobs created the kind of familiar supermarket culture that is difficult to reproduce in a national big-box store.
That is also why my memory of my friend working in the deli has stayed with me for so long. To us, these stores were not anonymous retail spaces. They were places where people worked, met friends, joked around, and became part of the neighborhood.
The 1978 Waldbaum’s Fire in Brooklyn
One of the darkest chapters in the history of Waldbaum’s occurred on August 2, 1978, at the supermarket at Avenue Y and Ocean Avenue in Brooklyn.
According to the FDNY, nearly 20 firefighters were on the roof when its central portion collapsed. Twelve firefighters fell into the burning building. Six were rescued, but Lieutenant James E. Cutillo and Firefighters Charles S. Bouton, Harold F. Hastings, James P. McManus, William O’Connor, and George S. Rice were killed. Thirty-four firefighters, one emergency medical technician, and one Emergency Service police officer were also injured.
The tragedy became one of the most remembered fires in Brooklyn FDNY history. The intersection was later commemorated as Firemen’s Corner in memory of the six firefighters who lost their lives there.
Peak Years: One of America’s Largest Supermarket Chains
Waldbaum’s reached its independent peak during the first half of the 1980s. In 1985, its final full year before the A&P acquisition, the company recorded approximately $1.76 billion in sales and $17.1 million in earnings. Industry histories ranked it as the 12th-largest supermarket chain in the United States.
It was an extraordinary transformation from the little butter-and-egg business that had opened in Brooklyn in 1904.
The A&P Acquisition in 1986
In 1986, The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, better known as A&P, acquired Waldbaum, Inc. for approximately $287.1 million, or $50 per share. The Waldbaum family still controlled more than 60 percent of the company’s stock at the time of the sale.
The Waldbaum’s name remained on stores, but ownership had changed. Ira Waldbaum retired after the sale, and the family-run era was effectively over.
Over the following years, Waldbaum’s lost market share and the chain contracted as competition intensified. A&P itself was dealing with much larger structural problems. The parent company entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December 2010 and later reorganized, but its financial troubles were not over.
A&P’s Final Bankruptcy and the End of Waldbaum’s
On July 19, 2015, A&P filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection again. This second bankruptcy in five years was different: the company planned to sell or close its supermarket operations rather than preserve the old chain in anything resembling its previous form.
Waldbaum’s stores were caught in the liquidation. Stop & Shop agreed to acquire 25 A&P-operated locations in the greater New York area for $146 million, including a number of Waldbaum’s stores on Long Island and in Queens. Other former Waldbaum’s locations went to operators including Key Food, Wakefern/ShopRite, H Mart, Best Market, and additional regional grocers, while some locations closed without an immediate supermarket replacement.
Several former Waldbaum’s sites acquired by Best Market later changed again after Lidl announced its acquisition of 27 Best Market stores in New York and New Jersey in 2018.
Did the Waldbaum’s Name Completely Disappear?
The New York supermarket chain Waldbaum’s ended in 2015. The name itself, however, did not vanish completely.
American Legacy Brands later added Waldbaum’s to its portfolio of nostalgic consumer brands, and the current Waldbaum’s website lists a 2018 relaunch. That is a revival of the brand name rather than a return of the original Waldbaum’s supermarket chain that generations of New Yorkers remember.
Why Waldbaum’s Is Still Remembered
Supermarkets are ordinary places until they disappear. Then you begin remembering the people behind the deli counter, the cashiers you saw every week, the bakery smells, the store-brand packages, and the friends who worked there after school.
Waldbaum’s survived for more than a century because it became woven into that kind of everyday life. It began with butter and eggs in Brooklyn, grew with postwar New York, became one of Long Island’s great retail institutions, and disappeared only when the corporate system that had absorbed it finally collapsed.
The green-and-white Waldbaum’s signs may be gone from New York shopping centers, but for people who grew up with them, the stores remain part of New York retail history.
More New York Supermarket History
For more on the supermarket chains that shaped generations of New Yorkers, read our A&P Supermarket History and Memories and our History and Memories of Bohack’s Grocery Stores.
Sources
Waldbaum’s – Official Brand History
Supermarket News – Ira Waldbaum
Supermarket News – Julia Waldbaum, 99
Encyclopedia.com – Waldbaum, Inc. Company History
New York City Fire Department – 40th Anniversary of the Waldbaum’s Fire
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission – A&P Chapter 11 Disclosure Statement
Stop & Shop – Agreement to Acquire 25 A&P Stores in Greater New York
New York State Senate – A&P Supermarket Bankruptcy Update
Lidl US – Acquisition of Best Market
Published August 13, 2026.
The Story of Waldbaum’s: From a Brooklyn Butter Shop to a Long Island Supermarket Icon article published on ClassicNewYorkHistory.com © 2026
