Michael J. Cullen (1884–1936) was an American entrepreneur and salesman known as the founder of the King Kullen grocery store chain, widely considered to be the first supermarket founded in America. He is recognized by the Smithsonian Institution as the inventor of the modern supermarket.[1]
History
Cullen was born in 1884 as the child of Irish immigrants. His surname derives from the Irish name O' Cuileannain or Ó Cuilinn. He joined The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company in 1902 at the age of 18 and worked for the firm for 17 years. In 1919, Cullen joined Kroger Stores and worked for the company until 1930. While working as a Kroger regional manager in southern Illinois, he developed the idea of a supermarket. In 1930, at age 46, he wrote a letter to the president of Kroger, proposing a new type of food store with a focus on low prices, larger square footage, cash sales, no delivery service, and low-rent locations with plenty of parking. Cullen dramatically proclaimed: "I would lead the public out of the high-priced houses of bondage into the low prices of the house of the promised land."[2][3]