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AGAINST
THE GRAIN
When Henry Marshall Jenkins
opened his first grocery store in Calgary
in 1909, he probably had no idea of the
trend his eventual chain of food retail
outlets would launch on the Canadian
food industry.
Jenkins, the son of a Prince Edward
Island potato farmer, arrived on the train
platform in Calgary after paying $10 for
his train ticket west. Then at age 28, he
began working in a grocery store. Within
two months of arrival, he partnered with
a man named Cornfoot and they opened
their first store under the name Jenkins
and Cornfoot Grocers. A year later, Jenkins
bought out Cornfoot’s interest and renamed
the business Jenkins and Company.
The grocery store—typical for the era
in that customers simply asked the clerk
behind the counter to assemble the foods
needed—flourished and became successful.
In 1914, as the First World War was
beginning and labour was in short supply,
Jenkins heard of a new food merchandising
system in the U.S. He travelled to Seattle
to visit a store using this system, and
eventually purchased the rights to use the
name “groceteria” in Canada.
In 1918, Jenkins opened in Calgary the
first self-serve grocery store of its kind in
Canada. Customers could walk along well-
stocked shelves of food, pick out what they
needed and bring their goods to the cashier
for purchase. The idea caught on. Jenkins
opened eight more Jenkins’ Groceteria
outlets in Calgary that year, and by 1928
he had 18 stores across the city.
The stores were successful, and, as the
years passed, he eventually built a chain
of 48 groceterias across Calgary and
throughout southern Alberta. Jenkins
offered free home delivery service of
groceries using bicycle couriers.
The stores also offered free in-store
cooking classes to showcase new products
and cooking trends to housewives. The
classes ranged anywhere from one
afternoon to five days long. In addition to
local instructors, Jenkins also recruited
big U.S. names of the day to give cooking
lessons in his stores. Two notable names
were Dorothy Rimmer, a famous home
economist from New York City, and Mary
Miller, a well-known home economist
with the Better Home Making Service.
And at each cooking class, 15 baskets of
groceries were given away as prizes to
those who attended.
In 1959, 50 years after opening his first
store, Jenkins sold the thriving business
to Westfair Foods Ltd., which, today, is a
subsidiary of the Real Canadian Superstore
(Loblaws) chain.
self-serve
Glenbow Archives PA-2453-171
The Food Issue
2014
Grains
West
66