Does anyone remember McCartney's Grocery Stores in Okla.

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wayne winterland jr.
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Does anyone remember McCartney's Grocery Stores in Okla.

Post by wayne winterland jr. »

I was wondering if anyone remembers ths McCartney Grocery Stores which operated in Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and Enid, Oklahome.
I always thought it ironic that they chose as their signage logo the big M from the Maytag Company and that Maytag never sued them for using part of their logo look.
Here is another example of what a company should do and not do.
I worked for them for 5 years before they began having financial difficulties and I must say that it was a good company to work for.
The one thing a grocery store business has to be frightfully aware of is that yes you may own your own grocery store business but as long as you own money to the grocery wholesaler then the grocery wholesaler is in reality a silent partner until your bills are completely paid off. In this case McCartney Grocery Stores were large size superstores approximately 45,000 sq. ft. to 50,000 sq. ft. stores. The company was serviced by and advised by the Fleming Wholesale Grocery Company (now defunct) and I can remember the beginning of the end came when Fleming advised McCartneys to build a store in Enid, Oklahoma. The thing that they forgot was that they started their company in Tulsa, Oklahome and some stores were in affulent areas where upper income people lived and they were rather an upscale type of store in Tulsa but in Enid, Oklahoma there wasn't the same type of environment and the site selected for the store was not a very good one. Sometimes you just have to walk away from advice no matter if your silent partner gives it to you or not. Not long before that McCartney's had the opportunity of buying a small 4 or 5 store chain called Sipes Markets in Tulsa. These Sipes Grocery Stores were profitable and making money but they were smaller size stores maybe 12,00 to 15,000 sq. ft.and didn't fit the so called image of the super stores and so McCartney's didn't buy the stores. I may be old fashioned but I have always believed that the name of the game is not how big a store is or whether it's a super store in size but rather if the stores are profitable and in this case the Sipes Stores were profitable but the deal was passed up. A few years later McCarteny's Grocery Stores were in difficulty and were taken over by the Fleming Compnay. I think that maybe they would have bought the Sipes Grocery Stores that maybe they were profitable to have helped carry the other McCartney Grocery Stores. At least it's a thought knowing that nothing is for certain.

thanks, Wayne Winterland Jr.
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