Editor’s note: As The Produce News went to press it was announced that the United Family had been acquired by Albertsons LLC, which operates 76 stores in Texas and has plans to grow the United brand.

In September 1916, a young man in his twenties named Henry Dewitt Snell used an $800 loan from his former employer to introduce a totally new concept for the day. He promised low prices in return for customers foregoing the ability to charge their groceries on account, or to have them delivered. This new-fangled concept was met with much anticipation by the farm community in and around Sayre, OK.

Almost a century has passed since H.D. Snell’s first United Cash Store opened, but the chain he launched has flourished, with 57 stores and four concepts employing more than 10,000 people from its Lubbock, TX, headquarters.

Snell’s great-grandsons, Matt and Gantt Bumstead, now represent the fourth generation of family ownership and serve as the company’s co-presidents.

United — now known as The United Family after a recent rebranding — operates United Supermarkets, Market Street, Amigos and United Express stores.

“One of the most unique things about our company is the fact that we are in our 97th year of operation and still owned by the original family,” said Eddie Owens, director of communications and public relations. “We have been in the hands of the same family since day one. H.D. Snell had five children. H.D. Jr., who went by Jack, actually bought the existing Texas stores — there were only two at the time — in the late-1940s and established them as a separate company. So we have really been the Texas arm of the original company ever since.”

The United Family also includes subsidiary operations Praters, which specializes in fully cooked meats and side dishes; Llano Logistics, acquired earlier this year and responsible for United’s two distribution centers (the 500,000-square-foot main DC in Lubbock and a secondary 200,000-foot-facility opened in Roanoke, TX in 2010 to serve the Dallas-Fort Worth area); and R.C. Taylor Distributing, which handles convenience store type products.

R.C. Taylor, acquired in 2007, is particularly interesting because “they had been doing business in Lubbock as long as United has and actually probably longer. They were our primary suppliers for convenience store type items,” Owens said. “Their owner at the time, Robert Taylor, became our CEO in 2010. So there’s a great family connection there.”

Rebranding “established some separation and distinction” between United concepts.

The recent name change came about “to establish some separation, clarity and distinction between United as a company and the United Supermarkets retail brand,” Owens explained. “We’ve established a ‘house of brands’ framework, much like Procter & Gamble, so that each of our banners would have its own identity. But we didn’t feel that could happen for the United Supermarkets brand without that separation.”

And United Supermarkets is the core of The United Family. The company operates 36 locations in north and west Texas, with a new, “next generation” store set to open in Amarillo in January.

“All of our brands have service as their core experience, but United is the traditional supermarket profile for the company,” Owens said. The other concepts offer dramatically different shopping experiences. “It’s like Old Navy and Banana Republic stores. They’re part of the same family, but you don’t go in Old Navy expecting to find Banana Republic clothes — so we hope our guests will begin to expect the same differences in our United and Market Street stores.”

There are 11 Market Street locations; three in Lubbock, six in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, one in Wichita Falls and one in Amarillo. While United Supermarkets is the meat and potatoes of the chain, “Market Street is really our groceries to gourmet store,” Owens said. “Our slogan is, ‘Where Everyday Meets Gourmet’. We really try to position that as a marriage between the traditional grocery store shopping experience and a little bit of an upscale experience as well.

“We say it’s the place to go for people who care about food, who might want a healthier lifestyle and who are open to fresh new food ideas. We have a huge prepared foods side of the equation in all of our Market Street stores. We have fresh pizza, a wide buffet of fresh prepared foods to either eat there or take home. We have a huge dining room in nearly every store — in fact our newest store, which is here in Lubbock, will seat up to 250 people and even includes an outdoor dining area — it can serve as indoor or outdoor with windows that open during nice weather.”

A new Market Street under construction in Flower Mound, north of Fort Worth, will offer “a very similar experience” but will test an idea that seems radical in this age of bigger is better — the new store will be 15,000 square feet smaller than the showcase Lubbock location.

New Market Street locations could serve as a prototype for future expansion.

“It’s really going to be kind of a new prototype for us, we think, for the future. It will be significantly smaller but it will afford us the opportunity to be much more competitive in a very, very competitive market in the DFW area,” Owens said. “There will probably not be as much variety in some departments, but we think it will be a good size for that particular area of the world. The concept has the potential to be used in other areas; what it really boils down to is where does it make sense. The DFW market is just so competitive and overhead is much higher there, so we have to do things differently in order to compete and be profitable. I think that we will use this size store where it makes sense, and the size also affords us the opportunity to use the concept more frequently.”

There are three Amigos United stores and more are on the way.

“As the name would suggest, Amigos is for our Hispanic shoppers primarily, or folks who want and love authentic Mexican flavors,” Owens said. “The Hispanic population in Texas is the part of the demographic that is growing tremendously in many areas, and that is especially true here in west Texas. And Amigos gives us the opportunity to serve a demographic and culture that is probably underserved in a lot of ways. We want to address that and we want to meet them where they are in their grocery shopping experience.”

The first Amigos opened as United Supermercado in Plainview a few years ago and was “not much more than a United with a Hispanic name,” Owens said. “We’ve been working on that ever since, and it continues to be a learning experience.”

The three existing Amigos were converted United Supermarkets locations, but “they are merchandised completely differently than a traditional United. We’ve done that to some degree in some of our traditional United locations as well; in communities where we only have one store and they have a larger Hispanic population, we will merchandise those stores differently to try to meet those needs. But larger populations give us the opportunity to target the Hispanic community with an Amigos store,” Owens said.

Sometime next year, the first Amigos built from the ground up will open in Hereford, TX. “We have the opportunity there to build a store and merchandise not only for a predominately Hispanic community, but also try to reach out and meet the shopping needs of the Anglo population in that community as well.”

“It’s a very unique experience — and opportunity — for us. But you will see many products inside the Amigos stores that you’re not going to see at a traditional United or Market Street because it is very much geared toward the culture and cuisine of the Hispanic community.”

United strives to represent “the diversity of Texas itself” with its family of stores.

It is rare to see that kind of breadth in a chain of any size, much less one with fewer than 100 stores.

“We represent the diversity of Texas itself. Not only are we a growing state, but we are a state that is growing among many different cultures and demographic groups. We are doing our very best to reach out to meet the shopping needs of a wide variety of audiences,” Owens said. “We’re a pretty small regional chain, but it’s safe to say we’re doing our very best to be as progressive as possible, knowing how much this business changes on a daily basis.”

Aside from the two stores scheduled to open next year, The United Family “will continue to evaluate our geographic areas where we can best function — essentially a 250-mile radius of our two DCs — and see what makes sense,” Owens said.

“We are contained to Texas right now, but a 250-mile radius from Lubbock or Roanoke gets us into possibly Oklahoma or New Mexico if there are opportunities there that our real estate team has identified that make sense. And I don’t think that’s out of the realm of possibility.”

Regardless of future plans, The United Family still embodies the philosophy of its founder — service, quality, value, and community involvement.

“First and foremost, we will continue to maintain our service position. That is our number-one commitment across all our brands. That is what we have hung our hat on for almost 100 years,” Owens said. “The second piece of that proposition is exceptional products. We will do everything we can to meet our guests’ shopping needs across the spectrum. Understanding that all four of our retail brands offer a very different shopping experience, we will continue to massage those shopping experiences and learn from them and continue to strive to be the very best with those brands.

“And the third element speaks to our community presence. Our ownership is committed to that, and we as a company, consequently, are committed to that as well, and we will continue to position ourselves as a community partner everywhere we have a presence.”

That includes voluntary community service opportunities for all United Family stores and employees through the company’s UCrew program. Founded more than a decade ago, UCrew teams recorded more than 50,000 hours of volunteer service in its first 10 years — and added 10,000 hours in the year since.

“Our ownership family’s vision statement is ‘serving and enriching the lives of others’ —that really is the core of what we’re all about as a company,” Owens said. “That’s what makes this company so special to work for — it has a good heart, and it has a good heart because of the people who have been at the core of the company since day one.”