New Midtown grocery store
4 things to know about Gordon Food Service.
Gordon Food Service opens its planned Midtown store, it will be the chain’s first foray into the Memphis market.
The grocery store is planned for 1460 Union Ave., according to an application for signage Gordon submitted to the Memphis and Shelby County Board of Adjustment.
Here are four things to know about the company and what you can expect from the new store.
Don’t expect supermarket size
The store, moving into the Officemax building, will have a smaller footprint than the nearby Kroger and Cash Saver, but will still offer produce, dairy, meat and canned and packaged products.
Yana Brown, product manager for Gordon Food Service Store, said the retail arm differentiated Gordon from other foodservice companies.
“We have the stores that span between Marquette, Michigan, and Key West, Florida. Those stores offer foodservice quality products and services,” she said in a video on the company’s Youtube channel.
Gordon’s retail stores stock 21 private brands including the company’s own line of food products. The store will also carry products from Primo Gusto Italian Foods, Mosaic, Crown Collection, Hearthstone and Brickman’s, among other brands.
Each store carries about 3,300 different products.
The company said in a video on its website retail locations are intended to serve families, independent restaurants and catering businesses.
No Memphis jobs are currently listed on the company website.
Food sourcing, business advice
In addition to operating retail stores, the Michigan-based company sources food and drink for various organizations, said Jim Shiffler, director of category management for grocery and bakery.
“We source products from manufacturers, consolidate them at a distribuwhen tion center and we deliver those to foodservice operations whether it be restaurants, schools or hospitals,” he said.
Gordon also advises restaurants on business operations. During the pandemic, the company has created guides for restaurants transitioning to all carry-out and delivery, adjusting takeout packaging, updating air filtration systems inside restaurants and state-bystate information about financial resources available to businesses.
The company also supplies food and beverages to cruise ships, stadiums and entertainment venues and for “noncommercial segments” including hospitals, long-term care facilities, schools, colleges and universities, according to job postings from the company.
International reach
The Union Avenue store will be Gordon Food Service’s first Memphis location and will be the fifth in Tennessee. The chain already operates stores in Murfreesboro, Brentwood, Goodlettsville and Clarksville.
There are currently no stores in Arkansas or Mississippi.
The company opened its first retail food store in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1979 and now has more than 175 locations. It expanded operations into Canada in 1993.
In addition to the retail locations, the company has 16 distribution centers in the U.S. and eight in Canada. Gordon has more than 20,000 employees company-wide.
Family owned and operated
Gordon is the largest privately-held foodservice distributor in North America, and the Gordon family has owned and operated it since the company was founded in1897.
Dan Gordon said family ownership provided intangible and measurable benefits.
“We can run this business for the long term. We can make decisions that make sense to build strength for the future,” he said. “We aren’t consumed with quarterly financial benchmarks that so many public companies run their businesses on.”