The Humble History Of Ingles Supermarket Chains

If you haven't spent much time in rural pockets of the South, the name probably doesn't ring a bell. But for anyone who has, Ingles is a household name. The grocery chain retailer falls on the smaller side of the grocery spectrum, even compared to other region players like Publix, the undisputed Southern grocery staple. Smaller as it may be, Ingles is a mainstay across pockets of the South, with stores spanning the Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, and Virginia, mostly in rural regions. Its nearly 200 stores boast amenities beyond just groceries — its own pharmacies, gas stations, and like many American chain groceries, an impressive deli section. But Ingle's roots are something of a rags-to-riches tale, as far as retail origin stories go. 

First opening doors in 1963, the original Ingles was built in Asheville, NC by Robert Ingle, whose entrepreneurial spirit and roots in the grocery business ran generations deep. His grandfather, Franklin Pierce Ingles, ran an Asheville-area grocery store as far back as the 1890s, and his father too ran a grocery store of his own. After attending university and serving in the military in the Korean War, Robert Ingle returned in 1960 at age 27 to his hometown of Ashevillle, where he'd follow in the well-trodden family footsteps and become the third generation to launch a grocery business. To raise the money, Ingle worked post-college at another Asheville grocery store, saving and relying on family resources until he had enough to finance his own store.

While the Ingles business is booming these days, with revenue in the billions in recent years, the early days of the business looked a little different. After opening the flagship store, Robert Ingle, his wife Laura, and other close family and friends worked round the clock, keeping the store open seven days a week and shilling numerous promotions, price cuts, and other tactics to get folks in the door. By the following year, their efforts were paying off enough to launch a second store, and then another handful in 1967. The following decades would bring more growth for the family business, as they branched out from their home base of Asheville to open locations across state lines. 

With the constant news of mergers and acquisitions of once-small, family-owned brands, it's something of a rarity for a family-run business to remain so. This is a fact that Robert Ingle's son, Robert "Bobby" Ingle II, is well aware of. "Bobby" Ingle, who still resides in the Asheville area, holds 72% of the company's voting power, making him for all intents and purposes in control of daily operations, and keeping his late father's empire alive and well. Ingle, also the chair of the board, spoke to The Asheville Watchdog about the family business, commenting, "We've been lucky to still be in it. [Many family-run grocery businesses have been] grabbed up by the Krogers of the world or gone out of business."