Kings Super Markets is a supermarket chain headquartered in Parsippany

Morristown, New Jersey

Morristown is a town in Morris County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the town population was 18,411. It is the county seat of Morris County. Morristown became characterized as "the military capital of the American Revolution" because of its strategic role in the...

, New Jersey

New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

, with 24 upscale grocery stores in northern New Jersey and one in New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

. Founded in 1936, Kings was bought by UK retailer Marks & Spencer

Marks & Spencer

Marks and Spencer plc is a British retailer headquartered in the City of Westminster, London, with over 700 stores in the United Kingdom and over 300 stores spread across more than 40 countries. It specialises in the selling of clothing and luxury food products...

 in 1988 and later sold to a US investor group consisting of Angelo, Gordon & Co.

Angelo, Gordon & Co.

Angelo Gordon & Company is an American private equity firm focused on making distressed investments and a hedge fund sponsor. Within its hedge fund activities, Angelo Gordon focuses on a number of alternative investment strategies...

 and MTN Capital Partners LLC in 2006.

Kings operates today in a competitive market, operating in New Jersey alongside other chains such as ShopRite

ShopRite (United States)

ShopRite Supermarkets is a retailers' cooperative chain of supermarkets in the northeastern United States, with stores in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, and Pennsylvania...

 or Stop & Shop

Stop & Shop

The Stop & Shop Supermarket Company is a chain of supermarkets located mostly in the northeastern United States. Its main rivals are Shaw's Star Market and Hannaford in New England, while ShopRite and the A&P family of supermarkets are its main competition in New York and New Jersey.- History :Stop...

. Many features of today's mid-market stores have been offered at Kings for decades. The chain operates either in, or in close proximity to, affluent suburban towns, and its stores offer a mix of traditional and upmarket grocery items. Kings also offers "COOKINGSTUDIO" cooking classes at two of its locations.

In the 1980s, Kings was one of the last supermarket chains to offer traditional S&H Green Stamps

S&H Green Stamps

S&H Green Stamps were trading stamps popular in the United States from the 1930s until the late 1980s. They were distributed as part of a rewards program operated by the Sperry and Hutchinson company , founded in 1896 by Thomas Sperry and Shelly Hutchinson...

.

Kings Super Markets was acquired by the British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 firm Marks and Spencer plc in 1988 but achieved little in terms of expansion into new affluent markets. Marks and Spencer plc later made a number of attempts to sell the chain, putting its desire to further invest in the chain into doubt. New York-based Gristedes

Gristedes

Gristede's is a New York City-based chain of small supermarkets. It serves a mostly urban customer base.-History:The first Gristede's [grih-STEE-deez] was founded by brothers Diedrich and Charles Gristede in 1888...

made a bid for Kings, but the chain was eventually sold in 2006 to a US investor group.