Pantry Pride

Ghost Corp Apparel — resurrecting iconic corporate ghosts.

Pantry Pride arrived in 1964 as Food Fair Stores’ stripped-down, bargain-minded supermarket banner. The first location opened in Hazlet, New Jersey, on August 26, 1964. The name spread rapidly through Food Fair’s eastern grocery empire: fluorescent aisles, low prices, and the comforting possibility that your cart contained substantially more canned goods than your kitchen could reasonably hold.

Before the Pantry Pride name took command of the signage, Food Fair operated from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A 1977 Federal Trade Commission filing identified Food Fair Stores—doing business as Pantry Pride—with its principal office at 3175 John F. Kennedy Boulevard. The chain’s expansion proved expensive, and Food Fair entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1978.

The reorganized business emerged on July 6, 1981 as Pantry Pride, Inc., with executive offices in Florida and headquarters associated with Fort Lauderdale. It was no longer merely a grocery story. In 1984 it acquired Devon Stores, a home-improvement retailer, and a controlling interest in Adams Drug Stores, giving the cart a few extra aisles.

In 1985, Ronald Perelman’s Pantry Pride acquired Revlon. On April 7, 1986, Pantry Pride changed its corporate name to Revlon Group, ending Pantry Pride’s corporate chapter even as the supermarket name lingered on some independently owned Florida stores.

Our Pantry Pride collection celebrates discount-aisle bravado, paper-bag practicality, and a supermarket name that somehow wound up in one of the era’s most famous takeover battles.