Ukrop's Super Markets

Ghost Corp Apparel — resurrecting iconic corporate ghosts.

Ukrop’s began in 1937, when 22-year-old Joe Ukrop and his father opened a compact grocery at 3111 Hull Street in South Richmond, Virginia. The little market was roughly the size of a two-car garage—an appropriately humble launchpad for a chain that would become woven into Central Virginia’s weekly routines.

Under the Ukrop family, the business expanded from that South Richmond storefront into Ukrop’s Super Markets, a regional grocery institution with stores across the Richmond area and beyond. The company also developed a serious prepared-food and bakery tradition, turning a trip for milk and dinner supplies into a strategically necessary stop for something baked, fried, iced, or otherwise impossible to leave behind.

The family announced the sale of its retail grocery operations to Ahold’s Giant-Carlisle division in December 2009. The acquisition of 25 stores was completed on February 8, 2010, and the former Ukrop’s supermarkets were converted to the Martin’s banner during spring 2010. The retail chain disappeared from the streetscape, but its food legacy continued separately through Ukrop’s Homestyle Foods.

Our Ukrop's Super Markets collection celebrates the Richmond grocery ghost that made errands feel a little more ceremonial. It’s for the cart pushers, bakery-case regulars, and anyone who understands that a supermarket can become local folklore—with a very good dessert table.