The story
Founded by Robert P. Ingle in 1963.1
The first Ingles store was opened by second-generation grocer Robert P. Ingle in 1963 and is located in Asheville, North Carolina. Ingle had worked in his uncle's store since he was five years old and was unable to convince his father to build a large store. The younger Ingle had a vision of 4000 square feet. When Elmer Ingle died in the 1950s, Robert Ingle sold the store because his mother could not run it. Seven years later at age 29, Ingle decided to build a new 10,000-square-foot store. He would have to compete with larger chains and with independent stores that used cooperative distributors.
To start his business, Ingle joined with his mother and sister, and they used all of their savings and a mortgage on the house. The first store opened on Hendersonville Road. In one year, that store was expanded, and in another year, a second location opened on Patton Avenue. Ingles was incorporated in 1965 in the state of North Carolina. In 1967, the company bought six Colonial supermarkets.
In 1982, Ingles purchased a milk processing plant from Sealtest, which it operates as Milkco Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary. Two-thirds of Milkco's business, which was later expanded beyond dairy to include products such as citrus, tea, and bottled water, is from food service distributors, grocery warehouses, and independent specialty retailers located in 17 states as of 2010. Ingles became a publicly traded company in 1987.
In the summer of 1996, the chain debuted its modern large-format store design, starting with its location in Dacula, Georgia. In the 2000s, the chain started building "Ingles Gas Express" gas stations with many of its newer stores. 107 of 198 locations now have fuel stations.
In February 2005, Ingles Markets announced it would restate financial statements for fiscal years 2002 and 2003 and the first three quarters of 2004, to correct the accounting for vendor allowances and certain other items. The restatement was a significant factor in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issuing a Wells notice to the firm in January 2006, indicating that it might bring an enforcement action against it. A settlement was reached with the SEC in April 2006 that did not require payment of a monetary penalty.
Following the death of Robert Ingle on March 6, 2011, his son Robert P. Ingle II became CEO.
In December 2012 and December 2013, the company collaborated with Eblen Charities' St. Nicholas Project on what they called "Ingles Toy Store," offering "toys, games, clothes and stocking stuffers" to needy North Carolina families.
In July 2021, Ingles collaborated with Creating A Family.
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In September 2024, Ingles was severely impaired by flooding from Hurricane Helene. The company's distribution center in Swannanoa was surrounded by water from the adjacent Swannanoa River. That and the closure of major highways throughout western North Carolina led to shortages on store shelves. The chain's credit card transactions are handled at its Asheville-area headquarters, which was flooded, causing all stores in the chain to accept only cash and check payments for days. Some stores without power and water temporarily closed, hampering rural communities with only one supermarket at a time when clean water and food was sorely needed. Lines formed outside other stores as staff allowed, in some cases, only five shoppers inside at a time. The storm caused $4.5 million in damage to the company's equipment and property. An additional $30.4 million worth of Ingles inventory was damaged or destroyed.
From Wikipedia’s article on Ingles, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.7