Title: Grocery chain store owner
Birthdate: December 18, 1859 November 30, 1924 Section 141, Lot
Death Date: November 30, 1924
Plot Location: Section 141, Lot 13

This is the story of a lad born in Ireland who, with his friends, came to Philadelphia to be grocers. Ironically, he was born the same year as the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, known simply as the A&P. That company became the world’s largest retailer by 1930. George and his friends formed a grocery chain that wasn’t as big, but “the Acme” was the largest in Philadelphia for most of its first 100 years.
George was fortunate when he arrived in Philadelphia at age 19 to be met by people he knew. Uncle Alex Dunlap, his wife, and their five children welcomed him into their home. The 1880 census includes George in their household on Fitzwater Street with the occupation of grocery clerk, just like his uncle.
The Dunlap family’s roots were in County Antrim in Northern Ireland. George and two of his friends apprenticed at different times with the same grocer there in the coastal town of Portrush. Then they made the voyage to do the same thing here (but whether they all came at the same time is unknown). George and his friends, Tom Hunter and Bob Crawford, went their separate ways but, after a few years, each had started their own store.
The Retailing Revolution
The grocery business was about to radically change in Philadelphia, where almost every street corner had a food store. Often there was more than one but, just like the houses around them, they might be only 20 feet wide by 80 feet deep. Stocked with just the basics, people also had to stop at the bakery, the butcher, fish dealers, and produce stands.
At the corner store, customers would tell a clerk or “boy” what they wanted or give him a list and he would collect the items. Paying was largely on credit by the week or by the pay period, so the cost of collecting debts factored into the pricing.
All of that would change as George and others followed the “chain store” concept, which had originated years earlier at the A&P. Besides having multiple locations, they instituted standardized business practices and branding, and as larger quantities were purchased from wholesalers, consumers benefited from lower prices.
Philadelphia’s department store innovator, John Wanamaker, stirred the pot when he introduced price tags, eliminating the centuries-old practice of haggling. That would soon carry over to the food store as the “cash and carry” concept was introduced.
Customers would select their own pre-priced merchandise off the shelves, which reduced the number of clerks required. The “cashier” was called that because payment was collected in cash, reducing the amount of bad debt. After the “checkout,” patrons carried their groceries home, eliminating delivery costs. All of those savings led to lower prices, increased business, and further expansion.
The Dunlap Stores and Burial Plot
The first store George bought was at the corner of 6th and Mercy Streets. He became a naturalized citizen in 1889 and married Sophie Reid Park on New Year’s Eve of 1890. By 1900 they were living at 3404 Spring Garden Street with their two boys and two girls. It’s estimated he owned at least 15 stores by then and they were taking their summer vacations in Atlantic City. That prompted him in 1903 to build a store there on Atlantic Avenue. It was larger than average, at 30 feet by 125 feet.
George hired Sophie’s brother, James Park, who became vice president of the Dunlap Stores in the early 1900s. As a former real estate broker, he probably had a say in negotiating the purchase of stores or buying properties for new ones.
Grocers use the term “perishable” in referring to fresh food, but smart ones know that life is also like that, so James partnered with George on two adjacent lots at Mount Moriah which the two families would share. James also drafted his will in 1903 when he was just 47. In it, even before discussing his estate, he stipulated that the plot “shall not be sold, but it shall be kept in the family as a place of burial.” That was true at least for the Park family, but the Dunlap descendants would later make other plans.
The Irish Grocers on the Move
Meanwhile, Bob Crawford met another friend arriving from Ireland, Sam Robertson, and helped him get a grocery job. They saved enough to buy a store together in 1891 and added more locations every year to the Robertson & Crawford chain of stores. Tom Hunter was the most aggressive with his growth plan, expanding from one store in 1885 to over 40 stores before the century ended, and calling his stores the Acme Tea Company.
Unlike the little corner stores, chains could afford newspaper advertising, and “weekly specials” began appearing regularly in the early 1900s. This is one of George’s more clever ads with an attention-getting headline that played off the suffrage issue. A lot of “help wanted” ads were also placed in the Classifieds section as the chains sought dependable workers.
Keeping good workers was even more important, as it always is. In 1901 the three Irish friends running those chains voluntarily cut back on their working hours without cutting back on pay. Where the clerks used to work from 6am-7pm six days a week the hours were reduced to 7am-6pm, but only on Mondays through Thursdays. Fridays and Saturdays were the most important selling days, just as they are today. Stores were always closed on Sundays.
In 1911 George and Sophie moved into a mansion on the corner of Chester Pike and Clifton Avenue in Sharon Hill, Delaware County. Eventually their oldest son tore it down and developed the property.
4 Irish + 1 English = Mega Merger
Two other immigrants had also built up a sizable portfolio of properties. By 1913 the five rival chains were operating 700 stores in the Delaware Valley. Some concerns were raised about the power they were amassing, but the facts proved otherwise. By 1917 those five had a total of 1223 stores but that was barely 20 percent of the total number of grocery stores in their market area.
That was the year those five companies agreed to a merger, changing their name to American Stores Company. Acme Tea was the largest with 433 stores, and James Bell, another Irishman, operated 214. Samuel Childs was the only English immigrant in the group, running 268 stores from his base in Camden, New Jersey. Robinson & Crawford had 186 and George owned 122.
The timing was right for several reasons in addition to a more efficient and economical way to do business. Both Tom Hunter and James Bell died in 1916, leaving their heirs willing to relinquish control, and Samuel Childs wanted to retire. Sam Robinson was elected president, with the positions of vice president going to George, Bob Crawford, and the current heads of Acme Tea, Bell, and Childs.
The stores adopted their new name as depicted in this early logo.
Store-brand products carried the name ASCO. The food business was revolutionized with the invention of the shopping cart in 1937, which facilitated the revolutionary creation of the “super market.” The company began introducing these spacious stores by giving them a new name that was actually an old
name, “Acme.”
The Dunlaps Deal with Demise and Death
It was a time of major changes for George and his family as well. One of Sophie’s brothers died in 1914, followed by her brother James Park, George’s partner, in 1915. Then Sophie herself died in 1918. Their middle son, John, served in World War I, had a bright future as a grocery store manager, and was at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School when he died in 1921, leaving a wife and infant son.
As for George Sr., he and Bob Crawford were named to the board of Liberty Title & Trust Co. in 1923. Growing award-winning flowers became George’s passion until he died of heart disease in 1924.
The Dunlap name faded from the public eye but left a long legacy through his sons. George Jr. started his career as a developer of homes in the suburbs, but was given a seat on the ASCO board of directors when it was created. He was also on the board of Liberty Title, and parceled off part of his father’s property in Sharon Hill and built between 50-100 row homes.
What became of the Dunlap Mansion is one of the greatest ironies in this family’s story. It was sat abandoned in the 1940s, was torn down, the lot stood empty for several years, then became a shopping center. What grocery store was built there in 1959? It was an Acme supermarket.
George’s youngest son Andrew attended Lehigh University, was an investment broker, then worked as a buyer for ASCO. Neither Andrew nor George Jr. had any children. Two daughters never married and lived their lives together in Villanova, where they died in the 1950s. George died in 1961 and Andrew in 1973.
The Park-Dunlap plot on Mausoleum Hill is one of several there that features a majestic obelisk in the middle bordered with a decorative “coping” wall, as shown above. James Park was joined by his wife and two of their seven children. George was buried with Sophie and son John on the other half.
Unfortunately, there are no longer any markers for the Dunlaps and their inscription on the obelisk was erased, leaving the Dunlap name only on the coping. The surviving children decided to remove all three graves in 1954 and inter them in another family plot closer to where they lived in Villanova.

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