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Thank You to:
Food World Magazine, Supermarket News, Progressive Grocer Magazine, Food Marketing Institute, Supervalu Inc. - Eastern Region, The Diamond Family, The Schuster Family, Roy Marks, Leonard Jaslow, Al Rosenstadt, Ruth Sommer, Jerry Esterson
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| 1947 |
April 1st, Paul and Sonia Diamond, Sonia's mother, and Ben and
Devorah Schuster came to the US after WW II. For 5 weeks all of
them lived at 2308 Eutaw Place with aunt Jesse and uncle Henry
Turk. Cousins prepared a separate apartment for Paul and Sonia
Diamond at 1833 Linden Avenue. Ben and Devorah Schuster
moved to New York and Ben taught in a yeshiva.
Paul worked in Washington, D.C. at his cousin's (Harry Zeitelman)
restaurant across the street from the White House. Paul went to
night school for a few months, in D.C., to learn English. He quit his
job with Zeitelman and went to work for another cousin, Nathan
Zuriff. It was a small store that sold socks, scarves, etc. Paul got
paid $35/week. When Zurrif was supposed to give him a $5 raise
and didn't do it, Paul could not continue working for "peanuts."
Sonia worked in a sewing factory making $18/week, but she became
pregnant and got sick which forced her to stop working.
They moved out of Linden Avenue and moved to Baltimore Street
& Eden Street. Nathan Zurrif owned the building. The living
conditions were poor, so Paul and Sonia moved out after 1 month.
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| 1948 |
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January 1st, Paul and Sonia Diamond bought their first store on 174
West Cross Street. They paid $4,000 for the store, which was old
and falling apart. They borrowed most of the money from Paul's
cousins (aunt Becky and uncle Joe Savitz, the Turks, Sol Goldstein,
the Aliker's and the Roskes') and signed a note to pay it all back to
them.
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| Paul and Sonia also had saved $500, which they had from
gifts. They lived above the store until they sold it in 1949.
Their first son, Abe H. Diamond, was born Friday night April 2,
1948 at 11:38 pm. And the bris was on Saturday. |
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| 1949 |
Ben and Devorah Schuster came back to Baltimore and bought their
first store on Mount & Mosher Avenue.
In March, Dave Diamond arrived in Baltimore from Europe. He was
sick and went to Mount Pleasant Hospital on Mount & Fayette St.
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| 1950 |
 Paul and Sonia bought a store at Harlem Avenue & Mount Street and
sold the old store on West Cross Street. Their second son, Marvin
Diamond was born on October 31, 1950.
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| 1952 |
Ben and Paul bought Dave Diamond his first store. |
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| 1955 |
Dave sold his old store and bought a store on Fayette Street &
Baltimore Street with a partner, Saul Sirok. After a while, Dave
did not want to be in business without Paul and Ben.
Paul and Sonia's third son, Sidney Diamond,was born.
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| 1956 |
Paul and Sonia Diamond moved into their home on Highgate Avenue.
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| 1957 |
Paul and Sonia's daughter, Susie Diamond, was born December 11, 1957.
Paul and Ben bought a self-service grocery store together in Druid Hill.
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| 1958 |
Paul and Sonia Diamond sold their Harlem Avenue Store. |
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| 1960 |
Paul Diamond, Dave Diamond, and Ben Schuster
bought a full-size grocery store together at
Liberty Road & Garrison Blvd.
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They named it
FOOD-A-RAMA.
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| 1970 |
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Food-A-Rama owned and operated 5 supermarkets.
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| 1973 |
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The Universal Product Code (UPC) - the postage stamp sized symbol printed on packaged goods - was introduced.
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| 1974 |
Food-A-Rama owned and operated 11 supermarkets in the inner
city.
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| 1975 |
Paul Diamond's eldest son, Abe, joined Food-A-Rama.
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| 1976 |
In February/March, Food-A-Rama, along with B.Green & Co., made
it's first large acquisition by purchasing 6 Big Valu supermarkets
from the Penn Fruit Company.
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| 1978 |
| In August, Food-A-Rama became the first local grocery chain to
open a Warehouse Store in Baltimore. They were called Warehouse
Food Markets, until later on when the name was changed to Cost
Saver Warehouse Food Markets.
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| 1979 |
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Food-A-Rama owned a total of 19 stores.
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| 1980 |
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Food-A-Rama had 6 warehouse stores.
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| 1981 |
In August, Food-A-Rama bought 11 Pantry Pride stores after
Pantry Pride declared bankruptcy. The Pantry Pride stores were re-opened
as Super Super high volume stores.
In December, Food-A-Rama bought 3 more Pantry Pride stores.
Pantry Pride TV Commercial
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| 1982 |
Food-A-Rama became the 2nd largest supermarket chain in Baltimore behind Giant Food.
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| 1983 |
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Food-A-Rama began to remodel some of the stores with improved
technology. They were using B.Green & Co. and Super Rite Foods
as the 2 main grocery suppliers for all the stores.
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| 1984 |
In March, Food-A-Rama bought 10 Basics Food Warehouse stores
and 2 Grand Union stores in Washington, D.C. from the Grand
Union Company. Food-A-Rama and B.Green & Co. were having
informal talks about merging and going public.
Grand Union TV Commercial
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| In December, Food-A-Rama signed an agreement to sell the 48 store
chain to its main grocery supplier, Super Rite Foods. |
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| 1985 |
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| 1988 |
Paul Diamond met with the future owners of Seven Mile Market in Baltimore, MD. The owners requested to meet with Paul, for advice on opening the country's largest kosher supermarket.
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| 2003 |
November 4th, Ben Schuster was inducted into the Maryland Food Industry Hall of Fame at an awards presentation.
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1937
An Oklahoma supermarket owner (Sylvan Goldman) invented the shopping cart. |
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Richfood Holdings (Richfood Timeline) eventually bought Food-A-Rama's wholesalers - B.Green & Co. and Super Rite Foods |
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