In May 1941, downtown Birmingham got its first “super store,” but it wasn’t a Walmart or Target – it was an A&P grocery store. Advertisements in the Birmingham News billed it as a “mammoth supermarket.”

Click through the gallery at the top of this story for vintage photos of A&P stores in Alabama.

A&P, founded in the mid-1800s in New York as the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. Inc., began as a mail order tea company but would go on to revolutionize grocery shopping, according to Marc Levinson’s 2011 book ”The Great A&P and the Struggle for Small Business in America.”

Before the early 20th century, people purchased groceries by taking a list to a worker behind the counter and having that person fill the order (if you’re old enough, picture the mercantile shown on TV’s “Little House on the Prairie.”) In addition, groceries could be delivered and customers could run tabs. But in 1912, the company, by then known as A&P, opened an unusual kind of store.

“The cash and carry store, with plain furnishings and fixtures, offered no credit, no deliveries and no premiums – just quality groceries at very low prices,” according to a history on an archived company website.

One major change was that the canned goods, dairy and produce were lined up on shelves for customers to choose for themselves. It was the original “self-serve” shopping experience. In a new book, Levinson

[Shoppers] would have to go to two or three different grocery stories in their neighborhood if they wanted different type of goods, plus the butcher, the baker, and the fruit and vegetable store. … The consumer’s choices were pretty constrained.”

A&P and other grocers would later benefit from the invention of the shopping cart, invented in 1937 by Sylvan Goldman, owner of the Humpty Dumpty supermarket chain, according to an ad in The Oklahoma News.

The first store in Alabama opened in Fairfield in 1925, according to BhamWiki.com, a locally run encyclopedia site.

By 1941, there were 16 A&P stores in the Birmingham metro area, according to an article in The Birmingham News at the time. The article announced that a 17th location, the downtown “super-store,” would open in May at 1729 Fifth Avenue North.

The article quoted company spokesperson A.J. Wright: “Thousands of housewives from throughout Birmingham already are familiar with A&P super markets because they have been shopping in them in 16 other parts of the city. Our new store will provide a convenient downtown location for these woman …”

A&P became known for its numerous in-house brands, including Eight O’Clock Coffee, America’s Choice, Via Roma, Live Better, Great Atlantic Seafood Market and Jane Parker.

The chain quickly became “the largest retailer in the world” and the first to sell $1 billion in goods, Levison wrote in his book. The chain would eventually include 16,000 stores.

In 1963, the chain debuted its version of S&H Green Stamps. The company offered Plaid Stamps that could be redeemed for merchandise.

The company enjoyed great success throughout the 20th century, but filed for bankruptcy in 2010. It closed in 2016.

These days, people who loved A&P’s brands can still find coffee and tea at the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company online. Check it out here.