Industry Retail Number of locations ? Headquarters Flint Ceased operations 1991 | Defunct 1991 Products Groceries Founded 1911 Fate Bankruptcy | |
Founder Michael and Kamol Hamady Area served Flint, Michigan-Saginaw, Michigan area | ||
Hamady Brothers was an American supermarket chain based in Flint, Michigan.
The chain was founded in 1911 by Michael and Kamol Hamady, who were immigrant cousins from Lebanon and referred to themselves as brothers. The chain grew into a $100,000,000 sales company with 36 supermarkets and shopping centers. Michael Hamady was the first CEO and was followed by his son Robert in 1954, his grand-nephew Jack in 1967, and by his grandson Robert Lee in 1969. Robert Lee restructured the company and sold it to Alex Dandy in 1974. The family business is best remembered for sending truckloads of food to the strikers in the famous sit-down strike in 1937 of General Motors' Fisher Body plant that led to the recognition of the United Auto Workers by the auto industry.
The chain expanded through Michigan in 1980 by purchasing 21 closed Kroger stores, primarily on the west side of the state. In 1985, Hamady bought two Hutch's supermarkets in Owosso, Michigan. As a result, an existing Hamady in Owosso was converted to a discount store called Price Rite. Hamady was purchased by Alex Dandy, who also owned Chatham supermarkets in Detroit.
By 1988, the former Kroger locations, along with some former Vescio locations in Saginaw, Michigan, had closed. Hamady declared bankruptcy in 1988, and closed the last of its stores in 1991. Some of their locations were sold to Kessel Food Markets, which was founded in 1981 by former Hamady vice president Al Kessel.
Jim Mccolgan, owner of Hamadys from 1988-1991, has announced that he is reopening a Hamadys in 2017 in Clio, with the desire to open other locations.