You’ve probably seen the empty buildings or the fading signs. If you live in Montgomery, you definitely know the name. Calhoun Foods Montgomery Alabama wasn't just another place to buy bread and milk. It was a massive piece of local history that proved a point to everyone who said it couldn't be done.
Honestly, it’s kinda rare to see a business mean so much to a neighborhood's identity. But that’s exactly what Greg Calhoun built.
The Kid Who Bought the Store
The story starts back in 1968. Imagine a 14-year-old kid named Gregory Calhoun bagging groceries at a supermarket on West Fairview Avenue. Most kids that age are just looking for pocket change. Greg was looking at the deed. He told people—flat out—that he’d own the place one day.
They laughed. Of course they did.
Fast forward to 1984. Greg is 32. He hasn't forgotten the dream. He pulls together $735,000—which, let's be real, was a mountain of money in the mid-80s—and buys the Super Food and Big Bear Supermarket. It was the exact same store where he started as a bag boy. Just like that, he became the first African American to own a major grocery store in the South.
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Why Calhoun Foods Montgomery Alabama Actually Mattered
For a long time, West Montgomery was basically a food desert in the making. Big national chains didn't want to be there. They saw "low income" and they saw "risk." Greg Calhoun saw a community that needed to eat.
He didn't just open a shop; he built an empire. At its peak, Calhoun Enterprises was pulling in over $100 million in annual revenue. We're talking 15 stores across Alabama and even into Georgia.
- He hired the "unemployable": Greg was famous for giving jobs to people others wouldn't touch.
- He fought food deserts: He put full-service supermarkets in underserved neighborhoods like Selma and Tuskegee.
- The Steve Harvey Connection: Later in life, he partnered with Steve Harvey on business ventures like HarCal, proving his reach went way beyond the checkout counter.
He used to say that if he didn't do it, nobody would. He felt a literal responsibility to keep those doors open so people didn't have to take three buses just to find a fresh apple.
The Reality of the 2015 Closing
People still ask why the stores vanished. It wasn't one thing. It was everything.
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The grocery business is brutal. The margins are thinner than a slice of deli ham. By the 2010s, giant retailers like Walmart were squeezing everyone. When you’re a local chain, you can't always compete with the "Always Low Prices" of a global behemoth.
In 2015, the last Calhoun Foods Montgomery Alabama location finally closed its doors. Greg was open about it, telling reporters at the time that while he regretted leaving the city without a Black-owned grocery, "business is business."
He didn't quit, though. He just shifted. He moved into telecommunications, marketing for brands like Coca-Cola and Frito-Lay, and even manufacturing latex gloves in Eufaula.
The Legacy Left Behind
When Greg Calhoun passed away in 2018 at the age of 66, the tributes weren't just from business partners. They were from people who remembered him standing in his old bagging spot on Thursday afternoons. He’d show up at his stores and bag groceries just to stay grounded.
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He was a man who marched in Selma as a kid and grew up to tour the country with President Bill Clinton to talk about economic development. That’s not a normal career path.
What can we learn from the Calhoun Foods story?
If you're looking for the "secret sauce" behind what made this business work for 30 years, it wasn't just luck.
- Ownership is everything. Greg realized early that working for the man wasn't enough. He needed to be the man holding the keys.
- Community loyalty is earned. He didn't just take money from the neighborhood; he put it back in by hiring locally and supporting civil rights causes.
- Adapt or die. Even when the grocery stores became too much to handle, he had already branched out into six other industries.
Moving Forward in Montgomery
Today, the grocery landscape in Montgomery is still a bit of a battleground. Food insecurity is a real issue in the areas where Calhoun Foods used to thrive.
If you want to support the spirit of what Greg Calhoun started, the best thing you can do is shop at local, independent grocers whenever possible. The "big guys" will always be there, but the neighborhood spots—the ones that actually know your name—are the ones that keep a community's heart beating.
Keep an eye on the Fairview Avenue corridor. There are always talks of revitalization, and any new business that moves in owes a huge debt to the man who first proved that West Montgomery was worth the investment.
Supporting local entrepreneurship isn't just a "nice thing to do." It's how you prevent history from repeating itself in the form of empty storefronts. Take a look at the local markets near you this week and see who's actually invested in your zip code.