THOROFARE, N.J. -- The 36-unit Heritage's Dairy Stores Inc. is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its first store opening Wednesday with a cake-cutting ceremony and giveaways at its Westville Grove, N.J., location. Each store then will follow suit on its anniversary date, said The Gloucester County Times.
Harold H. Grandpop Skeets Heritage and his brother, Sam, inherited 50 acres of land each on both sides of Jessup Road in Thorofare early in the 20th century and supported their families by harvesting vegetables and fruit. Skeets also sold gravel. During [image-nocss] the Great Depression, Skeets found he needed an additional way to earn money and decided that the dairy business was a possible answer.
In 1930, he began serving milk to family, friends and neighbors in the Thorofare and Woodbury areas. Delivering milk from his Model A Ford, Skeets soon was delivering 100 quarts a day. In 1936, he purchased a milk route in Paulsboro, N.J. Next, he leased farm land in Thorofare to produce feed for his cows, growing hay, corn and soybeans. Skeets, family members and one full-time employee began pasteurizing and then homogenizing milk in 1937, and bottling it for sale.
After the was, son Skeets Jr. earned a degree in dairy manufacturing from Rutgers at age 25 and came home to assist with the family business. He worked in the plant and had a milk route.
Heritage's Dairy Stores was formed because Grandpop Skeets and Skeets Jr. knew that home delivery of milk was on the upswing. They wanted to open a store to handle the volume of milk that the plant was producing. Skeets Jr. visited Lawson's Milk Co., a convenience store chain in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, to study retail control.
The two Skeets searched for the ideal Gloucester County location and found it in an old hoagie shop in Westville Grove, selecting it because it was on the outer edge of their home delivery business and wouldn't be in conflict, said the report. The grand opening for Store No. 1 was Oct. 10, 1957. President Eisenhower was sworn in for his second term and Elvis Presley appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show for the third and final time, the newspaper said.
Operating from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week, it was known essentially as a milk store but also sold bread, candy, cigarettes, packaged meats, and some groceries. There were just two employees.
Heritage's was the first New Jersey store to sell milk in gallon jugs and was one of the state's first convenience stores, the report said.
Grandson Skeeter Heritage is president of Heritage's Dairy Stores and secretary-treasurer of Heritage's Wholesale Co. His brother Jack is president of wholesale and secretary-treasurer of the stores. Skeeter's wife, Pat, is vice president of both.
The company continues to use the same milk recipe. It wholesales candy, tobacco and groceries from a company which supplies 75% of the products sold in the store.
There currently are no prospects for new stores, Jack Heritage, active in the company since 1971, told the Times, but we're looking at upgrading the physical structure and appearance of the ones we have.
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