CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) – The man who helped turned $50 investments in a North Carolina grocery store into the Food Lion chain with more than 1,100 stores across the Southeast has died.
Ralph Ketner, 95, died Sunday, according to a news release from the grocery store chain. No cause of death was given by Food Lion officials or the funeral home handling his arrangements.
Ketner successfully gambled that bigger sales by lowering prices to where profit margins were razor thin were the best path to success.
In 1957, he opened the Food Town grocery store in Salisbury, North Carolina, with two friends, calling people in the phone book and asking for $50 or $100 investments.
About 125 people gave him money, and that one store grew into the Food Lion chain with stores across the Southeast. With stock splits over the years, an investor who bought $28 in stock originally ended up with $1 million, according to Food Lion.