History

The brainchild of brothers Harold Toppel and George Toppel, Pueblo began as a single store operation on Roosevelt Avenue in the Puerto Nuevo section of San Juan, Puerto Rico

San Juan, Puerto Rico

San Juan , officially Municipio de la Ciudad Capital San Juan Bautista , is the capital and most populous municipality in Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 395,326 making it the 46th-largest city under the jurisdiction of...

. The success of the first store led the Toppels to open 43 other Pueblo Supermarkets around the Island and, by 1960, to convert the enterprise into a public corporation that began trading on the New York Stock Exchange

New York Stock Exchange

The New York Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located at 11 Wall Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City, USA. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed companies at 13.39 trillion as of Dec 2010...

.

In 1963, Pueblo expanded beyond Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

's shores to other U.S. territories. Pueblo opened stores in St. Thomas and St. Croix, quickly becoming a popular supermarket chain.

The company also introduced the trademark Pueblo Foods, which included anything from paper towels to rice and was sold in all Pueblo stores.

In 1983, Pueblo launched the Pueblo Xtra concept, a discount warehouse type supermarket which allowed the customer to shop for food in a larger store featuring lower prices. The lower prices were because the Xtra stores had no baggers; less employees, more savings. In 1990, Pueblo introduced Blockbuster Video to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands

Virgin Islands

The Virgin Islands are the western island group of the Leeward Islands, which are the northern part of the Lesser Antilles, which form the border between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean...

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Bankruptcy

In 2003, Pueblo faced financial troubles and there were rumors of a potential buyer from Venezuela

Venezuela

Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...

. Despite this, Pueblo's management remained optimistic about the company's future.

In 2007, Pueblo appeared to be facing serious financial difficulties again, as many locations were closed. Some were acquired and taken over by rival supermarkets Econo, Grande, COOP and Supermax

Supermax

Supermax is the name used to describe "control-unit" prisons, or units within prisons, which represent the most secure levels of custody in the prison systems of certain countries...

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Reopening and PS Acquisition

The entire chain was expected to cease operations in September 2007, until a bid by Ramón Calderón

Ramón Calderón

José Ramón Calderón Ramos is a lawyer and an ex-President of Spanish sports club Real Madrid.-Life and career:...

 president of Holsum of Puerto Rico (a baker goods company) for $139 million succeeded in taking over the rest of its operations. The new parent company expects to restructure Pueblo in an effort to revive the brand.

In September, 2009 its flagship store in Carolina, PR (in front of their corporate headquarters) changed its name to Econo. Its unknown at this time if this means the end of the Pueblo brand.