Dillon Family
Grocery chain founders.
Ray Dillon worked in his father's grocery store in Sterling as a boy. After World War I, Ray with John and Clyde, his father and brother, began building grocery stores in Kansas. In the 1940s the 24 Dillons stores became self-service supermarkets. Instead of clerks filling grocery orders, customers pushed carts around the stores and selected items off the shelves.
Dillons supermarkets expanded outside Kansas as did their Kwik-Shops. The Kroger Corporation purchased most of the Dillons companies in the 1980s. Ray Dillon was inducted into the Kansas Business Hall of Fame in 1991.
Entry: Dillon Family
Author: G. Joseph Pierron
Author information: Judge Pierron serves on the Kansas Court of Appeals and has an interest in Kansas history.
Date Created: November 2012
Date Modified: November 2012
The author of this article is solely responsible for its content.
