pathmark began when some of the supermarkets of the wakefern food corporation, parent company of shoprite, broke away in 1968, as some independent new jersey grocers felt they needed to compete better with large supermarket chains. some members of the cooperative agreed to operate their stores under the shoprite name. wakefern was both a wholesale operation and a retail operation; among its members was a subgroup, "supermarkets operating co"., in union, new jersey, formed in 1956 by alex aidekman, herb brody, and milt perlmutter. this company opened shoprites; in 1963 it branched into nonfood retail by acquiring crown drugs.