(Dec. 24, 1920–Nov. 27,1996). George Joseph (Joe) O’Malia was the founder of central Indiana grocery chain . Born and raised in Indianapolis, Joe was the son of Thomas and Margaret O’Malia, the fourth of nine children. O’Malia and his family experienced the hardships of the Great Depression when his father refused to work below union wages and lost his job in construction. O’Malia finished his senior year at New Augusta High School camping in nearby woods when the bank reclaimed the family home.
Upon graduating in 1938, O’Malia worked as a stock boy for Kroger, the start of a near-lifetime career in the grocery industry. In 1942, he joined the U.S. Navy and served four years as a pharmacist mate in the South Pacific. He returned to Indianapolis in 1945, having married Lois Walter in 1944 while on leave. The couple had four children.
O’Malia soon became manager at the Kroger supermarket in but became dissatisfied with the structure of Kroger’s national chain. From there, he joined Lipot Frankowitz’s Stop and Shop chain, eventually becoming the manager. Frankowitz became O’Malia’s mentor in the grocery trade, teaching him about product display, customer service, and advertising.
In 1956, O’Malia and partner Don Kennedy bought Roth’s Food Market located in 6300 block of Guilford Avenue in Broad Ripple. The enterprise initially was successful but, upon opening a second store at West 10th Street near High School Road, it struggled financially. Roth’s Food Markets failed a couple of years later. O’Malia returned to Stop and Shop until Frankowitz sold to an out-of-state chain.
He then became manager of Francis Preston’s grocery store at 71st Street and Keystone Avenue. His stint at Preston’s was important as he met his longtime business partner Danny Barton, who was produce manager, at the store. Applying all of the knowledge he had accumulated, at age 46, O’Malia opened O’Malia’s Food Market at 10450 North College Avenue in Clay Township in in 1966. He introduced Stouffer’s frozen dinners to the Indianapolis area in 1967.
O’Malia understood that the area was ripe for development and experienced massive success with this new market chain, eventually opening numerous different markets bearing his name throughout central Indiana. In 1986, he opened the only full-service grocery store in the downtown area, housed in the former Sears Roebuck building on North Alabama Street. By the mid-1990s, the chain had grown to eight stores and one bakery, located primarily on the northside of Indianapolis with a corporate headquarters in .
By the mid-1990s, O’Malia’s Food Markets had grown to be a $59 million-per-year enterprise. After Joe O’Malia’s death in 1996, O’Malia’s children continued to run the business until 2001, when another local grocery chain, bought the company. O’Malia’s Food Markets operated as Marsh’s high-end brand until closing its final location on 126th Street in Carmel in 2017.
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