Corporate Office HQ

eBay Corporate Office

eBay

eBay was originally founded under the name AuctionWeb in 1994 by Pierre Omidyar in San Jose, California. The first item sold on the site was a broken laser pointer. Omidyar called the auction winner, asking if he realized the laser was broken. The client said he knew and wanted it because he collected broken laser pointers! This led Omidyar to believe that, no matter what someone wanted to sell, there was someone who would be willing to buy it.

History

Growth was rapid. Omidyar kept working on eBay, but only as a side job. It wasn’t until his ISP told him he would have to start paying for a business site. This forced Omidyar to start charging customers for using the site. He was sure that would be the of his endeavor, but no one seemed to mind.

In January 1997, the site was hosting 2 million auctions per month. In September 1997, the name was officially changed to eBay. Also in 1997, the company received venture funding from Benchmark Capital. Meg Whitman was hired as CEO in March 1998. At that time, the company had 30 employees and more than half a million users.

eBay went public in September of 1998 on the NASDAQ and can be found under the ticker symbol: EBAY:US. Omidyar became instant billionaires. eBay’s target share price of $18 was virtually ignored as the price went to $53.50 on the first day of trading.

In 2002, the company purchased IBazar and Paypal.

In 2005, the company acquired Skype, an online phone and messaging service.

By 2008, the company had expanded worldwide and is one of the few success stories from the dot-com bubble.

In late 2009, eBay sold the majority of their interest in SKYPE, retaining only a 30% interest.

On September 30, 2014, eBay announced it would spin off PayPal into a separate publicly traded company.

In 2016, the company had $8.9 billion in annual revenue and employes more than 14,000 persons.

On January 31, 2018, eBay announced that they would replace PayPal as its primary payments provider with Netherlands based start-up, Adyen.

Online sites such as eBay are changing the American marketplace. Target’s popular clothing line Vineyard Vines was sold out at most stores within an hour, but some items ended up selling on eBay for double the original price.

An apparent misunderstanding led people to believe that eBay was soon going to accept cryptocurrency, such as Bitcoin, in 2019. eBay officials state that they have no plans to accept cryptocurrency in the future.

The eBay corporate office is still located in San Jose, California.

Harris Teeter Corporate Office

Harris Teeter

Harris Teeter began in 1936 when William Thomas Harris and Willis L. Teeter opened Harris Super Market in Charlotte, North Carolina. This store still exists, though it is currently being renovated.

Harris had been an employee of an A&P store. He borrowed some money to help open the first store, which had 8 employees. It was mainly a dry goods and canned goods store at that time, since refrigeration was uncommon until after WWII.

History

In 1939, Willis and Robert Teeter opened Teeter’s Food Mart in Charleston, South Carolina. The company was the first in North Carolina which allowed customers to select their own items. To appeal to working families, the store remained open until 9PM on Fridays. This enabled the company to cash checks and allowed families to do shopping on Friday night, rather than Saturday.

The store in Charlotte was the first to add air conditioning as well.

In 1960, these two companies merged and opened their first joint venture in Kannapolis.

In 1969, Harris Teeter was purchased by the Ruddick Corporation.

In 1980, the company purchased Harris Farms dairy. In 1984, Food World was acquired.

In the late 1980s, the company began to expand outside of the Carolinas under the leadership of Edward Dunn. The chain was the first to test plastic shopping bags and also the first to install child belts into shopping carts.

In 2013, the company was acquired by Kroger for $2.4 billion. Harris Teeter would continue to operate under their name as a subsidiary of Kroger, Inc.

In 2014, the company began installing fuel pumps at many locations. The first fueling station opened in Charlotte in 2015.

Harris Teeter Home Shopping Express Lane allows customers to shop for groceries online and pick them up at their neighborhood Harris Teeter store. As of October 2017, 178 stores offered online pickup service, with some areas also offers a home delivery option for an additional cost.

Today, the company operates over 245 stores along the east coast and in the south. In 2012, the company had annual revenue of $4.54 billion and employs approximately 30,000 persons. The Harris Teeter corporate office is located in Matthews, North Carolina.

Harris Teeter began in 1936 when William Thomas Harris and Willis L. Teeter opened Harris Super Market in Charlotte, North Carolina. This store still exists, though it is currently being renovated. Harris had been an employee of an A&P store. … [Continue reading] about Harris Teeter Corporate Office

Kroger Corporate Office

Kroger

Kroger was founded in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1883 by Bernard Kroger who invested his life savings of $372 to open a grocery store in the Mount Airy neighborhood of Cincinnati. Kroger was the son of a grocer and his motto was simple “Don’t sell anything you wouldn’t buy for yourself.”

Soon, Kroger was experimenting with different products, such as baked goods, so customers wouldn’t have to go to the baker. He was one of the original starters for One Stop Shopping.

History

Ahead of his time, Kroger was the first merchant to offer self-service. In the past, customers handed a list or asked a merchant for items behind the counter, Kroger allowed customers to browse through aisles themselves.

In the 1930s, Kroger was the first grocery to monitor product quality and first to have a store surrounded on all sides by a parking lot.

In 1955, Kroger acquired Henke & Pillot.

In the 1970s, Kroger was the first chain to introduce electronic checkout scanners. In 1972, the company constructed what was a the time the largest, most modern dairy facility in the US.

In 1983, Kroger acquired the Dillon Companies, a Kansas grocery chain. David Dillion is the current CEO of Kroger.

Many other acquisitions followed in recent years including Pay Less Food Markets, Hilander Foods and Scott’s Food & Pharmacy.

In 1997, the company merged with Fred Meyer.

In April of 2016, the company announced that they had taken a significant share in the Lucky supermarket chain.

In early 2017, the company announced that it needed to hire at least 10,000 full-time employees in the coming year. That same year, the company acquired Murray’s Cheese and stopped offering senior citizen discount days.

Kroger opened their first convenience store in Blacklick, Ohio, called Fresh Eats MKT. Each location will offer a Starbucks, as well as a Kroger Pharmacy.

Kroger is publicly traded on the NYSE under the ticker symbol: KR. In 2016, the company had annual revenue of $115.3 billion.

The company has been banning the use of Visa cards for payments due to high fees, with the most recent announcement in March 2019 that they would no longer accept Visa at their Smith’s Foods locations starting April 3rd, 2019.

In October 2022, the company announced that it would buy top competitor Albertsons Companies in a massive deal for more than $26 billion. If approved this would make Kroger, by far, the largest supermarket chain in the US.

Today, the company operates over 3500 stores. The Kroger corporate office is still located in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Kroger was founded in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1883 by Bernard Kroger who invested his life savings of $372 to open a grocery store in the Mount Airy neighborhood of Cincinnati. Kroger was the son of a grocer and his motto was simple "Don't sell anything … [Continue reading] about Kroger Corporate Office

Google Corporate Office

Google

Google began as a research project in 1996 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Originally called BackRub, the name was changed to Google and a domain was registered in 1997.

In 1999, the company moved from Menlo Park to Palo Alto.

History

The company has grown extremely quickly since incorporating in 1998. Google has acquired many other tech companies since 2001, including Keyhole Inc. whose software became Google Earth, Youtube, Grandcentral which became Google Voice and many other smaller companies.

Google has also acquired some of the biggest and most popular businesses on the internet, including Blogger and YouTube.

In 2004, the company went public and outsiders feared the company would lose their “do no evil” culture.

In September 2018, Google made numerous changes to their browser Chrome, including login changes that angered many users.

Today, the company process over 1 billion search queries per day and runs over 1 million servers in datacenters worldwide. The Google corporate office is located in Mountain View, California.

Google began as a research project in 1996 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Originally called BackRub, the name was changed to Google and a domain was registered in 1997. In 1999, the company moved from Menlo Park to Palo … [Continue reading] about Google Corporate Office

McDonalds Corporate Office

McDonalds

McDonald’s began in 1940 when Richard and Maurice McDonald opened a restaurant in San Bernardino, California.

In 1948, the brothers introduced the Speedee Service System, similar to the White Castle plan, which was the beginning of “fast food”.

History

In 1955, Ray Kroc opened the 9th location (a franchise). Kroc would later purchase the company from the brothers.

The original mascot was a chef wearing a large chef’s hat. This was replaced by the golden arches everyone knows today in 1962.

While the current organization credits Ray Kroc with the “founding” of the company in 1955, McDonald’s already had 8 locations when Kroc came to work for the company. Kroc later purchased the McDonald brothers’ equity in the company and began work on the company’s worldwide reach. Kroc was recorded as being an aggressive business partner, driving the McDonald brothers out of the industry.

In 1965, the company went public on the NYSE under the ticker symbol MD.

In 1967, Ronald McDonald was created as the company mascot.

The chain mostly sells hamburgers, fries, and drinks, however, it also offers chicken sandwiches and strips, fish burgers, wraps, salads, and vegetarian items, such as black bean “burgers”. The company is well known for its children’s meals, which they call “Happy Meals”. Along with Happy Meals, most restaurants offer children friendly playgrounds, indoor or outdoor, and occasionally, both.

Starting in 2009, the company began offering free Wi-Fi to its customers. McDonald’s restaurants are found in 120 countries and territories around the world and serve 68 million customers each day. At the end of 2016, the company operates 36,899 restaurants worldwide and employs more than 375,000 people. The company saw huge earnings in the first quarter of 2019, mainly due to a new menu item, Donut Stixs, and the ability to add bacon as a side to any order.

At the same time, the company announced that it would be reducing the number of items on their Late Night menu.

McDonald’s restaurants around the globe are phasing out plastic straws in exchange for paper ones. This has caused the old plastic straws to suddenly become “collectors” items on eBay, some selling for as much as $1300.

Yahoo listed McDonald’s as #1 on its list of America’s Most Hated Food Chains list of 2020.

In August 2021, a Russian woman sued McDonald’s stating that their advertisements for hamburgers were so enticing that she broke her vows during the Lent period.

Today, the company is the world’s largest hamburger chain. There are over 33,000 locations in 119 countries worldwide. McDonald’s corporate office is located in Oak Brook, Illinois.

McDonald's began in 1940 when Richard and Maurice McDonald opened a restaurant in San Bernardino, California. In 1948, the brothers introduced the Speedee Service System, similar to the White Castle plan, which was the beginning of "fast food". In … [Continue reading] about McDonalds Corporate Office