Business & Finance: National City Foods

"I saw myself in 1906 again, driving Paddy from store to store, doing my level best to sell Cheese. The heartbreaks and disappointments all came back and were just as real as if they were just happening. Over again I ate my ten cent breakfast of coffee and rolls, and quietly slipped one into my pocket for lunch. I remembered the summer underwear and low shoes that I wore during that cold winter of 1907 ... the past when the Kraft Company was small and everybody called everybody else by his first name—even the stenographers. . . ."

This glimpse into the...