Ralph Thompson

Merchants Distributors, LLC

Merchants Distributors (MDI) is a privately-owned wholesale grocery store distributor headquartered in Hickory, NC. MDI supplies over 600 retail food stores with food and non-food items in NC, SC, GA, TN, VA, AL, WV, OH, FL, PA, MD, and KY. MDI celebrated its 85th anniversary on September 21, 2016. MDI's 85 year history is an interesting story of sacrifice, growth and success. It began as a small family business in the small town of Hickory, North Carolina, and as one local newspaper described it, "With little more than a bag of peanuts, an apple, and a stick of candy."​ What Lebanese immigrant Moses George and his sons purchased in 1931 for $17,000 has since grown to become a multimillion-dollar wholesale grocery company. Merchants Distributors is a great American success story but it is a company that has never forgotten its roots. Its success is based on: - Its values, its facilities, its variety, its Advertising programs, its cost of goods, and its innovations - The one thing that distinguishes MDI as superior to other distribution companies - leadership. MDI's owners have created a leadership style that supports the organization as one family working together for one common goal and a culture in its people that is impossible to duplicate.