Food City Founder Emphasized Service, Innovation

Noah Billings never attended high school, instead starting work at a young age to help his family during the Depression. But he learned enough about commerce on his own to develop one of the Valley’s iconic grocery stores, earning a reputation as an innovator and a businessman who treated employees and customers well.

Billings, a onetime butcher who developed the original Food City supermarket in south Phoenix, died May 27 at age 95.

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