Tom Thumb was founded in 1948 by J.R. Bost and Robert B. Cullum as Tom Thumb Food Stores after acquiring 6 Toro supermarkets (Cullum was grocery supplier to Toro when Toro folded and the owner fled the country). It was once a publicly traded company on the NYSE under the name Cullum Companies. By 1956 it had grown to 20 stores. They bought 34 Hinky Dinky stores in the Midwest, 17 Pantry Food Markets in California, as well as Page Drug Stores (Tom Thumb added the "Page" to their store names after the acquisition). The freestanding Page stores were later sold to Eckerd. They also bought the gourmet specialty Simon David stores in 1963.