Back in 1927, a gallon of milk cost 56 cents and ice was sold in blocks rather than bags for ice boxes. The Southland Ice Company was founded in one of Dallas, Texas' older neighborhoods known as Oak Cliff for the purpose selling ice from ice houses as well as delivering ice to homes.
Shortly after the company began operations, an enterprising Southland employee, “Uncle Johnny” Jefferson Green, began offering milk, bread and eggs from the ice house.
He quickly saw a need to carry these items for customers who were out of these everyday staples. He sold a lot of these items on Sundays and evenings when grocery stores were closed.
Realizing the possibilities of Uncle Johnny’s idea to provide customers what they wanted and when they needed it, Joe C. Thompson, Jr., one of the founders and later president and chairman of The Southland Corporation, began selling the product line at other ice-dock locations. At the time, the company had eight ice plants and 21 retail ice docks.
Thus convenience retailing was born. Southland introduced the Tote'm brand for these new convenience stores.
More and more customers caught on to this new idea, and the company increased to 60 Southland-owned retail ice docks within a decade.