About Us

The Naifeh's have been in the grocery business since 1910 in Covington, Tennessee. Oney Naifeh's father, Joe Naifeh, was known as "Uncle Joe" to the community. He opened his first grocery store on the East side of the square in 1910.

In 1920, Oney Naifeh arrived in Covington from Beirut, Lebanon to help his father run the grocery store. They moved locations in 1923, but stayed on the East side of the square. The name of this store was Joe S. Naifeh and it was located at 102 East Court Square.

In 1929, Joe Naifeh died. Oney then took over and began remodeling the store. The store was named Oney J. Naifeh adn said "EVERYTHING GOOD TO EAT" on the front of the building. Oney had the first meat market in a grocery store in Covington. He also sold the first bottle of milk and loaf of bread out of a grocery store in Covington. This store was the first store in Covington to have shopping carts.

In the late 1940's and early 1950's, Oney bought out the Covington Kroger store and the Covington Piggly Wiggly. Oney named these stores Liberty Cash Grocery and Hyde Park Grocery, respectively. Oney's primary store was still the Oney J. Neifeh store located on the square.

In 1963, Joe Naifeh built Naifeh's Lucky Food Store at the present location on the highway. It was the only new building on this side of town. Oney kept his store on the square open until 1968, when he moved into business with Joe.

The current store has been remodeled several times and has had two major expansions. We expanded in 1987 and our last expansion was completed in 1994. In 1983, we joined the Food Rite Group.

In 1994, Judson Naifeh, Joe's son, decided to carry on the Naifeh tradition by joining Oney and Joe in the grocery business. Judson has been the manager of the Covington store since that time. In 1997, the Naifeh's decided to expand further by purchasing an existing store, Carter's Food Rite, on the South end of the county in Munford. At the time, we dropped Food Rite Group and simply became Naifeh's Food Stores. In 2010, we had the privilege and honor of celebrating our 100th birthday!

Over the past 115 years, the grocery business has changed tremendously. Our county's economy has fluctuated with the times as well.