In 1897, a young man named William Remke had the foresight and determination to start his own business. He opened a Meat Market at the corner of 13th & Holman in Covington, KY. Things went well, and the store moved twice to larger locations. In 1922 William moved the store to a third location at 19th & Holman. A Remke Market remained in that same location almost 70 years. William passed away in December of 1932, not living to see his three sons expand the Remke business.

In 1935, William Remke’s son, Robert, along with his brothers, William H. and Louis, opened a store in Ft. Mitchell. The three sons had the vision to expand their horizon. They didn’t just open another meat market, but offered their customers more than meat, adding produce, canned goods and bakery products along with their top quality meat products. This was one of the first self-serve grocery stores in the area.

In 1957, having outgrown its facilities, the Ft. Mitchell store moved to its present location at the corner of Dixie Hwy and Orphanage Rd. In November of 1970, Robert passed away, leaving the store in the hands of his wife, Frances. William had left the company in 1942, and Louis had also passed away. A few years later, Robert’s son, a young Bill Remke, bought out his mother, and took over store operations. Bill continued the tradition of expanding Remke horizons. During his years as Owner, President, and now CEO, Remke Markets has expanded to fourteen locations.

In 1990, the warehouse and corporate office were moved from the Ft. Mitchell store to a 67,000 square foot building in Covington. In 2002 the warehouse and corporate office was moved to Erlanger to a 83,000 square foot building.

Remke Markets had a significant change in 1996, when Bill Remke transferred the majority of stock ownership in the company to the employees.

In 2002 Matthew Remke joined the firm and has worked in many different capacities. In 2010 Matthew became the president of Remke bigg’s making him the fourth generation of this historical family owned business.

In 2010 Remke acquired 7 bigg’s stores from Supervalu doubling the stores of our great company. bigg’s has a tremendous history of quality and customer service which mirrored Remke Markets which makes us a perfect fit. bigg’s has been in existence since 1984 when the doors opened in Eastgate, Ohio. This store was the first European Hypermarket in the United States, a format that has been copied by many competitors since its inception. Customers drove for miles and lined up down the highway to experience the one-stop shopping bigg’s offered.

The hypermarket stores combined groceries with general merchandise, and made bigg’s well known in Cincinnati for being a mass merchant. bigg’s sold a high volume of goods at a low margin. Although the look and size of bigg’s stores has changed throughout the years, we still offer the famous “bigg buys”. bigg's buys are temporary reductions on prices to manufacturer rebates and allowances. bigg’s always passes the savings on to the customer.

The quality of our combined Remke and bigg’s associate teams is second to none and this is reflected in the positive feedback from our customers regarding their experiences while shopping our stores. In addition our company now has even greater buying power and can offer even greater values to our customers. We also have introduced a tremendous additional value to our customers by offering them fuel discounts on their groceries.

As Remke bigg’s has spanned the centuries, from 1897 to the present year, we have always remained on the cutting edge of technology. From the purchase and warehousing of product, to our Information Technology System, to the Front End System, to our Preferred Customer Program, Remke bigg’s is state-of-the-art. We’re proud of our heritage and proud of the fact that some things never change... Remke bigg's is here to stay.

Remke bigg’s has always concentrated on customer service. All supermarkets claim to give good customer service, but at Remke bigg's this is our way of life and all customer requests are treated the same whether it is made of a bagger, a cashier, a store director or the president of the company. For example, at other supermarkets, when a customer asks a clerk where an item might be located in the store, they more than likely would reply that it is in aisle so and so. At Remke bigg’s we walk the customer to the item to make sure that they find it. This kind of service is found in all of our departments. We make sure that the customer gets what they want. If they want a special cut of meat, the meat cutters cut it for them. If they want their lunch meat cut a certain way in the deli, we make sure that it is sliced that way.

Of course Remke bigg’s cannot exist except within the extraordinary communities we serve. We are always amazed at the tremendous effort on the part of so many people to make this world a better place. We want to help. That is why Remke bigg’s instituted the Caring Neighbor Program whereby schools, churches, and other non-profit organizations can earn thousands of dollars every year with our 4% rebate program. We also want to publicize the good that goes on in our community. Once a year, Remke bigg’s hosts the Remke Charity Golf Classic which raises money to benefit The Point/Arc of Northern Kentucky. Their mission is to provide opportunities to people with intellectual/developmental disabilities to reach their highest potential educationally.

Remke bigg’s, along with the help of their extraordinary customers raise a large sum of money on behalf of the American Heart Association, Muscular Dystrophy Association, The Cancer Society, and many food banks in the Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky area.

The success of Remke bigg’s was brought about by diligent work and insight into the future by a variety of thoughtful employees over the years. This is reflected in our mission statement:

“Our mission is to be the distinctively superior neighborhood market, with dedicated associates who consider serving others a privilege. We pledge competitive prices with the freshest and highest quality products available, in clean, attractive stores… all day, every day… since 1897!”

The future is also very much dependent on the same and we will only grow to the extent we can service our customers.