I don’t know any of these stores you’ve mentioned. Can you tell us more about them?
The A&P has finally died in the northeast much to my sadness. Well, it did have a very good run!
L&T (Lord and Taylor) is the only one that still exists. The others were local to the DC area or the Mid-Atlantic /South. (I discovered Roger and Gallet soap at Garfinckel’s, a lifetime favorite.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garfinckel’s
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodward_%26_Lothrop
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hecht’s
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_%26_Taylor
We used to have A&P, too; one of the greatest store-bought cakes, the Spanish Bar Cake, was sold there:
http://www.tasteofsouthern.com/spanish-bar-cake/