This post is part of our Big Company, Small Town series, featuring large companies and the small towns in which they are headquartered.

Publix Super Markets is the largest employee-owned supermarket chain in the U.S. with 936 stores in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Alabama. You must be an employee of Publix to buy stock in the company. More than 30% of the stock is owned by employees, and more than 30 million shares are owned by members of the founding family -- Jenkins. Its chairman is a family member -- Charlie Jenkins, Jr.

Publix ranks number 11 on the Forbes list of largest private companies, and 107 on the Forbes 500 list. It employs more than 100,000 employees, with revenues over $23 billion.

Yes, if you haven't figured it out, the company was founded by a Jenkins -- George W. Jenkins, Jr., in Winter Haven, Florida, in 1930. In 1940, Jenkins built Florida's first supermarket by mortgaging an orange grove. Jenkins moved the headquarters for Publix to Lakeland, Florida, in 1951, and built its first distribution warehouse there. In 2005, Publix celebrated its 75th anniversary.