Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. said...

Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. said it had offered, for the second time in a year, to acquire an operator of Gulf State supermarkets, Delchamps Inc., in a deal worth about $175 million. The deal, if successful over the stated opposition of a major Delchamps shareholders’ group, would be the latest by A&P; in a drive to become the leading food retailer in several regions. Once the dominant U.S. supermarket chain, A&P; cut back drastically in the early 1980s because its business methods had fallen behind those of competitors and its labor costs were too high.