Index Restaurant Supply opened its doors in 1946 with owner Earl R. Juul. Earl came from a family of meat cutters that came over from Denmark and went into the meat cutting business as well. He was over-worked and under-paid so he decided to open his own grocery business called Index Refrigeration Company in 1946. Earl owned three small grocery stores and started selling their products to meat lockers. When Earl’s son, Earl J. Juul got into the business in 1955, he decided to stop selling to meat lockers and start selling their products to restaurants. That’s when the name was finally changed to Index Restaurant Supply. Earl R. thought of the name Index like the index in a book, because it has everything you need.

Earl J.’s son, Donald started working part-time while he was still in high school. He also worked part-time as a cleaner for the baseball stadium throughout college at UMKC. When he graduated in 1976, he started working full-time for the family business and Donald along with his father, Earl J., became partners. After Donald’s father and grandfather passed, he took over ownership. The store is now in its fourth generation of family ownership as Donald’s son, Christopher, has taken over after graduating from the University of Missouri.