Albertsons
Albertsons Companies, Inc. is an American grocery company founded and headquartered in Boise, Idaho.
With 2,253 stores as of the third quarter of fiscal year 2020 and 270,000 employees as of fiscal year 2019, the company is the second-largest supermarket chain in North America after Kroger. Albertsons ranked 53rd in the 2018 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue. Prior to its January 2015 merger with Safeway Inc. for $9.2 billion, it had 1,075 supermarkets located in 29 U.S. states under 12 different regional banners. Its predecessor company, Albertsons, Inc., was reorganized as Albertsons LLC and sold to AB Acquisition LLC, a Cerberus Capital Management–led consortium. After buying back the majority of its former stores it sold to SuperValu in 2006, AB Acquisition announced it would change its name to Albertsons Companies Inc. in 2015. The company's corporate name was Albertson's Inc. until 2002, when the apostrophe was removed.
On October 14, 2022, Albertsons announced it would be acquired by rival Kroger for $25 billion. On November 30, 2023, Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen announced that the companies had satisfied the informational requirements of the Federal Trade Commission, and the deal was expected to close in early 2024. However, in January 2024, Washington state sued to block the proposed $25 billion merger between Kroger and Albertsons, warning that if approved it could raise prices and harm consumers. In February 2024, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser also filed a lawsuit, saying consumers told him they feared it "would lead to stores closing, higher prices, fewer jobs, worse customer service, and less resilient supply chains." Kroger and Albertsons terminated their merger attempt on December 11, 2024, after it was blocked by a federal and a state judge.
History
Beginnings
Albertsons was founded in 1939 by Joe Albertson on July 21 in Boise, Idaho. An ad in Boise's Idaho Statesman newspaper touted Albertson's first store as "Idaho's largest and finest food store." The store was filled with perks that, at the time, were brand new: free parking, a money-back guarantee, and even an ice cream shop. The original store was built onto several times, but it was demolished in 1979, and a replacement store was built on the same property. A brick monument stands on the northwest corner of 16th and State Streets in downtown Boise, commemorating the original store.The grocery store was an enormous success, and Albertson reinvested his profits back into the business. New stores were opened in neighboring towns to the west: Nampa, Caldwell, and Emmett, before America's entry into World War II in late 1941. The company grew steadily in the years following World War II. When Albertson was considering putting a new store in a town, he would drive around the town and look for neighborhoods with children's clothing hanging on clotheslines, and station wagons in driveways; he knew that those kinds of neighborhoods were where he wanted to build his stores.
Albertson's, Inc. became a public company in 1959, and its growth continued, opening its hundredth store in Seattle in 1963. in 1964, Albertsons expanded to southern California by acquiring All American Markets, a small chain based in Orange County.
In 1967, Albertsons expanded into Colorado, acquiring eight stores from Furr's Supermarkets. By the end of the 1960s, Albertsons operated over 200 stores within a nine-state region and the stores averaged about 20,000 square feet in size.
Partnership with Skaggs and 1970s expansion
In 1969, Albertsons partnered with Skaggs Drug Centers, owned by the Skaggs Companies, Inc., to create the first combination food/drug stores, first in Texas. The partnership was a tremendous success for several years. The partnership ended due to the fact that it was getting more difficult to control. Neither partner could buy the other out, and the partnership was dissolved amicably in 1977. Skaggs kept stores in Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, and Albertsons kept stores in Florida, Alabama, and Louisiana, as well as some Texas stores.Albertsons continued to expand its base in the West during this time. In 1973, Albertsons opened its first distribution center in Brea, California. In 1974, Albertsons bought the four-store Monte Mart chain in northern California.
Albertsons bought Fazio's Shopping Bag in 1978 from Fisher Foods, adding 46 stores in Southern California.
Expansion in the 1980s
In 1981, Albertsons entered Nebraska and South Dakota.In 1982, Albertsons reorganized its management into four regions: California, Northwest, Intermountain, and South. Albertsons continued to add stores in the 1980s, building or acquiring about 283 stores during the decade. Albertsons continued to expand in Texas beyond the Skaggs base in north Texas and San Antonio, re-entering the Dallas–Fort Worth market in 1984, and adding three Skaggs-Alpha Beta stores in Austin within months after entering that market in early 1989 with the acquisition of six Tom Thumb stores.
Albertsons built its first fully mechanized distribution center in Portland, Oregon, in 1988.
In 1989, Albertsons opened its 500th store, in Temecula, California.
Expansion in the 1990s
Albertsons began to expand heavily in the 1990s. In 1992, Albertsons bought the stores American Stores had in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Florida. Many of the stores had been opened as Skaggs Albertsons originally but by 1991 had been rebranded as Jewel-Osco. These included a few stores that American Stores opened in the late 1980s under that name in Florida. Additionally, a non-food distribution center in Ponca City, Oklahoma, was purchased from ASC.In 1994, Albertsons would acquire four stores from San Diego County chain Big Bear Markets.
The Skaggs acquisition was a success, and the new stores were integrated into Albertsons's Southern division. The ease of that acquisition and Albertsons's high-flying stock price led Albertsons to attempt expansion on a grand scale. In a series of acquisitions in the late 1990s, Albertsons purchased Seessel's and 14 other stores from Bruno's, Buttrey Food & Drug, the Springfield, Missouri Smitty's chain, and three Super One Foods stores from Miner's Inc. in the Des Moines market, all while building new stores across all divisions. These acquisitions brought Albertsons into five new states: Georgia, Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota, and Tennessee.
Albertsons Express gas stations
Albertsons launched a new branch of their brand in 1997, Albertsons Express, which included a fuel center and a convenience store. The first of the Albertsons Express opened that year in Eagle, Idaho. This branch was constructed in front of the parking lot of Albertson's full-size grocery store at the city's Parkcenter Boulevard. This concept was not limited to Idaho; it expanded to locations across America located on Albertsons’ existing/new stores properties. A few of the locations with Express Gas Stations include Gresham, Hillsboro, and Portland in Oregon; Houston in Texas; and Casper and Cheyenne in Wyoming.American Stores acquisition
In 1998, Albertsons made its biggest acquisition yet: American Stores Company, which included the chains ACME in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware; Lucky in California and Nevada; Jewel and Jewel-Osco in Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa, and two drug store chains: Osco Drug, with a presence in New England, the Midwest, Montana and Arizona; and Sav-on Drugs, with a presence in Southern California, Nevada, Western Arizona, and New Mexico. The acquisition briefly made Albertsons the largest American food and drug operator, with over 2,500 stores in 37 states, until Kroger's acquisition of Fred Meyer closed the following month. To make the acquisition, Albertsons was forced by anti-trust concerns to divest 146 stores in California, Nevada, and New Mexico, to Certified Grocers, Raley's, Ralphs, Stater Bros., and Vons. In California, Nevada, and New Mexico, there were already Albertsons stores, so in order to not have two banners in the same area, 508 Lucky stores were converted to the Albertsons banner in November 1999, and the Lucky brand name was retired. The brand was reintroduced in the mid 2000s.In January 2001, Albertsons restructured its "districts" to a divisional structure mostly based around distribution centers, with a drug store division and 18 regional division offices.
2001–2004 restructuring
On July 18, 2001, Larry Johnston, the new chairman and CEO of Albertson's, announced it would close 165 "underperforming" stores spread across 25 states, cut jobs, and reduce its newly created operating divisions. The first change was that the Utah, Idaho, and Big Sky division were merged back into Intermountain, while Oregon, Washington, and the Inland Empire division would be consolidated back into a single Northwestern division. Albertsons sold its freestanding Osco Drug stores in the northeastern states to Jean Coutu Group, a Canadian drug store company. In 2001, the short-lived Des Moines stores would close as well and Albertsons began to issue Albertsons Preferred Savings Cards for all of its stores.The following year, three more divisions were closed entirely:
- San Antonio: Having been in San Antonio since the Skaggs Albertsons days, at the time Albertsons was ranked as the area's number two grocer by market share, compared to H-E-B's top position in the market. At the time of the withdrawal, the 44-store H-E-B chain held a commanding 61 percent market share, while Albertsons held a 15 percent market share. Albertsons had held the third position at the time Kroger exited the market in mid-1993 when it closed its 15 area stores. Then, H-E-B's 37 area stores held a 43.2 percent market share, Kroger's 15 area stores a 13.7 percent share, and Albertsons's 10 stores a 13.1 percent share. The remaining stores in the San Antonio division, primarily in the Austin area, became part of the Dallas division. The last store in South Texas to close, a store in Victoria, Texas, was closed in October.
- Mid-South: In 2002, Albertsons shuttered its Mid-South division by selling its Seessel's supermarket chain in Memphis to Schnucks and stores in Mississippi to Brookshire's. The Albertsons-branded stores in the Nashville area, most of which had previously been Bruno's stores under the Foodmax banner, were sold to either Publix or Kroger.
- Houston: After entering the market in the early 1990s, the troubled Houston division would be gone too, with Albertsons closing its 43 area stores, with most reopening as Kroger or Randalls, with 2 of them becoming H-E-B stores. The Louisiana stores from that division joined the Florida division, while the stores in the Bryan–College Station area became part of the Dallas division. The Greater Houston distribution center near Katy, built in 1996 was sold to 99 Cents Only Stores in 2003.
After stabilizing the company's finances and consolidating divisions in 2004, Albertsons acquired Shaw's Supermarkets and Star Market from Sainsbury's for $2.5 billion. Albertsons also purchased Bristol Farms for $135 million. During the same time, Albertsons exited the markets of Omaha, where it closed or sold 21 stores, and New Orleans, Louisiana, where it closed seven, selling four to A&P, which converted them to Sav-A-Center.File:Albertsons 4.JPG|thumb|A typical Albertsons in Boise, Idaho, in June 2007