Safeway/Alpha Beta relation

Uh...California.

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jmandaman0

Safeway/Alpha Beta relation

Post by jmandaman0 »

I am trying to get the history relationship between Safeway and Alph Beta. I know that Alpha Beta was bought out by Skaggs Drug, but is this Skaggs Drug actually Safeway? Or did M.B just keep some of his stores that didn't merge with Safeway? I am curious because my parents worked for Alpha Beta in the 1970s. I work for Safeway, and MB Skaggs gave the commencement address at my college graduation. Any insight into this would be greatly appreciated.
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Groceteria
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Post by Groceteria »

Skaggs grocery stores were established in 1919, and merged in 1926 with a Southern California chain formerly known as San Seelig Stores to form the modern Safeway company.

Skaggs drug stores were started by a different branch of the same family in the 1930s and later grew into the entity which over a few decades purchased Alpha Beta, ACME, Jewel, OSCO, and Sav-on.

Thus, the two chains were distant cousins, at best. Like Kohls supermarkets and Kohls department stores in Wisconsin, or Lowes Foods and Lowes Home Improvement in North Carolina, they were started by members of the same family but are otherwise unrelated.
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Post by jamcool »

The Skaggs family has been a big force in retailing...one family member founded Safeway, one founded Osco Drug in the Midwest (O Skaggs CO.), one founded Skaggs Drug in the West, another founded Payless Drug in the NW. The Osco and Skaggs operations were united with the Jewel-ASC merger.
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Post by Groceteria »

The following is from a 1999 archived version of the old American Stores Co. website I have, and it pretty well covers the whole subject:

The Early Years: Creating a Foundation for the Future
Our beginnings go back to 1891 when Samuel Robinson and Robert Crawford opened a neighborhood grocery store in south Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This grocery store was named Acme Market. Soon, these two retail pioneers had several grocery stores, and in 1917, they merged their operation with four other Philadelphia area grocery chains. The combined operations were named American Stores Company.

Meanwhile, Reverend Samuel M. Skaggs pioneered the concept of self-service retail stores in the intermountain region of the country and opened Skaggs Cash Store in 1915. Mr. Skaggs had 12 children. The six sons O.P., M.B., L.L., L.S., L.J., and S.A. helped operate the store. In 1919 four of the brothers created a partnership called Skaggs United Stores. This company was the predecessor to today's Safeway, Inc.

Osco Drug was founded in 1937. This 3,200 square foot Rochester, Minnesota store was originally called Pay-less Drug and was the Midwest's first self-service drugstore. Founders and financial backers were L.L. Skaggs and Harold Finch. In 1938 Pay-Less Drug became Self-Service Drug, Inc. with the opening of a second store in Mason City, Iowa.

Joe Albertson opened his first grocery store in Boise, Idaho in 1939. Mr. Albertson had been a district manager for Skaggs United Stores in California. That same year, the Skaggs family purchased four drug stores in Utah, Idaho and Montana.

In 1942, Self-Service Drug, Inc. was dissolved and succeeded by Owners Service COmpany from which OSCO was coined. The Osco office was moved from Waterloo, Iowa to the Merchandise Mart in Chicago, Illinois.

Sav-on Drugs got its start in 1945 when Christian "C.J." Call and Ira Brown opened the first Sav-on Drug store in San Bernardino, California. Some thirty years earlier, Mr. Call purchased a California chain of self-service food stores from O.P. Skaggs.

Changing Times: The Mergers and Acquisitions
During the next thirty years these chains, Osco, Sav-on, Albertsons, Skaggs and American Stores Company grew and flourished. In 1961 Jewel Companies, Inc. approached Osco with the idea of a merger and with a plan to develop combination and side-by-side food and drug stores. Osco entered the Chicago market the following year. Skaggs Drug Stores incorporated in 1965 and continued its growth through the acquisition of drug stores (Joscos, Katz drugstores, Harts Drugs, Cook's drugstores) in the West and South.

In 1969, Joe Albertson worked with L.S. Skaggs and developed food and drug combination stores. This Albertson's/Skaggs partnership lasted until 1977.

In 1979, Skaggs Drug Centers, Inc. acquired American Stores Company, adopted the American Stores Company name, and moved the Company headquarters to Salt Lake City, Utah. This pairing combined the grocery retailing expertise of American Stores Company's Alpha Beta and Acme subsidiaries with the general merchandise and combination store expertise of the Skaggs entities. The following year Jewel Companies, Inc. acquired Sav-on Drugs.

In 1984, Jewel Companies, Inc. was acquired by American Stores Company, adding Jewel Food Stores, Star Market, Buttrey Food and the Osco and Sav-on Drug Stores to the Company's family of retail operations. The Jewel/Osco combination store formats and the stand-alone drug stores of Osco and Sav-on fit well with the Company's other retail operations. Skaggs Drug Centers were converted to Osco Drug stores.

In 1988, American Stores Company acquired Lucky Stores, Inc. California's leading grocery retailer and only chain to have significant operations in both northern and southern California. At the time of this acquisition, American Stores Company became the nation's second largest food and drug retailer. Subsequently, the Alpha Beta and Buttrey grocery divisions were divested.

In 1992, American Stores Company began consolidation of operations and disposed of its Texas, Oklahoma, Utah, Colorado, Idaho and Wyoming stores and New England Star Market division in order to reduce debt. The Texas and Oklahoma stores were purchased by Albertsons. Concentration began on developing market share and focusing on growth opportunities available to the remaining entities. The process of converting American Stores Company from a holding company to an operating company continued through the next six years. During this time, the combination food and drug store concept was expanded to California with the introduction of Lucky Savon combination stores.

During the 1990s American Drug Stores acquired CVS's California drugstores, the Clark's drugstore chain in Southern California, Reliable drugstores in the Midwest and Rx Plus stores in Arizona.

In 1998, Albertson's and American Stores Company announced their plans to merge. This merger was finalized in June 1999.
jmandaman0

thank you

Post by jmandaman0 »

wow, thanks for the info. Where do you find this stuff? I love this site.
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Post by ascjon »

Does anyone know the relationship between Skaggs Cash Stores and Skaggs United Stores? In the Sacramento section on this site it mentions Skaggs Cash as the Safeway predecessor, but the ASC version has it as Skaggs United. Were these chains merged together at some point?
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Post by Groceteria »

ascjon wrote:Does anyone know the relationship between Skaggs Cash Stores and Skaggs United Stores? In the Sacramento section on this site it mentions Skaggs Cash as the Safeway predecessor, but the ASC version has it as Skaggs United. Were these chains merged together at some point?
I'm pretty sure they were just two different names for the same company. Most likely the company was chartered as Skaggs United but the stores operated as Skaggs Cash Stores.
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Safeway origins

Post by TheQuestioner »

On the topic of Safeway's origins; I find it interesting that in the Was. DC area, any articles or media reports about Safeway invariably refer Safeway as originally being called Sanitary. This is usually stated in such a way that it comes across as if Safeway were founded in DC and just branched out. This site (among others) makes it abundantly clear that Safeway began in the west and is still headquartered there, and that Sanitary was just one of many local grocery chains that they acquired during their early expansion as a national chain.

Makes me wonder if it's a case of superficial assumptions/lack of in-depth research, or regional ego and/or bias on the part of the journalists who write or report about Safeway in the DC area. It's wouldn't surprise me if 80%-90% of people in the MD/DC/VA area thought that Safeway was a local (or at least Mid-Atlantic) chain, especially since they vanish as soon as you go north of Baltimore or south of the Nor. VA. I for one would apprciate a little more accuracy on the part of anyone reporting on the history of any retail stores, but I guess that's why sites like this exist!
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Post by danielh_512 »

Most sources I've seen indicate that the company did start in Washington DC as the Sanitary Grocery Company, but Sanitary became Safeway in 1928 (I believe).

I think it's more lack of research, considering Safeway isn't beloved at all in that area. Giant is the chain w/nearly double the market share (I believe Giant has 35%, Safeway around 20%). Of course, these numbers are shifting around w/Shoppers growth, Harris Teeter and Wegmans entering the market, SuperTargets in Leesburg and Gainesville, Food Lion's menial presence, the few SuperFresh stores on the MD side, as well as on the far outskirts of Spotsylvania County (and soon Frederick County, MD), Wal-Mart Supercenters.
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Post by Dave »

danielh_512 wrote:Most sources I've seen indicate that the company did start in Washington DC as the Sanitary Grocery Company, but Sanitary became Safeway in 1928 (I believe)...
I have a gap of a year to worry about, but in Richmond, Sanitary is shown in the 1940 city directory and the 1940-41 telephone book, and Safeway appears in the 1942-43 telephone book, so the name change here happened in that time frame.
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