Jewel-Osco history

In 1902, Skiff partnered with his brother-in-law Frank P. Ross, renaming the venture the Jewel Tea Company.

Founded in 1906 by Charles Von der Ahe in downtown Los Angeles when he opened is 20-foot wide Groceteria on 7th and Figueroa with $1,200 in savings.

Founded in 1915 by M.B. Skaggs who purchased a tiny grocery store from his father in American Falls, Idaho.

Founded in 1916 by H.D. Snell who opened his first United Cash Store in Sayre, Oklahoma.

In 1919 Mainer Maynard A. Davis moved to Massachusetts and founded a group of small downtown grocery stores in the Brockton and New Bedford areas called Brockton Public Markets, or BPM stores.

In 1929, the company built a new office, warehouse, and coffee roasting facility in suburban Barrington, Illinois, creating hundreds of local jobs despite the Great Depression.

In 1932, Jewel acquired the Chicago unit of the Canadian firm Loblaw Groceterias, Inc., then a chain of 77 self-service stores, as well as four Chicago grocery stores operated by the Middle West Stores Company, and began operating them under the name Jewel Food Stores.

Founded in 1933 by Ben and Dorothy Haggen and Doug Clark in Bellingham, Washington with $1,100.

Originally founded in 1935 in San Leandro, California, Lucky is committed to providing reliably low prices to the neighborhoods they serve.

Founded in 1936, Kings unique selection serves to inspire and elevate home cooking.

Sales remained constant during the war years, and in 1945 Joe Albertson dissolved the partnership and Albertson's was incorporated.

By 1947, the chain had six stores operating in Idaho and had established a complete poultry processing operation.

Founded in 1948 by two Dallas friends, J.R. Bost and Bob Cullum, who became intrigued with a new shopping concent call “supermarkets”. They bought a small, local chain and worked to upgrade the selection, quality and overall shopping experience.

In 1949, Larry Carr, one of their customers, opened his own grocery store.

Warren McCain, who began his career with Albertson's as a merchandising supervisor in 1951, became chairman of the board and CEO. In the same year, Albertson's began to build superstores, which would carry an even higher ratio of nonfood items.

The Barrington location served as the headquarters and main warehouse facility for both the home delivery and food store divisions until the completion of the new warehouse and office complex at Melrose Park in 1953.

Founded in 1954 by Robert Onstead who was offered a job by his father-in-law at Randalls Super Valu Store in Pasadena, Texas.

In 1957 the company built its first frozen foods distribution house, which served its southern Idaho and eastern Oregon stores.

The company also went public in 1959 and with that capital began to expand its markets aggressively.

Offers stock to the public to fund expansion; operating 62 stores in four states by 1960

The acquisition of Star Market also gave Jewel control of Brigham's Ice Cream, which had been a part of Star since 1961.

The first Jewel-Osco food-drug combination stores were built in 1962.

In 1964 the company broke into the California market by acquiring Greater All American Markets, based in Los Angeles.

In 1965 the purchase of eight markets owned by Semrau and Sons, based in Oakland, California, gave the company a stronger foothold in California.

In 1967 the company purchased eight Colorado supermarkets from Fury's Inc., a Lubbock, Texas concern.

Banking on the higher profit margin of nonfood items as well as on an aggressive five-year plan, Scott also predicted in 1969 that Albertson's sales would double within five years.

In 1970, however, the company pioneered a unique and exceptionally profitable concept in supermarket design.

In 1971, Jewel expanded their brand into Wisconsin by acquiring eight failing stores from Kroger and rebranded the stores Jewel.

Jewel expanded into the home improvement retail market by acquiring Republic Lumber in 1972.

Bolinder still claimed that the Justice Department had misunderstood Albertson's reasons for buying the wholesaler, noting that the subsidiary was not financially integral to the company but accounted for only 3.4 percent of its total sales in 1973.

In 1974, the two companies merged and formed Carrs, becoming the largest retail chain in Alaska.

Albertson's also installed its first electric price scanner in 1976.

In 1978, Jewel Companies, Inc. attempted to acquire Skaggs Companies, Inc. through an exchange in stock in which Jewel would have been the surviving company and still based in Melrose Park instead of Salt Lake City.

In 1979 Albertson's took the "bigger is better" concept to the drawing boards again and introduced its first warehouse stores.

In 1981 Albertson's was operating in 17 of the fastest-growing standard metropolitan areas, as identified by the United States Department of Commerce.

In 1982 retail management was reorganized into four operating units/regions: California, Northwest, Intermountain, and South.

In 1983 these units accounted for only one-third of the chain's 423 stores but were the source of 65 percent of its profits.

American Stores made an offer to acquire the Jewel Companies in 1984.

Founded in 1985 in Garden Grove, California to better serve families looking for more diverse, healthy and fresh choices.

One of the first properties to let go was the former Eisner warehouse facility in Champaign in 1986.

1988: Company completes its first fully mechanized distribution center, in Portland, Oregon.

In 1989, American Stores expanded to Florida using the Jewel-Osco name, but operating as a separate division distinct from the Midwestern Jewel-Osco operations.

The expansion of Albertson's distribution network, combined with new computerized inventory and checkout scanners, enabled the chain to begin to handle its own distribution in 1990.

Gary Michael became chairman of the board and CEO of Albertson's on February 1, 1991, and initiated the "Service First" employee award program.

In 1992, Albertsons acquired 74 of the Skaggs Stores and renamed them as Albertsons.

Sales surpassed the $10 billion mark in 1993, the year that Joe Albertson died at age 86.

The company continued building its distribution system, with a new, one-million-square-foot center in Plant City, Florida--a facility dedicated to reviving its struggling 74-unit Florida operation--opening in early 1994.

Under American Stores, Jewel returned to Wisconsin by opening a Jewel-Osco store in a new shopping center in Kenosha, Wisconsin in 1995.

By mid-1996, with the opening of a center in Houston, Albertson's had a total of 12 distribution centers.

To help reduce waste, the company began using plastic pallets in 1997 to ship products between distribution centers and stores.

At the end of the fiscal year ending in January 1998, Albertson's operated 878 stores in 20 states and had revenues of $14.69 billion.

Online shopping was introduced in 1999.

Around the time of the completion of the merger, King resigned his executive positions to "pursue other opportunities," with Michael initially assuming his responsibilities; in March 2000 Peter L. Lynch, who had been a senior executive at American Stores, was named the new president and COO.

Also 75 existing stores were remodeled in 2001, and Albertson's plans to step up its remodeling pace in the years to come.

"albertson's announced market exits; enewswire, 13 march 2002.

Another new development, launched in the fall of 2003, was a store-within-a-store initiative designed to make the company's stores more of a one-stop shopping destination.

All told, these moves were aimed at paring annual operating costs by $750 million by the end of 2004.

On May 30, 2006, shareholders approved the break-up of Albertsons.

SuperValu announced on January 5, 2007, that it would offer for sale its Jewel-Osco stores in the Milwaukee area.

In October 2008, Jewel-Osco opened its first LEED certified store at Kinzie & Des Plaines in Chicago.

In 2008, SuperValu converted one of its closed Sunflower Market stores on Clybourn Avenue to an Urban Fresh by Jewel, a smaller store than the usual Jewel, with more upscale and organic products. It was announced that this store would close on October 31, 2009, and there are no plans to open more stores under this banner.

Founded in 2010, the first Amigos was opened serving the Mexican-American community in West Texas.

On January 10, 2013, SuperValu announced the sale of Jewel food stores to Cerberus Capital Management in a $3.3 billion deal.

In 2015, Albertsons completed the merger with Safeway.

In April 2016, the company launched its largest private label brand, Signature.

On May 15, 2017, Jewel-Osco made a bid to purchase all 19 Strack & Van Til grocery stores for $100 million.