Альбертсонс: История и Слияние с Kroger

American supermarket company

Albertsons Companies, Inc. 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, 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 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 is 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.”

Albertsons was founded in 1939 by Joe Albertson (1906–1993) 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. 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.

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.

Albertsons began to expand heavily in the 1990s. and 14 other stores from Bruno's, Buttrey Food & Drug (divesting seven Buttrey stores and six Albertsons stores to Smith's and another two Buttrey stores to SuperValu), 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. 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. Hillsboro, and Portland in Oregon; Houston in Texas; and Casper and Cheyenne in Wyoming.

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 (including stand alone drug 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, primarily 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 early 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.

In November 2006, it was announced that the Northern California division, consisting of stores located in northern California and northern Nevada, would be sold to Save Mart, with the deal closing in late February 2007. The company gradually converted all the stores to its Save Mart banner over summer 2007, except for stores in the San Francisco Bay area, which were rebranded as Lucky. The deal included two Northern California distribution centers. Most of the Albertsons locations had originally been branded as Lucky before Albertson's 1998 purchase of American Stores. and Albertsons would exit both Oklahoma and Austin. The Oklahoma stores were sold to
Associated Wholesale Grocers members while the Austin stores were sold to H E B. With the closures, only four stores south of the Dallas–Fort Worth area existed in Texas, all of which were closed or sold by December 2011. Additionally, many of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex stores closed during this time, even into 2011. The Florida division, which was always discontiguous with Albertsons' main market, suffered a blow in June 2008 when Albertsons LLC entered into an agreement with Lakeland, Florida based Publix stores to sell 49 Florida Albertsons locations to the chain. This included 15 stores in Northern and Northwest Florida, 30 locations in Central Florida, and four locations in South Florida. The sale was completed in September. In April 2012, the company closed most of its stores in Florida. The Plant City distribution center was sold to Gordon Food Service though the Florida Division continued to be located there. By April 2012, only four stores remained in the entire state of Florida. The Rocky Mountain division slowly shed stores. By April 2007, there were only 32 stores left in the state of Colorado. In December 2007, SuperValu acquired the eight remaining Wyoming locations from Albertson's LLC not already owned by the company. These stores continued to operate under the Albertsons banner. 2008 also brought the sale of Albertsons' lone South Dakota and Nebraska stores to Nash Finch. In August 2009, the distribution center and division office closed and the 26 remaining stores moved to the Southwest division. Only the Southwest division was spared the major cuts suffered by the other divisions. On June 12, 2007, Albertsons LLC agreed to acquire all Raley's locations in New Mexico. The acquisition includes one closed and eight operating stores in Albuquerque and one store in Taos, thus doubling Albertsons store base in the Albuquerque metro. In June 2007, Albertson's LLC decided to discontinue its Preferred Savings Card Program, choosing instead to offer discounted items to all of its customers. In September 2007, all Albertsons stores in the Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, and Florida markets began collecting their Albertsons Preferred Savings Cards.

Beginning in 2008, Albertsons began exiting the fuel business, selling 72 of over one hundred Albertsons Express gas stations to Valero Energy, which converted most of them to Corner Store locations. This wouldn't be the end though, as many Express stores still remained including Cheyenne, WY. Under SuperValu, Bristol Farms had been sold off, 36 Utah stores were sold to Associated Food Stores (leaving just three traditional Albertsons stores in the state), the Wisconsin Jewel Osco stores had been sold or closed, as well as the Shaw's stores in Connecticut. Additionally, like Albertsons LLC, most of the fuel stations had been shuttered or sold to other operators. On January 10, 2013, it was announced that SuperValu was selling New Albertsons (Albertsons, ACME, Shaw's/Star Market, and Jewel Osco, though they had previously sold off Bristol Farms in 2010) to Cerberus Capital Management. The deal was closed in March 2013. While its website consolidation appeared to take place as expected, its applications received bad reviews—but the biggest consequence was the mistaken deletion of their previous Facebook page and loss of over 200,000 fans. While no details were given as to the mistake made, Albertsons simply admitted that while attempting to join their Albertsons page with over 200,000 Likes and their Albertsons Market page with over 80,000 Likes, something went wrong resulting in the loss of thousands of Likes and comments. That same month, Albertsons did away with the Preferred Savings Card in the former SuperValu stores that Albertsons LLC had dispensed with in 2007. The cards briefly continued in Southern California stores before being discontinued in July 2013.

On September 9, 2013, the company acquired Lubbock based supermarket United Supermarkets LLC. On February 4, 2014, the FTC voted 4–0 to approve the deal. The acquisition deal cost Albertsons $385 million and required Albertsons to sell its single stores in the Amarillo, Texas, and Wichita Falls, Texas, markets. The United Supermarkets family brands include Market Street, Amigos, and United Express. After the deal was finalized, the Albertsons Market brand was revived for Albertsons stores operated by United. The first to be branded as such opened in Alamogordo, New Mexico, in January 2015.

After several months of rumors, the combined operation announced it would go public as Albertsons Companies, Inc. (the new name of AB Acquisition LLC). Albertsons attempted to IPO with the ticker ABS on October 14, 2015, planning to raise as much as $1.7 billion, selling 65.3 million shares with a range of $23 $26 per share. However, the company postponed the listing due to market conditions, particularly after Wal Mart warned of more challenged sales earlier that day. Albertsons has reportedly postponed the IPO indefinitely, as of October 2015.

As a result of the Albertsons Safeway merger, Albertsons began to look to divest some stores in geographies where the merger could cause a high market share. Some of these stores including one Albertsons and three Safeway stores in Wyoming were sold off to Ridley's Family Markets. Also at the time of the Albertsons Safeway merger, the 18 store Pacific Northwest chain Haggen purchased 146 West Coast Vons, Pavilions, Albertsons, and Safeway locations that had to be sold due to anti trust concerns, paying $300 million, plus spending $100 million to rebrand the stores. The FTC had hoped this would create a regional competitor for Albertsons. The complaint, which was filed that day in United States District Court for the District of Delaware, alleged that following Haggen's December 2014 purchase of 146 Albertsons and Safeway stores, Albertsons engaged in "coordinated and systematic efforts to eliminate competition and Haggen as a viable competitor in over 130 local grocery markets in five states", and "made false representations to both Haggen and the FTC about Albertsons's commitment to a seamless transformation of the stores into viable competitors under the Haggen banner". A week later Haggen filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and began the process of closing all but a few dozen 'core' stores in the Pacific Northwest. Albertsons would buy back 33 of the stores being sold at auction. In January 2016, Albertsons settled the lawsuit, agreeing to pay $5.75 million to Haggen, and subsequently reached an agreement to acquire the remaining 29 'core' Haggen stores located in Washington and Oregon for $106 million, the deal being approved on March 29, 2016. As part of the deal, 15 stores would still operate under the Haggen banner, with the rest converted to Albertsons locations. During this time, the Albertsons family experienced further changes. On January 11, 2016, it was announced that the three remaining Albertsons stores in Florida, located in Largo, Altamonte Springs and Oakland Park, would be re bannered as Safeway; this marked the first time that the Safeway brand would exist on a supermarket operation in Florida. It would also re align the stores toward the Eastern Division. In 2016, smaller acquisitions included Homedale, Idaho based Paul's Market and Santa Rosa, California based G&G Supermarkets. Both brands were closed before they were converted into Albertsons and Safeway stores, respectively. Additionally, the United Supermarkets subsidiary acquired seven locations from Sweetwater, Texas based Lawrence Brothers. These were converted into United Supermarkets or Albertsons Market stores. In late 2016, it was announced that Andronico's in the San Francisco area would be acquired as well. These stores would become "Safeway Community Markets" and still hold what made Andronico's unique, including chef prepared items. When the first store reopened in February 2017 under the ownership of the Northern California division, it was still bannered as Andronico's due to an issue in obtaining local permits but the other stores were able to reopen as Safeway Community Markets. On February 17, 2017, the Randalls store in south Katy, Texas, serving the Cinco Ranch area closed. On March 6, 2017, shortly after the Katy Randalls closure, it was announced that the Houston area distribution center near Cypress, Texas, would be closed and the operations consolidated in the Roanoke, Texas, Tom Thumb distribution center in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex to supply the Houston and Austin area stores instead. Also, the Houston Division offices would be folded into the legacy Albertsons's South Division offices in Fort Worth. Additionally, the stores in the Albuquerque market were realigned toward the United Supermarkets division. On September 20, 2017, Albertsons acquired meal kit company Plated for $200 million. During the time after the Albertsons Safeway merger, Albertsons was experimenting with different banners, converting many stores to Safeway, including many Colorado Albertsons locations. With this rebranding also came additional closures, such as Centennial, Colorado. Some exceptions include Pueblo and Durango in Colorado, which are owned by a different division.

To start off 2018, Albertsons began to reenter the fuel market, opening a brand new Albertsons Express in Boise, ID at the site of a former Pizza Hut; this also introduced a new concept to the state of Idaho's gas stations, where the pumps are chip credit card enabled. At least one Albertsons Express from the original generation of Albertson's fuel centers located in Hillsboro, Oregon,

On February 20, 2018, Albertsons announced plans to acquire Rite Aid, subject to shareholder and regulatory approval. In addition to retaining the stand alone Rite Aid pharmacies, its Osco and Sav on pharmacies located in Albertsons's existing stores were expected to be replaced by Rite Aid pharmacies. On August 8, 2018, Rite Aid announced that the plan had failed to please shareholders and the proposed acquisition would be canceled. That same year, Albertsons closed several stores across multiple divisions, including all three Safeway stores in Florida. These stores were sold to Publix for an undisclosed price. With the closing, Albertsons officially exited the state, which it had been in since the late 1970s when they acquired their Skaggs Albertsons stores. Additionally, the company divested its share in Casa Ley, selling it to Tenedora CL del Noroeste. Also that year three new Lucky locations in Utah opened, two in West Valley City and Salt Lake City, replacing the last two Super Saver stores, and one in Tooele, replacing a former Albertsons store. The next year, a location in West Jordan, Utah, opened, replacing another Albertsons that closed in the late 2000s. In 2019, Albertsons opened Albertsons Market Street in Meridian, Idaho, a flagship store located in a converted ShopKo store and based on the Market Street brand of United Supermarkets. This became Albertsons's largest store at 110,000 square feet and featured a variety of departments exclusive to the store or found rarely in the chain, including an oyster bar, a full bar area, and in house sausages. Additionally, around the same time, a new Andronico's Community Markets opened in Monterey, California, the first new store to be branded as such. In 2020, Albertsons announced the closing of a distribution center in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, laying off up 520 people. Albertsons said its duties will be shifted to an existing distribution center in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, which will add up to 300 workers. Due to the COVID 19 pandemic, Albertsons's total sales experienced a growth of 27% compared to the previous year. The rise in sales and higher traffic came as a result of the COVID 19 pandemic which resulted in gross sales of $22.8 billion in the second quarter of 2020. Additionally, the company finally went public in June 2020 after years of delays. The potential IPO for the company could be valued at around $19 billion. During the time of going public, one more division change was announced when the Mid Atlantic Division was created by combining Eastern and ACME Markets, and based out of ACME's headquarters in Malvern, PA In October 2020, Albertsons submitted a winning bid for the Kings Food Markets/Balducci's chain. These will be merged into the Mid Atlantic Division.

On October 14, 2022, Kroger announced its intent to merge with Albertsons, with Kroger acquiring all Albertsons shares and divesting some stores to secure regulatory approval. The $24.6 billion transaction is expected to close in early 2024. The announcement was met with criticism due to the potential for monopolies to form in some U. S. cities that have few other grocery chains, as well as food deserts that would form from store closures. On November 1, 2022, Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a lawsuit in King County Superior Court against Albertsons and Kroger seeking to halt the payment of a $4 billion dividend to Albertsons shareholders. The lawsuit aims to prevent Albertsons from winding down operations and preparing store closures during regulator review of the merger. Other state attorneys general have also investigated the merger according to Reuters. In February 2024, the FTC sued to block the acquisition stating that the deal would negatively impact consumer prices and workers' wages.

On average, stores in the Albertsons Companies range between and and almost universally feature a bakery, deli, meat counter, produce department, and seafood counter; many of the stores also feature in store banks and pharmacies. Larger and newer stores may also offer enhanced amenities, including Starbucks coffee counters, prepared foods, in store pizza, salad bars, and juice bars.