Safeway is North America's third largest supermarket chain, with over 1800 stores located throughout the central and western United States and Canada. It also operates some stores in the Mid-Atlantic region of the Eastern Seaboard. The company has its headquarters in Pleasanton, California.
History
The company considers itself to have begun in 1915, when M.B. Skaggs purchased a grocery store from his father. By 1926 the company had grown to more than 400 Skaggs stores. It then merged with the former Selig chain, now called Safeway, and continued its expansion. A UK division, Safeway plc, was spun off in 1987 after the firm was acquired by KKR. In the late 1990s it aggressively acquired regional chains, most of which continue to operate under their traditional brands, to better compete with conglomerates like Albertsons and Kroger.
Brands
The company's most notable private label brands from the past are Lucerne and Empress. Today, Safeway Select is the company's signature private label.
Divisions
In addition to the Safeway name, the company also operates stores under the following banners:
- Carrs (Carr-Gottstein Foods), Alaskan supermarket chain
- Casa Ley , food stores in western Mexico
- Genuardi's (Genuardi's Family Markets), Mid-Atlantic supermarket chain
- Pavilions , upscale division of The Vons Companies, Inc.
- Tom Thumb , Great Plains and northern Texas supermarket chain
- Dominicks (Dominick's Finer Foods), Chicagoland supermarket chain
- Pak 'n' Save
- Randalls (Randall's Food Markets), Texas supermarket chain
- Vons (The Vons Companies, Inc.), Southern California supermarket chain
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