🠈  Safeway  🠊

Safeway

Safeway is a chain of 900 grocery stores based in Pleasanton, Ca. The company had grown massive, with over 3500 stores, under the direction of MB Skaggs and Charles Merrill (of Merill Lynch). It is now a subsidiary of Albertsons..

Below I list highlights of the store's merger chain.

• 1914: Sam Seelig created Sam Seelig Grocers in California with four stores.
• 1925: Seelig went in debt to expand to 270 stores.
• 1925: The largest debtor, food wholesaler W.R.H. Weldon, acquired the store and changed its name to Safeway to emphasize that buying in cash is the safe way.
• 1926: Charles Merrill of Merrill Lynch bought Safeway from Weldon.
• 1926: Safeway merged with Skaggs United Stores. MB Skaggs became CEO and partner in Safeway Inc..
• 1928: Safeway acquired Pay-N-TakIt by L.J. Skaggs.
• 1928: Safeway had 2,020 stores when it was listed on the NYSE.
• 1928: Safeway acquired Newway Stores of El Paso which had 15 stores and 11 meat markets
• 1928: Safeway acquired Sanitary Grocery which had 429 grocery stores, 67 meat markets in Virginia and DC. A few were branded Piggly Wiggly.
• 1928 Safeway acquired Eastern Stores Inc. of Baltimore which had 67 grocery stores and 127 meat markets.
• 1928: Safeway acquired Piggly Wiggly Pacific out of Oakland which had 91 grocery stores and 84 meat markets.
• 1928 Safeway acquired Bird Grocery Stores which had 224 grocery stores and 210 meat markets in Missouri, Texas, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska.
• 1929: Safeway acquired Piggly Wiggly West which had 91 grocery stores and 84 meat markets in Northern California, Hawaii, and Colorado.
• 1929: Safeway acquired Sun Grocery of Tulsa which had 91 grocery stores and 84 meat markets.
• 1929: company created Canada Safe-way Limited in Winnipeg.
• 1931: Safeway merged with MacMarr Stores of the Pacific Northwest which had 1,400 stores and was a client of Merrill Lynch. The company had 3,257 stores (although many were small stores).
• 1935: Safeway sold 9 stores in Hawaii.
• 1935: Safeway bought 179 Piggly Wiggly stores in Canada.
• 1936: Safeway bought 53 stores from Kroger in Oklahoma.
• 1941: Safeway acquired Daniel Reeves based in New York that had 498 stores.
• 1941: Safeway acquired National Grocery that had 84 grocery stores in New Jersey.
• 1941: Marion B. Skaggs retired from Safeway.
• 1949: Safeway launched project to replace 1000 stores with larger stores.
• 1958: Safeway acquired Thriftway Stores which had 30 stores in Iowa.
• 1959: Safeway opened three stores in Alaska.
• 1959: Safeway built a store in Marina, California that had an iconic vaulted roof.
• 1961: Safeway sold its New York stores to Finast.
• 1962: Safeway expanded to the United Kingdom by acquiring John Gardner Limited.
• 1962: Safeway expanded to Australia with the purchase of Pratt Supermarkets and Mutual Stores.
• 1963: Safeway expanded to West Germany buying Big Bär Basar in 1964.
• 1963: Safeway re-entered Hawaii.
• 1980: Safeway acquired the Jack the Slasher chain of 31 stores out of Queensland, Australia.
• 1981: Safeway expanded to Mexico.
• 1981: Safeway expanded to Saudi Arabia
• 1983: Hy-Vee & Fareway bought 64 stores in Nebraska and Iowa.
• 1985-1986: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts bought Safeway after Robert Haft attempted a hostile take over. Safeway took on a huge amount of debt and went into liquation mode.
  • 1985: Safeway sold 22 stores in Southern Ontario Oshawa Group
  • 1985: Safeway sold 36 stores in West Germany to Meierei C Bolle
  • 1987: Safewau sold 141 stores in Dallas to Kroger, Brookshire's, Tom Thumb Food & Pharmacy, Minyard Food Stores and Furr's.
  • 1987: Sold 60 stores in Salt Lake City to Borman's of Detroit.
  • 1987: Safeway sold 59 stores in El Paso to Furr's Supermarkets
  • 1987: Safeway sold 106 stores to Clayton & Dubilier forming Homeland.
  • Safeway sold 121 Safeway UK stores to Argyll Foods which keeps the brand until 2005.
  • 1988: Safeway sold 66 stores in Kansas City to Morgan Lewis Githens & Ahn/W S Acquisition Corp which renamed group Food Barn.
  • 1988: Safeway sold 51 stores in Little Rock Acadia Partners which became Harvest Foods that went bankrupt in 1995
  • 1988 Safeway sold 99 stores to Duncan Cook and Co. and the Sterling Group which were renamed AppleTree Markets. Parts of AppleTree were later acquired by Kroger and Randalls.
  • 1987: Safeway sold 135 Safeway Australia to Woolworths Limited Australia which continued Safeway brand until 2008.
  • 1988: Safeway sold 172 stores to Vons. The $408m consisted of $325m in cash and 30 percent stake with option to buy in Vons.
• 1990: KKR helds an IPO for Safeway and exited the investment.
• 1997: Safeway exercised an option and bought full control of Vons in Southern California.
• 1998: Safeway acquired Dominick's from Yucaipa Companies for $1.85 billion.
• 1999: Safeway acquired Carr-Gottstein Foods Co. for $106 million in cash and the assumption of $239 million in debt.
• 1999: Safeway acquired Randalls Food Markets, Inc. which had 117 supermarkets and included Tom Thumb chain in Dallas/Fort Worth for $1.3B and assumption of $403 million in debt.

  History of Randalls

  Randalls is a chain of with 42 supermarkets in Houston and Austin, Tx.

  • 1964: Robert Randall Onstead sold his father's grocery business with four stores to Piggly Wiggly.
  • 1966: Robert Randall Onstead, R. C. Barclay, and Norman N. Frewin purchased two stores in Houston, Texas.
  • 1989: Boris Yeltsin visited Randalls and was jealous that Russia did not have supermarkets.
  • 1992: Randalls acquired Tom Thumb which had 62 markets in Dallas, Fort Worth and Austin. The deal was financed with a $279M loan from Morgan Stanley and is worth an estimated $369. This brought the store count to 115

    History of Tom Thumb

    Tom Thumb is chain owned by Albertsons operating in the Dallas/Ft Worth area.

    • 1948: J.R. Bost and Robert B. Cullum acquired 6 Toro supermarkets after the owner of Toro defaulted and fled the country creating Tom Thumb Food Stores.
    • 19??: Company held IPO as Cullum Companies.
    • 19??: Callum acquired 17 Pantry Food Markets in California
    • 19??: Cullum acquired Page Drug Stores.
    • 1963: Cullum acquired Simon David of Houston which was founded by Simon David in 1889.
    • 1972: Cullum acquired Hinky Dinky chain which had 50 stores. These were started in 1925 by Jule, Henry and Albert Newman in Omaha. They were named after the song Hinky Dinky Parlez-Vous.
    • 1985: Cullum sold several Hinky Dinkies to Ron Badley.
    • Tom Thumb partnered with WalMart to create a "hypermarts" in Texas.
    • 1989: Cullum sold 6 Tom Thumb stores in Austin to Albertsons.
    • 2000: Nash Finch acquired the last of the Hinky Dinkies.
  • 1994: Randalls acquired 12 AppleTree Markets which had been spun off Safeway.
  • 1997: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. invested $225 million in Randalls for a majority stake.
  • 1999: Safeway acquired Randals
• 2000: Safeway contracted its online shopping through GroceryWorks Holdings, Inc.
• 2001: Safeway acquired Genuardi's Family Markets, Inc. that had 39 supermarkets in Pa, De and NJ for ~ $530M.
2003: United Food and Commercial Workers held a strike against Safeway in California.
• 2003: Safeway expanded to Jordan.
• 2013: Sobeys acquired Safeway's operations in Canada for CDN$5.8 billion.
• 2014: Cerberus Capital Management acquired Safeway for $9.4 billion and merged Safeway with Albertsons.
• 2015: Haggen acquired 146 Vons, Albertsons, and Pavilions stores to avoid anti-trust complaints from merger.
• 2016: Albertsons rebranded select stores in Denver and Florida as Safeway.

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References:

1. Groceteria - Safeway History (Drawn 9/15/2018)
2. Encylopedia.com - Safeway Inc. (Drawn 9/15/2018)

Directory Listings:

• Denver Color - Grocery: Albertsons / Safeway

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