Safeway Supermarkets was an American supermarket chain founded in 1915. It was acquired by Albertsons in January 2015.
Safeway operated 1,331 stores in the United States and had annual sales of $40.1 billion. The company was headquartered in Pleasanton, California.
Safeway was founded by Marion Barton Skaggs in April 1915 in American Falls, Idaho. His father, Robert Skaggs, was a merchant who owned a general store since 1864. After Marion Skaggs graduated from Stanford University in 1909, he decided to work with his father in the family business.
In 1915, the Skaggs family bought a controlling interest in a small chain of stores called Safeway Stores, Inc., which operated stores in Montana and Idaho. The company expanded rapidly under Skaggs’ leadership, and by 1926 it operated 597 stores in 11 Western states.
Safeway entered into the Canadian market in 1930 with the acquisition of MacMarr Stores Ltd., a small chain of stores in British Columbia. Safeway continued to expand its Canadian operations throughout the 1930s and 1940s.
In October 1955, Safeway Stores, Inc. merged with the Vornado Corporation, a holding company that owned a number of other businesses, including Woolworth’s and Alexander’s department stores. The merger made Safeway a publicly-traded company.
In 1959, Safeway opened its first food processing plant, which processed frozen foods. The company also expanded its international operations, opening stores in Australia and Puerto Rico.
In 1961, Safeway acquired Randall’s Food Markets, Inc., a Houston-based grocery store chain. This made Safeway the largest grocery store chain in the United States at that time.
In 1979, Safeway moved its headquarters from American Falls to Pleasanton, California.
In March 2015, it was announced that Albertsons would be acquiring Safeway for $9 billion. The merger was completed on January 30, 2015 and Safeway became a subsidiary of Albertsons.
What happened to Safeway Supermarkets?
Safeway Supermarkets was an American supermarket chain founded in 1915.
