Economy

In 2013, the Albertsons brand was reunited under one company umbrella. Supervalu sold all Albertsons, Acme, Jewel-Osco, Shaw’s and Star Market stores in a $3.3 billion deal to Cerberus Capital Management, the investment firm that purchased some of the Albertsons stores in 2006.Albertsons Inc. was split into pieces in 2006, and the majority of it was acquired by grocery store giant Supervalu. Minneapolis-based Supervalu purchased the company for $17.4 billion.According to the St. Louis Business Journal, the drug store chain CVS purchased 700 of Albertsons' Sav-on and Osco Drug stores "and Albertson's ownership interests in the drugstore real estate for about $2.9 billion."Albertsons Boise-based workforce, including its headquarters, shrank from between 5,000 and 6,000 employees to between 3,000 and 4,000, according to Idaho Department of Labor data.Albertsons, familiar to Idahoans as the store with the big blue A, was founded in Boise in 1939 by Joe Albertson. He's quoted as saying, "In good times or bad, people have to eat, so I figure it's a good business."According to material from Albertsons' old website, that first Boise store was revolutionary. Shoppers weren't used to grocery stores that included a bakery, automatic doughnut machines, magazine racks and ice cream cones.Here's a brief timeline provided by RedSky Public Relations:1939 Joe Albertson enters into partnership with L.S. Skaggs and Tom Cuthbert, Mr. Skaggs’ accountant, and opens his first Albertsons store in Boise, Idaho.1951 Albertsons opens first combination food and drug store, a 60,000-square-foot superstore.1957 Albertsons begins incorporating drug stores in the new Albertsons Food Centers with the purchase of Sugarhouse Drug in Salt Lake City.1959 Albertsons becomes a public entity and begins selling shares over the counter.1978 Albertsons builds Boise General Office.1999 Albertsons and American Stores Company merge.2001 Larry Johnston joins Albertsons as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer.2004 Albertsons acquires over 200 Shaw’s and Star Market stores in New England, and acquires the specialty chain of Bristol Farms, which consists of 11 stores in Southern California.2013 Supervalu sells all Albertsons, Acme, Jewel-Osco, Shaw’s and Star Market stores in a $3.3 billion deal to Cerberus Capital Managemet, reuniting the Albertsons and Albertsons Market stores under one umbrella.At it's peak, there were more than 2,500 Albertsons-brand stores across the country. Today, Supervalu owns 450 of those Albertsons stores in nine states, including all of its Idaho locations.At the time when Supervalu purchased Albertsons Inc., another piece of the Albertsons' empire split off and formed Albertsons LLC. According to it's website, the LLC, which is branded as Albertsons Market, acquired 200 stores in Northern California, Colorado, Utah, Nebraska, South Dakota, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Florida.

Reporter's Notebook: Why Everything I Thought About Albertsons From Shopping There May Be Wrong

Boise State Public Radio News

Published July 10, 2015 at 4:46 PM MDT

I shop at Albertsons a few times a week. I live near one and there are two close to our radio studio. I’ll pop over in the evening or on weekends to pick up a few things. Granted, my market research is light-years from being scientific, but on those trips I’ve noticed a couple of things that have made me less than optimistic for the future of this hometown company.

One, it’s never crowded compared to the store where I go for my big, once-a-week shopping trips. And two, like me, everyone there seems to be buying just a few things.

I recently had the chance to run my observations by a grocery industry expert. He says my concerns don’t have merit. Frank Dell is a food industry analyst, consultant and founder of Dellmart and Company. Dell says people only buying a few things doesn’t necessarily mean that Albertsons is underperforming.

“The American consumer is looking a lot more like the European consumer every day,” Dell says. “What you’re seeing is people in the store are in there for the most part [thinking] ‘I need this cleaning product and this is what we’re having for dinner tonight,’ and maybe, ‘I need another box of cereal for the kids tomorrow.’”

Dell says the practice of doing all the shopping for a week or two in one trip - which he calls ‘pantry loading’ - was once the norm. But he says, increasingly, Americans are going to the grocery store three or four times a week for a few things rather than three or four times a month for many things.

He says the only chains that get a lot of pantry loading customers are the ones with much lower prices than competitors and/or that sell a lot of other things besides food. Dell adds that many people who still do a weekly or twice-monthly big shopping trip also go somewhere else to get things like produce. The reason? Many believe the quality isn't as good at the cheaper store.

Dell also says my other observation, the decidedly uncrowded aisles, may not be something Albertsons should be concerned about.

Dell says a better way to judge how well a store is doing is by the number of checkout lanes open. But he says that test can’t be done all day. Plenty of successful grocery stores are packed for a only couple hours a day.

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Reporter's Notebook: Why Everything I Thought About Albertsons From Shopping There May Be Wrong

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