Supervalu

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marshd1000
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Supervalu

Post by marshd1000 »

With the talk about Supervalu acquiring Albertsons, I would like to know the HISTORY of this company. I looked on their website and can't see any mention about any supermarkets called, "Supervalu". I originally was under the impression that instead of owning a lot of their stores, that they were in the grocery distribution business. I thought that a lot of their business was to stores that were a part of a "Supervalu" franchise program. Kind of like IGA or Associated Grocers Thriftway. I know that I have only seen two Supervalu stores. One was in Sequim, WA; which was acquired by QFC and another in Skyway, WA; between Seattle and Renton. Can anyone enlighten me on this? Also were there ever any connections between this company and a supermarket chain in Canada by the same name?
rrr

Post by rrr »

The history on their website doesn't explain it very well. My reading is that they first had company-owned stores when they bought Cub in 1980. On their home page, it explains that they have over 2200 partner stores, while they have 1500 company-owned stores. The Supply Chain section claims they supply a grand total of over 4000, I guess some of these must be non-SuperValu named stores.

There are definitely still a few independent So-and-So's Supervalus left in the midwest, altho they seem to be fading pretty fast.

Interesting note from their history: They started in the 1870's as a grocer named "BS Bull." Probably not a brand that would go over big today :?
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tesg
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Post by tesg »

I poked around a bit and here's what I found...

The company started in 1870 out of Minneapolis wholesale grocery firms B.S. Bull, Newell & Harrison Co. The "Super Valu" name (once two seperate words) was introduced in 1942. What I've basically been able to determine is, a group of IGA stores left that franchise and started sporting the Super Valu name with support from Bull, Newell & Harrison. The company officially became Super Valu Stores in 1954, which rebranded to today's "Supervalu" in 1992.

Supervalu mostly grew by acquiring other distributors. Like Associated Grocers or IGA, independent operators purchased food from Supervalu and "franchised" the brand. Independents didn't necessarily use the Supervalu branding. There are several regional chains who use Supervalu for their distributor with no actual use of the Supervalu name.

Interestingly enough, Supervalu once owned discount chain ShopKo. They were acquired in 1971 and spun off in an IPO in 1991 with Supervalu retaining a minority ownership until 1997. Supervalu also apparently was originally behind mall clothing retail chain County Seat in the 1970's. But it wasn't until 1980 that the company started operating its own supermarkets when they purchased Cub Foods. They've purchased several local/regional brands since...mostly ones they distributed to (until Albertson's, of course). Randall's of South Dakota, Save-U-Foods of California (which evolved into Save-A-Lot), and Scott's Foods (Indiana), to name a few.

If anybody can salvage anything out of Albertson's, Supervalu can.
danielh_512
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Post by danielh_512 »

Supervalu has a great network for supplying independent supermarkets affiliated to them w/food. However, Supervalu has never taken on anything as large as saving Albertson's.

I remember throughout the 80's seeing many stores under the Supervalu banner in rural Illinois, and they were identical to County Market in my hometown, a name that is seen in various spots of the country supplied by Supervalu (The MD/PA division ended up sold to Giant Eagle in 2002, there is still another PA division, a MN division, and a MT division to my knowledge). I don't know what happened to those stores, and what they're called today. I wish I could remember more specifics upon them.

One advantage Supervalu has is starting Bigg's, a hypermarket chain in Cincinnati. It can help them to compete against Wal-Mart better. While it's done well in Cincinnati, it was expanded into Colorado and other areas, and failed miserably.

Also, I'd kiss your Albertson's cards goodbye, Supervalu has cards in only one of its divisions, its Shop n Save Pittsburgh division, which uses the Rewards Card tied to S&H Greenpoints, but all the stores were dumped off to independent operators, some of which are being rebranded Kuhn's (an independent that Supervalu supplies in the Pittsburgh area).

I wish them the best of luck. It's a tough market. I've known Supervalu for quite a while. They're a little quirky in their stores, so welcome to a new experience.
rrr

Post by rrr »

True, SuperValu stores do seem a bit different. In the beginning, Cub certainly was fresh.

Not to be argumentative, but SV didn't actually start Bigg's. They bought it after it had been around for a few years. And while I like Bigg's quality, they seem to have cut back on the non-grocery products to concentrate on food. Not that I go there all that often, but that's what I've seen.

I too wish them luck. They'll be back in some of the markets they abandoned in the big Cub debacle. Hope they learned something. Milwaukee in particular could use some new life for Jewel. Supposedly PicknSave there has more than 50% market share following the demise of Kohl's and Sentry's troubles.
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