Cub (supermarket)

Last updated
Cub
FormerlyCub Foods (1968–2018)
Company type Subsidiary
Industry Retail / grocery
Founded1968;56 years ago (1968) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.
FoundersCharles Hooley, Jack Hooley, Robert Thueson and Culver Davis Jr.
Headquarters Stillwater, Minnesota, U.S.
Number of locations
106
Key people
  • Andre Persaud (CEO)
Products Bakery, catering, sushi, asian foods, hibachi, dairy, delicatessen, frozen foods, organic foods, fuel, grocery, lottery, pharmacy, produce, meats and seafood, snack food, floristry flowers, liquor
Services Supermarket
Pharmacy
RevenueUS$37.6 million
Total assets US$23.2 million (2021)
Owner United Natural Foods
Number of employees
Increase2.svg 1,000 (2019)
Website cub.com

Cub is an American supermarket chain. It operates stores in Minnesota and Illinois. [1] The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of United Natural Foods, based in Providence, Rhode Island.

Contents

History

Beginnings

Cub Foods was founded by Minnesota-based Hooleys Supermarkets in 1968 in the riverside city of Stillwater by brothers Charles and Jack Hooley, brother-in-law Robert Thueson, and Culver Davis, Jr. The name “CUB” was Culver Davis Jr’s nickname, and from it, they coined the acronym “Consumers United for Buying”, [2] and Cub Foods was one of the first total discount food stores in the United States. The chain was bought by Minnesota-based SuperValu in 1980 with five stores in the Twin Cities. [3] After the purchase, the chain expanded to 83 stores in three states, at least 10 of which are in the Twin Cities. Until 1999, WinCo Foods operated several Cub Foods stores. Cub Foods began operations in Colorado in 1986, but shuttered their nine stores in 2003; Kroger acquired some of the former locations. [4] Cub once had a presence in Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan as well. A store in Ames closed in 2010, ending the chain's time in Iowa. [5] The last Wisconsin store closed in 2012. [6]

The chain also had locations operated by Delhaize Group in parts of the Southern United States, namely in the metro Atlanta and metro Nashville areas in the 1980s and 1990s. [7] The distinctively curved aqua-green tin roof on the front of a red brick façade can still be seen on many of these buildings, including the Big Lots in Woodstock, Georgia and the Northeast Cobb YMCA.

Effects from Albertsons merger

As part of SuperValu's acquisition of New Albertsons, including its Chicago-based Jewel-Osco stores, SuperValu divested its Chicago-area Cub Foods locations to an investment group headed by Cerberus Capital Management, to avoid market concentration issues. (The Cerberus-led group later acquired New Albertsons from SuperValu in March 2013, reuniting the two Albertsons companies under the common holding company Albertsons LLC.) Since Cerberus took control, four locations (Algonquin, Bedford Park, 87th Street in Chicago, and Naperville) closed, and Cerberus then announced that it was selling the remaining Illinois stores to other operators. [8] The last of the Chicago-area Cub Foods stores closed on December 10, 2006. A majority of them were sold to Central Grocers Cooperative and operated as Strack & Van Til and Ultra Foods by a wholly-owned unit of the cooperative, and as Garden Fresh Markets by one of its members; [9] others were sold to Grand Mart International Foods. However, only four of the eight stores sold to Grand Mart opened under that company's ownership, and all were closed after less than five months of operation. Central Grocers Cooperative subsequently went bankrupt in 2017. In recent months among the inflation crisis of 2021-2022, Cub Foods was considered overpriced by local pricing experts. [10]

Cub Foods once had multiple locations in Illinois, including stores in the Peoria metropolitan area. In 2009, a Peoria-area store closing drew controversy, as the city was liable for a portion of the initial project. [11] A single location remains in Freeport.

Three Springfield, Illinois, stores independently owned by Niemann Foods (two of which are former Jewel-Osco stores acquired from the Cerberus-led group) had a franchise to use the Cub Foods name as part of the stores' branding. These stores also carried selected Cub Foods-branded products under the same agreement. As of recently, these three stores no longer use the Cub Foods name; instead, they are now called County Market (another trademark owned by SuperValu but franchised to independent grocers). A Niemann-owned store in Bloomington, Illinois, used the Cub Foods name under license from SuperValu until closing in 2015. [12]

In 2018, the word "Foods" has been dropped from the name. The signs and ads now simply say “Cub,” and the remodeled stores reflect the broader assortment of goods that it needs to compete not just with Hy-Vee but Target, Walmart, Aldi, and even Amazon. Cub is the biggest chain in Supervalu's retail portfolio. Its sale of the Save-A-Lot discount chain for $1.3 billion “fundamentally changed our leverage,” Chief Executive Mark Gross said this year. Some of that is going toward updating Cub. As of 2017, new stores have opened in Blaine and Oakdale, while 18 Twin Cities locations have been remodeled. Nearly all of Cub's remodels are in areas where Hy-Vee opened stores nearby, including Maple Grove, Plymouth, and Brooklyn Park. Cub brought elements to the remodeled stores that customers liked — more grab-and-go foods, a larger produce section, and a drive-up pharmacy — but those were reactions to Hy-Vee. Stillwater is an exception. The new 88,500-square-foot store includes ideas that Cub executives are trying out before adding to other stores. [13]

On July 26, 2018, it was announced that parent company Supervalu would be purchased by United Natural Foods for $2.9 billion. As a result of this purchase, Cub and other Supervalu retail properties will be divested from the company. In January 2022, United Natural Foods announced that Cub would no longer be divested. [14]

See also

Related Research Articles

Albertsons Companies, Inc. is an American grocery company founded and headquartered in Boise, Idaho.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jewel-Osco</span> American supermarket chain

Jewel-Osco is a regional supermarket chain in the Chicago metropolitan area, headquartered in Itasca, a western suburb. In 2007, the company had 188 stores across northern, central, and western Illinois; eastern Iowa; and portions of northwest Indiana. Jewel-Osco has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Boise-based Albertsons since 1999. The company originally started as a door-to-door coffee delivery service before it expanded into delivering non-perishable groceries and later into grocery stores, and supermarkets. Prior to its 1984 acquisition by American Stores, Jewel evolved into a large multi-state holding company that operated several supermarket chains and other non-food retail chain stores located from coast to coast and had operated under several different brand names.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Osco Drug and Sav-on Drugs</span> Retail pharmacy chains in the United States

Osco Drug and Sav-on Drugs were the names of a pair of chain pharmacies that operated in the United States. Osco Drug was founded by the Skaggs family. Alpha Beta grocery store was purchased by American Stores in 1961. Skaggs Drug Centers bought American Stores in 1979 and assumed the American Stores name. Sav-on Drugs was a California-based pharmacy chain that was acquired by Osco's parent company in 1980. Both Osco and Sav-on stores eventually came under the ownership of American Stores, then Albertsons, and finally SuperValu before the stores were sold off.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Save-A-Lot</span> American retail and grocery company

Save A Lot Food Stores Ltd. is an American discount supermarket chain store headquartered in St. Ann, Missouri, in Greater St. Louis. It has about 900 independently owned and operated stores across 32 states in the United States with over $4 billion in annual sales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Acme Markets</span> American supermarket chain

Acme Markets Inc. is a supermarket chain operating 161 stores throughout Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, the Hudson Valley of New York, and Pennsylvania and, as of 1999, is a subsidiary of Albertsons, and part of its presence in the Northeast. It is headquartered in East Whiteland Township, Pennsylvania, near Malvern, a Philadelphia suburb.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Food Lion</span> American regional supermarket chain owned by Ahold Delhaize

Food Lion is an American regional supermarket chain headquartered in Salisbury, North Carolina, that operates over 1100 supermarkets in 10 states of the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern United States. The chain employs over 85,000 people. It was founded in 1957 as Food Town, a single grocery store in Salisbury. It later expanded to many locations across North Carolina. It was independently operated until it was acquired by the Belgium-based conglomerate Delhaize Group in 1974. In 1983, the company changed its name and branding to Food Lion to allow it to expand into regions where Food Town was already in use by unrelated stores. Following further mergers and acquisitions, Food Lion, LLC is currently owned by Ahold Delhaize. The mascot’s name has been Leo the Food Lion since January 17, 1997.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shopko</span> Defunct chain of retail stores

Shopko was a chain of department stores based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. All locations closed on June 23, 2019, with the exception of the Shopko Optical locations, which continue to operate.

SuperValu, Inc., was an American wholesaler and retailer of grocery products. The company, formerly headquartered in the Minneapolis suburb of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, had been in business since 1926. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of United Natural Foods (UNFI).

Shop ’n Save was a grocery store chain in the Greater St. Louis market with 36 stores at its peak. The company, headquartered in Kirkwood, Missouri, was a wholly owned subsidiary of SuperValu, based in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shaw's and Star Market</span> American supermarket chains in New England region owned by Albertsons Companies, Inc

Shaw's and Star Market are two American supermarket chains under united management based in West Bridgewater, Massachusetts, employing about 30,000 associates in 150 total stores; 129 stores are operated under the Shaw's banner in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont, while Star Market operates 21 stores in Massachusetts, most of which are in or near Boston. Until 2010, Shaw's operated stores in all six New England states, and as of 2021 Shaw's remained the only supermarket chain with stores in five of the six, after it sold its Connecticut operations. The chain's largest competitors are Hannaford, Market Basket, Price Chopper, Roche Bros., Wegmans, and Stop & Shop. Star Market is a companion store to Shaw's, Shaw's having purchased the competing chain in 1999.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucky Stores</span> American supermarket chain

Lucky Stores is an American supermarket chain founded in San Leandro, California, in 1935. Lucky is currently operated by Albertsons in Utah and Save Mart Supermarkets in Northern California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Stores</span> American grocery store holding company

American Stores Company was an American public corporation and a holding company which ran chains of supermarkets and drugstores in the United States from 1917 through 1998. The company was incorporated in 1917 when The Acme Tea Company merged with four small Philadelphia-area grocery stores (Childs, George Dunlap, Bell Company, and A House That Quality Built) to form American Stores. In the following eight decades, the company would expand to 1,575 food and drugstores in 38 states with $20 billion in annual sales in 1998.

Star Market is a New England chain of supermarkets based in Greater Boston. It was owned by the Mugar family and started in 1915. The company was sold to The Jewel Companies, Inc. in 1964 and later to Investcorp, which in turn sold the chain to Shaw's Supermarkets. As stores were remodeled, many adopted the Shaw's name, leaving only a handful of Star Market stores operating by the late 2000s. In 2008, Shaw's began to revive the name, a trend which was expedited after the parent company of both chains was sold to Cerberus Capital Management. Today, both Shaw's and Star Market are administered as a single division.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bristol Farms</span> California-based upscale grocery chain

Bristol Farms is an upscale grocery store chain in California, United States. Founded in Los Angeles County, Bristol Farms operates 20 stores: 14 as Bristol Farms locations and 6 branded as Lazy Acres Markets throughout Southern California. The company is currently owned by Good Food Holdings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buttrey Food & Drug</span> American grocery chain

Buttrey Food & Drug was a chain of grocery stores founded in Havre, Montana, and formerly headquartered in Great Falls, Montana. The company was founded in 1896 as a chain of department stores branded Buttrey Department Store. The company opened grocery stores in 1935 and sold off its department store division following a 1966 acquisition by The Jewel Companies, Inc. Jewel was sold to American Stores in 1984, and later Buttrey was sold off as a separate company in 1990. The company was sold to its main competitor, Boise, Idaho–based Albertsons, in January 1998 and the Buttrey name was retired. At that time, Buttrey was operating 43 stores in Montana, Wyoming, and North Dakota with a revenue of US$391.4 million.

SuperValu Pharmacies, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Eden Prairie, Minnesota-based SuperValu. SuperValu Pharmacy operates 950 pharmacies in Shop 'n Save, Hornbacher's, Farm Fresh Food & Pharmacy and Cub Foods stores.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Farm Fresh Food & Pharmacy</span>

Farm Fresh Food & Pharmacy is a supermarket chain with four independently owned stores, all of which are in Virginia. At its peak, Farm Fresh called itself "Virginia's Grocery Store" because it had stores spanning the state. Its headquarters were located in Virginia Beach and its largest presence was in the surrounding Norfolk/Virginia Beach metropolitan area. The company was a wholly owned subsidiary of Eden Prairie, Minnesota-based SuperValu. On March 14, 2018, it was revealed that parent company, SuperValu, would be selling 21 stores to Kroger and Ahold Delhaize. Currently, three Farm Fresh stores remain in operation under different ownership.

Strack & Van Til is a grocery store chain with locations in Northwest Indiana. Stores operate under the banners of Strack & Van Til and Town & Country Food Market.

Rainbow Foods was a supermarket chain in Minnesota. Founded in 1983, it operated more than 40 stores across the state at its peak and was the second-largest grocery store chain in the Twin Cities, behind Cub Foods. However, the arrival of other grocery stores in the market, such as Aldi and Hy-Vee in the 2000s and 2010s caused the grocery store chain to shrink to 27 locations by May 2014. Soon after, nine more closed and eighteen were sold by then-owner Roundy's; only six of these kept the Rainbow name.

Central Grocers Cooperative, founded in 1917 as Central Wholesale Grocers, was a retailers' cooperative based in Joliet, Illinois, near Chicago. It distributed both brand name and private label goods branded as Centrella and Silver Cup Value Buy to about 400 member-owner grocery stores in Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin.

References

  1. ↑ "SuperValu:Cub Foods Corporate Banner". Archived from the original on 2014-01-01. Retrieved 2007-07-02.
  2. ↑ "Cub Foods Co-Founder Charles Hooley Was a Bargain-Shopping Pioneer". The Wall Street Journal. June 22, 2018. Retrieved May 7, 2019.
  3. ↑ "Timeline: Supervalu through the years". Minneapolis StarTribune. July 26, 2018. Retrieved May 7, 2019.
  4. ↑ "Colorado Cub Foods stores closing". KUSA. October 19, 2003. Retrieved May 4, 2019.
  5. ↑ "Ames Cub Foods location will close in November". Iowa State Daily. Archived from the original on August 1, 2020. Retrieved May 4, 2019.
  6. ↑ "Cub Foods closes last Wisconsin store; Metcalfe's prepares to fill void". Wisconsin State Journal . Retrieved May 4, 2019.
  7. ↑ "History". Delhaize Group. Archived from the original on 20 July 2012. Retrieved 19 July 2012.
  8. ↑ "Topic Galleries". Chicago Tribune . September 16, 2014. Retrieved October 31, 2022.
  9. ↑ Holecek, Andrea (February 17, 2007). "Four Sterk's stores changing hands". NWI Times . Retrieved October 31, 2022.
  10. ↑ "Grocery Prices Inflation". www.ebitdacatalyst.com. 21 February 2022. Retrieved October 31, 2022.
  11. ↑ "Cub Foods has been closed for eight years but Peoria is still paying". Peoria Journal Star . January 18, 2017. Archived from the original on May 7, 2019. Retrieved May 7, 2019.
  12. ↑ Barlow, Kevin (June 15, 2015). "Cub Foods announces it is closing local store". Pantagraph . Retrieved October 31, 2022.
  13. ↑ Ewoldt, John (October 21, 2017). "Remodeled Cub grocery in Stillwater tests new concepts". Star Tribune . Retrieved October 31, 2022.
  14. ↑ Sitaramiah, Gita (January 8, 2022). "The new owner of Cub Foods put it on sale, but then decided to keep it". Star Tribune. Retrieved October 31, 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.