 | |
| Company type | Subsidiary of The Kroger Co. |
|---|---|
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | 1947 (San Francisco, California) |
| Defunct | 2011 |
| Fate | Stores closed |
| Successor | DeLano's IGA |
| Products | Bakery, dairy, deli, frozen foods, grocery, meat, pharmacy, produce, seafood, snacks, liquor |
| Parent | Kroger/Ralphs |
| Subsidiaries | Bell Markets |
Cala Foods was a supermarket chain operating in San Francisco, California. Cala Foods was the sister chain to Bell Markets. The last Cala Foods store closed its doors on December 1, 2011.
Cala Foods was established in 1947 by the seven brothers of the Cala family. Cala Foods acquired the QFI supermarket chain in 1973. The company merged with Bell Markets in the mid-1970s. Bell Markets was founded in the 1940s when Dominick Bell and his two brothers opened a supermarket in San Francisco.
Cala Foods was the first supermarket chain in San Francisco to stay open 24 hours per day, and one of the first in the US to use checkout scanners. [1] The chain would eventually extend as far south as Santa Clara County and as far north as Marin County. [1]
The Cala Foods chain was purchased by the Yucaipa Companies in 1988. [1] In 1994, Cala became a division of the Ralphs Grocery Company when Ralphs merged with Yucaipa. In August 2006, Ralphs reached an agreement to sell 11 of 13 Cala and Bell stores back to Harley DeLano, previous manager of the chain. While DeLano retains the right to use the Cala and Bell store names, Kroger retains ownership of the names themselves. In January 2007, DeLano Retail Partners took control of all but one Cala Foods stores and immediately rebranded the stores to DeLano's IGA. In late 2010, it was announced that Delano's was struggling financially and that the majority of DeLano's IGA locations would be closing. [2]
The store at the intersection of California and Hyde streets on San Francisco's Nob Hill was operated by Kroger and represented the last Cala Foods store until its closure on December 1, 2011. It was originally slated to close at the end of 2010, but would remain open for another year. [3]
Following concerns that the distinctive building would be torn down, Trader Joe's instead opened a branch within it in 2012. [4]
The Kroger Company, or simply Kroger, is an American retail company that operates supermarkets and multi-department stores throughout the United States.
Ralphs is an American supermarket chain in Southern California. The largest subsidiary of Cincinnati-based Kroger, it is the oldest such chain west of the Mississippi River. Kroger also operates stores under the Food 4 Less and Foods Co. names in California.
Fry's Food and Drug is a chain of American supermarkets that has a major presence in the U.S. state of Arizona. Fry's also operates under the banner of Fry's Marketplace, a hypermarket or combination of groceries and general merchandise. Fry's is a division of Kroger, an American retail company based in Cincinnati, Ohio.
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 1998, 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.
Safeway, Inc. is an American supermarket chain. The chain provides grocery items, food and general merchandise and a variety of specialty departments, such as bakery, delicatessen, floral and pharmacy, as well as Starbucks coffee shops and fuel centers. It is a subsidiary of Albertsons after being acquired by private equity investors led by Cerberus Capital Management in January 2015. Safeway's primary base of operations is in the Western United States with some stores located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the Eastern Seaboard. The subsidiary is headquartered in Pleasanton, California.
Harris Teeter Supermarkets, LLC., also known as Harris Teeter Neighborhood Food & Pharmacy, is an American supermarket chain based in Matthews, North Carolina, a suburb of Charlotte. As of June 2024, the chain operates 261 stores in seven South Atlantic states and Washington, D.C. Supermarket News ranked Harris Teeter No. 34 in the 2012 "Top 75 Retailers & Wholesalers" based on 2011 fiscal year sales of $4.3 billion.
Smith's Food and Drug, or simply Smith's, is an American regional supermarket chain that was founded by Lorenzo Smith in 1911 in Brigham City, Utah. Headquartered in Salt Lake City with stores in Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, Smith's became a subsidiary of Kroger in 1998.
Alpha Beta was a chain of supermarkets in the Southwestern United States. Stores under this brand existed between 1917 and 1995. Former Alpha Beta stores have all been purchased by other grocery chains and rebranded.
Raley's Supermarkets is an independent, family-owned American grocery and retail technology company headquartered in West Sacramento, California. Raley's was founded in 1935 by Thomas P. Raley in Placerville, California.
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.
Wild Oats Marketplace is a producer of natural and organic food distributed through partnerships in the United States.
The Yucaipa Companies, LLC is an American private equity firm founded in 1986 by Ronald Burkle. It specializes in a private equity and venture capital, with a focus on middle-market companies, growth capital, industry consolidation, leveraged buyouts and turnaround investments. It generally invests $25–$300 million in companies with $300–$500 million in revenues.
Food 4 Less is the name of several grocery store chains, the largest of which is currently owned by Kroger. It is a no-frills grocery store where the customers bag their own groceries at the checkout. Kroger operates Food 4 Less stores in the Chicago metropolitan area and in Southern California. Kroger operates their stores as Foods Co. in northern and central California, including Bakersfield and the Central Coast, because they do not have the rights to the Food 4 Less name in those areas. Other states, such as Nevada, formerly contained Kroger-owned Food 4 Less stores.
Scott's Food & Pharmacy was a supermarket chain in the Fort Wayne, Indiana market. The company was once a wholly owned subsidiary of SuperValu, but was acquired by The Kroger Co. in 2007. At the time of its purchase by Kroger, the chain had 18 locations. By late 2014, that number had dwindled to one location as a result of stores being closed or rebranded under the Kroger banner. However, the company shut down in 2016, due to the final store rebranding to Kroger.
Roundy's Supermarkets is an American supermarket operator. It owns and operates stores under the names of Pick 'n Save, Metro Market, and Mariano's Fresh Market. The chain is a subsidiary of Kroger. Roundy's operates 149 supermarkets and 107 pharmacies throughout the states of Wisconsin and Illinois. Based on fiscal year 2012 sales, Roundy's was the 37th largest grocery store chain and the 89th largest retailer in the United States. As of December 2015, Roundy's became a subsidiary of Kroger of Cincinnati, Ohio.
Dominick's was a Chicago-area grocery store chain and subsidiary of Safeway Inc. Dominick's distribution center was located in Northlake, Illinois, while its management offices were located in Oak Brook, Illinois.
QFI was a San Francisco supermarket chain founded in the late 1940s by John Musso. Originally, some QFI locations were leased, resulting in some stores being co-named with others. By the 1970s, when Musso's son Leo took over, all QFI stores were wholly owned and operated. QFI peaked as the number three grocery chain in the region, behind Safeway and Lucky, and had about 14 locations ranging from San Francisco south to Redwood City.
AppleTree Markets was a supermarket chain in Texas formed in 1969 when Safeway opened its first stores in Houston, which were spun off under the AppleTree name in 1988. The division once had 100 stores in Greater Houston and Greater Austin. By January 21, 2002, AppleTree had reduced its holdings to two stores in Bryan, Texas, where it had shifted its headquarters. One of the remaining locations was sold in 2009 and the final location, in Bryan at Highway 21 and Texas Avenue, closed in early 2012, marking the end of the chain.
Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market was a chain of grocery stores in the Western United States, headquartered in El Segundo, California. It was a subsidiary of Tesco, the world's third largest retailer, based in the United Kingdom, until November 2013 when it was purchased by Yucaipa Companies. It had plans for rapid growth – the first stores opened in November 2007 and, after a pause in the second quarter of 2008, the opening program recommenced. While there were over 200 stores in Arizona, California, and Nevada by December 2012, Tesco confirmed in April 2013 that it was pulling out of the US market, at a reported cost of £1.2 billion. On September 10, 2013, Tesco announced they were transferring ownership and operations of more than 150 stores to supermarket-owner Ron Burkle's Yucaipa Companies group. At the beginning of October 2013, Fresh & Easy filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in U.S. bankruptcy court. The sale cost Tesco £150m, taking the total cost of its failed US venture to nearly £2bn. On October 23, 2015, Yucaipa announced that it would close all Fresh & Easy stores.
Market Basket was the name used by two separate chains of supermarkets within Southern California. The first chain originated in Pasadena and operated from 1930 until 1982. The second chain operated from 1989 until 1994.