The pending merger of Albertson's and American Stores Co. is not the first time the two retail giants have gotten together.
lled Skaggs-Albertson's. When the partnership ended in 1977, the stores remained part of American Stores Co. and were eventually renamed Jewel-Osco.
American Stores Co. evolved from a company called Skaggs Drug Centers, which originally consisted of four drug stores in Utah, Idaho and Montana that were acquired by the Skaggs family in 1939.
The company grew through acquisition of additional drug stores in the West and South. The name American Stores Co. came from a Philadelphia-based company that was created in 1917 when five grocery-store operators merged to become American Tea (later Stores) Co. When the company began opening larger, more modern supermarkets in the 1940s, the stores switched to the Acme Markets banner.
In 1979 Skaggs Drug Centers acquired American Stores and adopted the name. Besides Acme, American Stores owned Alpha Beta Co. in southern California.
For the next decade and more, American Stores functioned primarily as a holding company for Acme, Alpha Beta and the chains it acquired subsequently: Jewel Cos. in 1984 (which included Jewel Food Stores, Star Markets Co., Buttrey Food & Drug Stores, Osco Drugs and Sav-on Drugs); and Lucky Stores in 1988.
Between 1988 and 1992 the company focused on reducing its high debt levels and limited investments in its store base and infrastructure.
During that period the various chains were managed in a decentralized manner, and all operating divisions maintained full and separate procurement, distribution and administrative functions.
As it sought to reduce debt, American Stores divested several of its holdings, including Kash n' Karry Food Stores, Tampa, Fla. (which were part of Lucky Stores), and Lucky's Arizona stores in 1988; Buttrey in 1990; Alpha Beta and the Osco drug stores in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming in 1991; Jewel Osco stores in Arkansas, Florida, Oklahoma and Texas in 1992; and Star Markets, Cambridge, Mass., in 1994.
In 1992 American Stores began the conversion from a holding to an operating company and began the process of centralizing procurement and distribution at its headquarters in Salt Lake City.
