QFC

Quality Food Centers, Inc.

Type	subsidiary
Industry	Retail
Founded	Seattle, Washington (1955–1963 as Lake Hills Thriftway) (1963–present as Quality Food Centers)
Headquarters	Bellevue, Washington, U.S.
Number of locations	64
Products	Grocery
Parent	Kroger
Website	www.qfc.com

Quality Food Centers (QFC) is a supermarket chain based in Bellevue, Washington, with 64 stores in the Puget Sound region of the state of Washington and in the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area.

Jack Croco first started in the grocery business in Boise, Idaho, in the 1940s working for Albertsons Supermarkets. By 1950, he had become the district manager in the Northwest and was responsible for opening the first Albertson's stores in the Seattle area. Soon afterward in 1955, he opened his own grocery store in Bellevue which was called Lake Hills Thriftway. The grocery concern that would come to be named QFC in 1963 was founded in 1955 with the first store at 6600 Roosevelt Way Northeast by a group headed by Vern Fortin, the former president of Van de Kamp's Holland Dutch Bakeries and founder of Vernell's Fine Candies. Croco merged his store with QFC in 1960. He remained involved in the company until his death in 1991 at the age of 65, though in 1986 he sold QFC to Seattle investment firm Sloan, Adkins & Co. Sloan Adkins took QFC public in 1987.Christopher A. Sinclair became the CEO in 1996. In 1997, QFC purchased the Uddenberg grocery company which operated Thriftway and Stock Market stores throughout western Washington. In late 1997, QFC was sold to Fred Meyer, and a year and a half later in May 1999 Kroger acquired Fred Meyer and QFC. The Roosevelt store remained open through May 5, 2012, when it was closed to make way for construction of the Roosevelt light rail station.

Over the years, QFC has expanded aggressively through acquisitions. When A&P Supermarkets abandoned the Seattle area in 1974, QFC took over several locations. They expanded to surrounding counties in the 1990s by acquiring and renaming Olson's Food Stores, Johnny's Food Centers, and Stock Market Grocery Stores as well as several Thriftway stores. Between 1990 and 1996, 30 stores were acquired from 11 different independent grocery chains. Reed's Super Valu in Port Hadlock and Stock Market Foods in Port Townsend were acquired in 1997. The company expanded into the Portland, Oregon, area as well.