American Stores

American Stores Company, Inc.

Former type	Public
Industry	Retail
Fate	Acquired by Albertsons
Founded	1917
Defunct	1999
Headquarters	Original company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Later moved to Salt Lake City, Utah
Area served	United States
Products	Food, Prescriptions, Liquor, Photo, General Merchandise
Revenue	$19.9 Billion USD (1998)
Number of employees	120,000
Subsidiaries	Acme Markets Alpha Beta Buttrey Food & Drug Jewel-Osco Lucky Stores Osco Drug Sav-on Drugs Star Market

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 1999. The company was incorporated in 1917 when The Acme Tea Company merged with four small Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 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.

By 1925, American Stores had grown from 5 supermarkets in 1917 to nearly 1,800 stores. In 1946, a proposed acquisition of Grand Union supermarkets was turned down by Grand Union stockholders.

In 1961 American Stores company acquired California's Alpha Beta chain of supermarkets. In the 1970s, in order to compete with lower priced grocery retailers such as ShopRite and Pathmark (competitors which did not offer trading stamps), Acme Markets launched its Super Saver discount grocery chain in Pennsylvania.

American Stores itself was acquired in 1979 by the Skaggs Companies, Inc., which adopted the American Stores Company name, and relocated the company headquarters to Salt Lake City, Utah.

American Stores was by far the larger organization, with 758 supermarkets, 139 drugstores, 53 restaurants, and 9 general merchandise stores in nine states when compared to the 241 Skaggs stores. Although the resulting entity bore the American Stores Company name, it was controlled by Skaggs management headed by Leonard S. Skaggs Jr. more familiarly known as Sam Skaggs. Stores in several markets having both an Alpha Beta supermarket and a Skaggs Drug Center drugstore presence were combined (or expanded) to combination food and drug stores and re-branded Skaggs Alpha Beta.