Cub Foods

Cub Foods, Inc.

Better Fresh. Better Value.
Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Retail, Grocery
Founded	1968 in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Headquarters	Stillwater, Minnesota
Number of locations	81
Products	Bakery, dairy, deli, frozen foods, grocery, meat, pharmacy, produce, seafood, snacks, liquor
Parent	SuperValu
Website	cub.com

Cub Foods is a supermarket chain with seventy-seven stores in Minnesota and Illinois. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Eden Prairie, Minnesota-based SuperValu Inc. The store was famous for being “no frills; sack your own groceries ...”

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” originally stood for Consumers United for Buying, 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. After the purchase, the chain expanded to 83 stores in three states. Until 1999, WinCo Foods operated several Cub Foods stores. Cub Foods also operated eight stores in Colorado until 2003 when they sold most of their stores to Kroger. The chain also had locations operated by Delhaize Group in parts of the Southern United States, namely in the Atlanta and Nashville areas in the 1980s and 90s.

Cub Foods operated four stores in Columbus, Ohio: 3600 Soldano Boulevard (W. Broad & Wilson Road), Consumer Square East (Brice Rd. and Tussing), 2757 Festival Lane (Sawmill & SR 161), and Columbus Square (SR 161 and Forest Hills Boulevard). On May 23, 1997, all four stores and its employees were acquired by Kroger. The Kroger at Columbus Square closed in July 2011.

Cub Foods is credited with many innovations, such as the first grocery check out conveyor belt system.

Cub Foods also had a joint venture with a local grocer Mike Lofino Sr in the Dayton, Ohio, market, which operated four stores under the Cub Foods banner. SuperValu sold off its share of the venture in 1995, although three stores continued to use the Cub Foods name for well over a decade under a franchise agreement with Mike Lofino and SuperValu. In 2007 the Huber Heights, Ohio, location closed. On September 30, 2012, Lofino closed stores that anchored the Sugarcreek Plaza Shopping Center in Sugarcreek Township, Ohio, and the Southland 75 Shopping Center in Miami Township, Ohio, and defaulted on the underlying lease obligations, forcing the shopping centers into bankruptcy. Members of the grocery store management team, led by CFO Martin Sloan, exploited provisions of the United States Bankruptcy Code and his relationships with local creditor lending institutions, to take over property management operations of the shopping centers formerly anchored by the failed Cub operations. Shortly thereafter the Trotwood, Ohio, location closed in 2013.