The story
Founded by Charles Crouch in 1935.1
Supermarket operations
Lucky Stores was founded by Charles Crouch as Peninsula Stores Limited in 1931 with the acquisition of Piggly Wiggly stores in Burlingame, San Mateo, Redwood City, Palo Alto, and San Jose. By 1935, seven more stores had been added, including the company's first stores in the East Bay, in Berkeley, and in Oakland. In 1947, the company's first flagship store opened in San Leandro, California.
Lucky grew by acquisition in many markets. It expanded into Southern California in 1956 when it bought 10 Jim Dandy stores in Los Angeles and six Food Basket supermarkets in San Diego. The same year, the company bought 32 Cardinal stores around Sacramento. It purchased nine Big Bear Stores operating in Seattle and Tacoma in 1958 and six Hiram's stores operating in the Los Angeles area in 1959.
In 1967, Lucky acquired Eagle Food Centers to expand into the Midwest. The acquisition included 90 Eagle and Piggy Wiggy stores, 30 May's Drug Stores, 4 Times Photo & Supply Stores, and the Coin Baking Company. It acquired the Florida-based Kash n' Karry chain in 1979 and the 11-store Dale's chain based in Los Angeles in 1984. Many chains were operated under their old names for several years after their takeovers.
Lucky stores in the Seattle market were sold to Associated Grocers in October 1985. Lucky lacked a distribution center in the state of Washington and felt that it was impractical to continue to serve the market from distribution and manufacturing facilities in California. Associated Grocers renamed the stores from their co-op owned stores and other independent markets.
Lucky Stores operated 22 Houston-area Eagle Supermarkets until March 1985, when it decided to exit the market altogether. Twenty stores were sold to competitors and two were closed.
Diversified subsidiaries
In 1962, Lucky acquired Gemco discount stores, which had been established in the Anaheim area in 1959. The membership discount chain operated in California, Nevada, Arizona, and Houston. Memco, a similar store, operated in the Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Houston areas. In October 1971, Lucky Stores acquired Kragen Auto Supply in a stock swap. Lucky acquired Hancock Fabrics in 1972 for $56.7 million in stock. In 1974, Lucky acquired the Oklahoma City-based Sirloin Stockade steakhouse chain for $8.1 million in stock. Lucky acquired Yellow Front Stores along with its sister company Checker Auto Parts in March 1978 for $45.9 million in stock.
Lucky also owned 22 Mays Drugs in Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin. Many of them were next to Eagle Food Stores. They were closed or sold in the late 1970s. The Mays Drugs stores in Iowa were sold in 1980 to Revco Discount Drug Stores of Twinsburg, Ohio.
In 1982, the company sold off the Sirloin Stockade chain to the parent company of the Golden Corral buffet chain. In 1983, Lucky closed five Houston-area Gemco discount stores. It also closed 13 Memco stores in the Washington, D.C. area. The Memco stores in the Chicago metropolitan area were converted to Eagle Food Centers in October 1977 and subsequently closed.
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Takeover attempt
By 1986, Lucky was in a tough financial spot with its Gemco subsidiary struggling to compete with the likes of Target and Price Club. At this time, corporate raider Asher Edelman attempted a hostile takeover of the company. In order to fight off the takeover and improve the value of the company, Lucky closed 80 Gemco stores, selling 54 of them to Dayton-Hudson. The company spent $450 million to repurchase up to 22% of its common shares.
By December 1986, Lucky had sold off its Checker and Kragen auto parts subsidiaries, as well as its Yellow Front chain. In 1987, Lucky spun off Hancock Fabrics as an independent company and sold controlling interest in Eagle Food Centers.
Marketing
During the 1980s and 1990s, TV personality Stephanie Edwards was a spokeswoman appearing in television commercials for Lucky stores. The marketing department was known as LuGem Advertising until 1986, located within the distribution center in Buena Park, California.
Acquisition by American Stores
In March 1988, the American Stores Company, offered $1.74 billion to acquire Lucky Stores. The deal ultimately closed at $2.5 billion in June, making Lucky a subsidiary along with Jewel-Osco, Acme Markets, Alpha Beta, Buttrey Food & Drug, Osco Drug, Sav-on Drugs, and Star Market.
However, the merger faced significant legal challenges from the California attorney general. By November 1989, the deal was allowed to go ahead in Northern California. Under the terms, 13 Alpha Beta stores were sold there and the rest became Lucky Stores.
The case went all the way to the US Supreme Court. American was forced to sell or close most of its Alpha Beta stores in Southern California and all its stores in Utah. Additionally, it sold Osco Drug stores in Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming, and closed its Skaggs Home Improvement Centers in Utah. In total, the company converted 56 Alpha Beta stores in California, four Alpha Beta stores in Las Vegas, and a Fullerton warehouse into Lucky operations.
The case was only settled in April 1991, when American agreed to sell the rest of its Alpha Beta chain to Food 4 Less for $248 million. The deal saw 145 Alpha Beta stores in the Los Angeles area change hands, with 15 stores in San Diego County being retained and converted to Lucky Stores.
In 1992, Lucky Stores began selling fresh cut flowers in-store through a joint venture with distributors from Mexico. Between 1993 and 1995, Lucky was the subject of an investigation by the city of Los Angeles that showed 67 of the chain's 82 LA stores had price discrepancies between the chain's posted prices and the prices rung up at checkout. Lucky ultimately settled the case in March 1996. In May 1997, American sold its Central California Lucky Stores to Save Mart Supermarkets.
Acquisition by Albertsons and demise of brand
In August 1998, Albertsons announced that it was acquiring American Stores, the parent of Lucky Stores, for $11.7 billion. The merger was completed in June 1999 after the companies presented plans to sell off 145 stores, some bearing the Lucky name, to avoid the merger being blocked by the U.S. Justice Department. By November 1999, all 480 Lucky Stores took the Albertsons name, and the Lucky brand had ceased to exist.
From Wikipedia’s article on Lucky Stores, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4