Kroger

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Incorporated: 1902 as The Kroger Grocery and Baking Company
NAIC: 445110 Supermarkets and Other Grocery (Except Convenience) Stores; 445120 Convenience Stores; 447110 Gasoline Stations with Convenience Stores; 448310 Jewelry Stores

Among companies that principally operate grocery stores, The Kroger Co. ranks first in the United States (discount retailer Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., through its supercenter outlets, is actually the leading seller of groceries in the country). Kroger runs more than 2,500 food stores in 32 states in the Midwest, South, Southwest, and West; these stores operate under about two dozen banners, including Kroger, Fred Meyer, Ralphs, Food 4 Less, Smith's, Fry's, Dillons, and King Soopers. More than 500 of the outlets include gasoline stations and nearly 1,900 feature pharmacies. Of Kroger's total sales, 95 percent is derived from these food retailing operations, with the remainder coming from the company's convenience stores, jewelry stores, and manufacturing facilities. Kroger operates nearly 800 convenience stores under six flags in 16 states, most of which also sell gasoline, and about 440 fine jewelry stores under the names Fred Meyer, Littman, Barclay, and Fox's. The company's 42 food processing facilities produce dairy products, bakery goods, deli items, and other grocery products.

The Kroger Co. traces its roots back to 1883, when Bernard H. Kroger began the Great Western Tea Company, one of the first chain store operations in the United States. Kroger left school to go to work at age 13 when his father lost the family dry goods store in the panic of 1873. At 16, he sold coffee and tea door-to-door. At 20, he managed a Cincinnati grocery store, and at 24, he became the sole owner of the Great Western Tea Company, which by the summer of 1885 had four stores in Cincinnati. Kroger's shrewd buying during the panic of 1893 raised the number to 17, and by 1902, with 40 stores and a factory in Cincinnati, Kroger incorporated and changed the company's name to The Kroger Grocery and Baking Company.

Kroger Co. historians characterize B.H. Kroger as somewhat of a "crank," fanatically insistent upon quality and service. Profanity was called his second language; he often advised his managers to "run the price down as far as you can go so the other fellow won't slice your throat."

Part of Kroger's success came from the elimination of middlemen between the store and the customer. In 1901, Kroger's company became the first to bake its own bread for its stores, and in 1904, Kroger bought Nagel Meat Markets and Packing House and made Kroger grocery stores the first to include meat departments.

This important innovation, however, was not easy. It was common practice at that time for butchers to short-weight and take sample cuts home with them, practices that did not coincide with B.H. Kroger's strict accounting policies. When Kroger installed cash registers in the meat departments, every one of them inexplicably broke. When Kroger hired female cashiers, the butchers opened all the windows to "freeze out" the women and then let loose with such obscene language that the women quit in a matter of days. When Kroger hired young men instead as cashiers, the butchers threatened them with physical force. But Kroger was stubborn, and in the long run his money-saving, efficient procedures won out.

From the beginning, Kroger was interested in both manufacturing and retail. His mother's homemade sauerkraut and pickles sold well to the German immigrants in Cincinnati. In the back of his store, Kroger himself experimented to invent a "French brand" of coffee, which is still sold in Kroger stores.

The Kroger Grocery and Baking Company soon began to expand outside of Cincinnati; by 1920, the chain had stores in Hamilton, Dayton, and Columbus, Ohio. In 1912, Kroger made his first long-distance expansion, buying 25 stores in St. Louis, Missouri. At a time when most chains hired trucks only as needed, Kroger bought a fleet of them, enabling him to move the company into Detroit; Indianapolis, Indiana; and Springfield and Toledo, Ohio.

When the United States entered World War I in 1917, B.H. Kroger served on the president's national war food board and on the governor of Ohio's food board. His dynamic plain speech raised substantial amounts of money for the Red Cross and Liberty Bonds.

After the war, The Kroger Grocery and Baking Company continued to expand, following Kroger's preference for buying smaller, financially unsteady chains in areas adjacent to established Kroger territories. In 1928, one year before the stock market crashed, Kroger sold his shares in the company for more than $28 million. One of his executives, William Albers, became president. In 1929 Kroger had 5,575 stores, the most there have ever been in the chain.

Since the early 1900s, chain stores had been accused of driving small merchants out of business by using unfair business practices and radically changing the commerce of communities. In the 1920s, an anti-chain store movement began to gain momentum. Politicians, radio announcers, and newspapers talked about "the chain store menace." People feared the rapid growth of chains and their consequent power over their industries. Because the grocery industry was so much a part of most people's lives, food chains such as Kroger bore the brunt of public complaints.

Chain store company executives soon realized they would have to organize in order to prevent anti-chain legislation. In 1927 the National Chain Stores Association was founded and William Albers was elected president.

When Albers resigned as president of Kroger in 1930, he also resigned as president of the organization. Albert H. Morrill, an attorney who had served as Kroger's general counsel, was elected president of both in his stead. Morrill faced not only the economic challenges of the Great Depression but also the political challenges of the growing public distrust of chain stores.

With the limited transportation and communication systems of the time, the company had to decentralize in order to grow. Morrill established 23 branches with a manager for each branch, and hired a real estate manager to close unprofitable stores. He also implemented policies that guarded against anti-chain accusations, while encouraging customers to shop at Kroger stores.

Instead of going through the usual channels for buying produce, The Kroger Grocery and Baking Company began to send its buyers to produce farms so they could inspect crops to ensure the quality of the food their stores sold. This counteracted the frequent complaint that chain stores sold low-quality foods. The policy eventually resulted in the formation of Wesco Food Company, Kroger's own produce procurement organization.

Morrill also began the Kroger Food Foundation in 1930, making it the first grocery company to test food scientifically in order to monitor the quality of products. The foundation also established the Homemakers Reference Committee, a group of 750 homemakers who tested food samples in their own homes.

In 1930, one of the company's southern managers, Michael Cullen, proposed a revolutionary plan to his superiors: a bigger self-service grocery store that would make a profit by selling large quantities of food at low prices that competitors could not beat. But at this stage, Kroger executives were wary of the idea, and Cullen went on alone to begin the first supermarket, King Kullen, in Queens, New York.

Throughout the Depression, Kroger maintained its business; by 1935, Kroger had 50 supermarkets of its own. During the 1930s, frozen foods and shopping carts were introduced, and the Kroger Food Foundation invented a way of processing beef without chemicals so that it remained tender, calling the process "Tenderay" beef.

Morrill and Colonel Sherrill, vice-president of Kroger, became involved with the American Retail Association in 1935. A report of the organization's publicity release on the front page of the New York Times prompted controversy, because the headline stated that the organization would work as a "unified voice" in economic matters, which suggested a kind of "super lobby" to some people. This led to a congressional investigation and in 1938, a bill was introduced imposing a punitive tax against chain stores that would almost certainly force them out of business. Only after much controversy and public debate was the punitive tax bill defeated that year.

In 1942, Morrill died. Charles Robertson, formerly vice-president and treasurer, became president. The company's plans for growth were shelved during World War II, with about 40 percent of its employees serving in the armed forces. The Army Quartermaster Corps commissioned the Kroger Food Foundation to create rations that would boost the morale of soldiers, and the company produced individual cans of date pudding, plum pudding, and fruit cake. Other rations that came from Kroger included cheese bars, preserves, and "C-ration crackers."

After the war, in 1946, Joseph Hall, who had been hired in 1931 to close unprofitable stores, became president. He changed the company name from The Kroger Grocery and Baking Company to The Kroger Co., in keeping with indications that the company was moving into a new period of growth. In 1947 Kroger opened its first egg-processing plant in Wabash, Indiana, in order to further ensure egg quality. Hall also saw that 45 private-label brands were merged into one Kroger brand, and introduced the blue-and-white logo with the name change.

Hall's new policy of consumer research was an important change for the company. Decisions about products and methods of selling were to come from the "votes" shoppers left at the cash register. During his years as president, the company moved into Texas, Minnesota, and California. Annual sales grew as small neighborhood stores were replaced with larger supermarkets. In 1952 Kroger's sales topped $1 billion.

This was a time of rapid growth for supermarkets. Between 1948 and 1963, the number of supermarkets in the country nearly tripled. Kroger was already testing the specialty shops that would later be integral to its "superstores." As competition in the industry grew increasingly fierce, Kroger joined with six other firms to found the Top Value Stamp Company, which tried to bring customers into the stores with stamp collecting promotions.

In 1960 the company began its expansion into the drugstore business, with an eye on the potential for drugstores built next to grocery stores. The company bought the small New Jersey-based Sav-on drugstore chain and made its owner, James Herring, the head of the drugstore division. The first SupeRx drugstore opened in 1961 next to a Kroger food store in Milford, Ohio.

Discount stores--strategically located stores that aggressively merchandised goods on a low margin basis with minimum service--were the retailing trend of the 1960s. By 1962, Kroger had also gone into discounting.

In 1963 Kroger's sales reached $2 billion. In 1964 Jacob Davis, a former congressman and judge and a vice-president of Kroger, replaced Hall as president and CEO. Davis concentrated on the manufacturing branch of Kroger. With the construction of the interstate highway system in the 1950s and 1960s, central manufacturing facilities could now serve larger territories, allowing Kroger to combine small facilities into larger regional ones.

Davis's experience in both retail and law became important to the company as the government began to clamp down on the food industry. During hearings for the 1967 Meat Inspection Act, several chains were exposed for selling adulterated processed meats. The U.S. Department of Agriculture revealed that Kroger was selling franks and bolognas with two to four times the legal amount of water or extender, and pork sausage treated with artificial colors to make it look fresh.

With the rapid growth of food chain stores, the government also began to concentrate on enforcing antitrust laws. Kroger was one of the companies the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) challenged on its mergers. In 1971 the FTC proposed a consent order that required the company to divest itself of three discount food departments, charging that Kroger stores would "substantially lessen" competition in food retailing in the Dayton, Ohio, area. Kroger settled without admitting any violation of antitrust laws, and sold the three food departments. The order also prohibited Kroger from buying any food store or department in nonfood stores in which the number of stores or sales accrued would indicate a lessening of competition in that city or county.

James Herring became president of The Kroger Co. in 1970 and began to take Kroger into the superstore age, closing hundreds of small supermarkets and building much larger ones with more specialty departments.

The 1970s were a turbulent time for the grocery industry in general, but both turbulent and productive for Kroger. The company perfected its "scientific methods" of consumer research, using the results in planning and advertising. In the early 1970s, at the request of consumer groups, Kroger led the industry in marking its perishable products with a "sell by" date. Kroger began to bake only with enriched flour to add nutrition to its bread products. Two years later, nutritional labels were put on Kroger private-brand products. In addition, food and nonfood products were stocked in twice the variety they had been in the previous two decades.

To increase the accuracy and speed of checkout systems, Kroger, in partnership with RCA, became the first grocery company to test electronic scanners under actual working conditions, in 1972. An invention borrowed from the railroad industry, the scanner was originally used as the electric eye that read symbols on the side of railcars. Kroger and other grocery chains decided to try to use it to read prices on products.

While the government controlled prices between 1971 and 1974, grocery stores suffered depressed profits, but by 1974, the net profits of the top food chains were up 57 percent. As food chains grew into ever larger and more powerful businesses and gained increasing control over the agricultural economy through their enormous wholesalers, there was another round of FTC hearings that revealed the illegal business practices of several chains. In 1974, Kroger settled out of court on an antitrust claim against Kroger and two other chains for fixing beef prices. In 1974 the FTC also sued Kroger for violations of its 1973 trade rule that all stores must stock a sufficient supply of specials to meet anticipated demand and must give rain checks if the supplies run out. In 1977 Kroger consented to the FTC order.

But the biggest battle Kroger faced in its tangles with the FTC concerned the company's use of "Price Patrol," an advertising promotion used in certain markets at different times between 1972 and 1978, in which Kroger advertisements compared Kroger prices with the prices of its competitors on 150 products a week. The figures were based upon surveys conducted among homemakers. The FTC ruled that slogans such as "Documented Proof: Kroger leads in lower prices" were unfair and deceptive because the items surveyed excluded meat, produce, and house brands. A controversy ensued when the Council on Wage and Price Stability expressed concern that tougher standards for Kroger might prevent the dissemination of food price information in the future, but the FTC decided that surveys must be conducted fairly and reliably and that their limitations should be made clear. Kroger appealed; the "Price Patrol" issue was not decided until 1983, when Kroger settled out of court with the FTC.

In 1978 Lyle Everingham, who began his career as a Kroger clerk, became CEO. The company sold Top Value Enterprises and opened Tara Foods, a peanut butter processing plant, in Albany, Georgia. As Kroger moved more toward the "superstore" concept of one-stop shopping, it began to test even more in-store specialty departments such as beauty salons, financial services, cheese shops, and cosmetic counters.

The 1980s were a period of significant expansion for Kroger. In 1981 Kroger began marketing its Cost Cutter brand products. In 1983 Kroger merged with Dillon Companies, Inc. and began operating stores coast to coast. That same year, the company acquired the Kwik Shop convenience store chain. A year later, Kroger formed a nonunion grocery wholesaler for Michigan called FoodLand Distributors with Wetterau. In 1987, however, Kroger reduced its involvement in standalone drug stores when it sold most of its interests in the Hook and SupeRx chains.

In 1988 Kroger received several takeover bids, mainly from the Dart Group Corporation and from Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, whose highest bid topped $5 billion. Kroger rejected the bids and restructured, expecting that recapitalization would enhance its competitiveness. The reorganization expanded employee ownership to more than 30 percent of the company's shares. Kroger also awarded its shareholders with a dividend of cash and debentures worth $48.69 per share. Kroger financed the restructuring by selling $333 million worth of unprofitable assets and by assuming $3.6 billion in loan debt. Among the divested properties were 95 grocery stores, 29 liquor stores, its Fry's stores located in California, and the majority of its stake in Price Saver Membership Wholesale Clubs.

Following the restructuring, Kroger's debt load totaled $5.3 billion. For the next several years, the firm focused on paying down this debt and stayed away from major acquisitions and from significant expansion. Kroger did, however, purchase 29 Great Scott! supermarkets in Michigan in 1990 and add them to the Kroger chain.

During the recession of the early 1990s, Kroger felt the pressure of increasing competition in several of the markets it served. The geographic diversity of the firm's holdings, however, insulated it from serious trouble. Under the leadership of Joseph A. Pilcher, who became CEO in 1990, Kroger adopted a strategy of protecting market share at all costs, including sacrificing margins for the more important cash flow needed to pay off the debt. When faced with increased competition in a particular market--for example when Food Lion, Inc. expanded into Texas in 1991--Kroger would simply lower prices and accept the resulting reduced margins. In fact, Kroger lost money for a period in the early 1990s in Texas as well as in Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio. The company was able to offset such losses to some degree by relying more heavily on higher margin markets, although such markets were becoming rarer thanks to the expansion of low-price competitors.

Kroger also had to face the consequences of its unionized workforce and had to compete with nonunion chains. In addition to the increasing competitive pressures, Kroger's sales and earnings were affected in 1992 by a ten-week strike in Michigan and another work stoppage in Tennessee. Although the Michigan strike ended with the workers essentially accepting the package initially offered them, 1992 sales increased only 3.7 percent over 1991 and the company margin remained in the 0.5 percent range where it had resided since 1990. Consequently, Kroger embarked on a major program to improve its efficiency through technological improvements. From 1992 to 1994, $120 million was spent to make checkout operations more efficient and accurate, to install a new management information system, and to improve direct-store delivery accounting.

By 1994 Kroger's debt load had been reduced significantly, to $3.89 billion. Kroger enjoyed savings of almost $23 million in 1994 alone from its technology investments. The company also benefited from the economic recovery during which interest rates fell, thus reducing the amount needed to spend servicing its debt whenever it could refinance its loans. Enough money could now be freed up for Kroger to shift its focus from debt maintenance to expansion. The timing of this expansion was critical in that Kroger now faced yet another and significant threat, this time from supercenters--such as those operated by Wal-Mart, Kmart Corporation, and Meijer Incorporated--which were combination food, pharmacy, and general merchandise stores. By 1994 more than one-quarter of Kroger's sales base competed directly with a supercenter. Kroger's plan was to continue using its combination food and drug store format--facilities that were about one-third the size of the supercenters--but to increase their number dramatically.

During 1994, Kroger spent $534 million on the expansion, which included 45 new stores, 17 expanded stores, 66 remodelings, and the acquisition of 20 stores. From 1995 to 1997, $600 million was to be spent each year on expansion projects. Overall, this would be the largest capital expansion in Kroger history.

To free up additional money for the program and further reduce the company debt, Kroger in early 1995 sold Time Saver Stores, a division of Dillon which included 116 convenience stores in the New Orleans area, to E-Z Serve Convenience Stores, Inc. of Houston, Texas. Later that year, David B. Dillon, CEO of the Dillon subsidiary, became president and COO of Kroger.

Early returns from the company's mid-1990s expansion were positive. Kroger's 1994 margin of 1.2 percent was its best in several years, and 1995 saw a healthy sales increase of 4.3 percent. By 1997, when Kroger's grocery store count was nearing 1,400, the company enjoyed its best year yet--net income of $444 million on sales of $27 billion, translating into a 1.6 percent margin--while total debt had dropped to $3.2 billion.

Its improving fortunes emboldened Kroger to join--in a big way--the ongoing consolidation wave that was sweeping the grocery industry. In October 1998 the company announced that it planned to acquire Fred Meyer, Inc. in a stock swap valued at about $8 billion plus assumed debt of $4.8 billion. The deal closed in May 1999. The Portland, Oregon-based Fred Meyer brought to Kroger 800 grocery stores located in 12 western states--a good geographic fit given Kroger's presence primarily in the Midwest, South, and Southwest. The Oregon firm operated several chains: the flagship Fred Meyer stores, one-stop shopping superstores averaging 145,000 square feet and including more than 225,000 food and nonfood products arranged within dozens of departments; and the Smith's Food & Drug Centers, Ralphs Grocery, and Quality Food Centers supermarket chains--the latter two having been acquired by Fred Meyer earlier in 1998. Fred Meyer, which reported 1997 sales of $15 billion, was also the fourth largest fine jewelry retailer in the country, operating 381 stores under five names in 26 states. The Fred Meyer deal enabled Kroger to maintain its position as the largest supermarket operator in the United States, with annual sales of about $43 billion, although the company soon ceded its position as the largest U.S. food retailer to the hyperbolically growing Wal-Mart.

Kroger wrung out significant synergies from its huge acquisition, achieving annual cost savings of $380 million per year. By 2000, revenues had swelled to $49 billion, while net income hit $877 million, signifying another jump in the profit margin, to 1.8 percent. Also during 2000, however, a deal to purchase the 75 grocery stores operated by Winn-Dixie Stores, Inc. in Texas and Oklahoma was nixed by the FTC, which was concerned about the potential erosion in competition in the Fort Worth, Texas, market.

Combining to slow Kroger's growth to a crawl was the economic downturn of the early 2000s coupled with heady competition--particularly from Wal-Mart, which by undercutting prices charged at traditional grocery stores pressured the entire food retailing industry to keep prices down. Revenues only inched ahead, topping $50 billion for the first time in 2001, then reaching $51.76 billion the next year, an increase of just 5.6 percent over a two-year span. Profits, however, surged 37 percent, hitting $1.2 billion in 2002 (and representing a profit margin of 2.3 percent), as Kroger management reined in operating costs. Late in 2001, for example, the company launched a restructuring that involved the elimination of 1,500 jobs and the consolidation of its Nashville division into other divisional offices. During 2002 Kroger aimed to cut another $500 million in operating costs in part by shifting from a divisional buying structure to centralized, nationwide buying. At the same time, the company completed several small, fill-in acquisitions, adding 34 stores from Baker's, Furr's, and other grocers in 2001 and then buying 42 Raley's, Albertson's, and Winn-Dixie supermarkets the following year. By the end of 2002, Kroger was operating nearly 2,500 supermarkets and multi-department stores. About 350 of these outlets included gasoline stations, an initiative first launched in 1998 to generate additional revenue.

In June 2003 Pichler stepped down as CEO of Kroger and was succeeded by Dillon, who became chairman as well one year later when Pichler retired. The new leader's first year was a difficult one, punctuated particularly by labor disputes. Kroger's Ralphs chain, along with Albertson's, Inc. and Safeway Inc., endured a four-and-a-half-month strike in southern California--the longest grocery strike in U.S. history. That strike ended in late February 2004. Kroger was also hit by a two-month strike in West Virginia in late 2003 that temporarily closed 44 stores. The two disputes reduced the company's 2003 fourth-quarter profits by $156.4 million. Several other charges, including a $444.2 million pretax charge associated with goodwill impairment at the struggling Smith's chain, resulted in Kroger taking $801.3 million in after-tax charges for the year, reducing profits to just $314.6 million. Sales, however, increased 3.9 percent, to $53.79 billion.

Despite the disappointing results for 2003, Kroger seemed better positioned than the other major U.S. supermarket players to withstand the Wal-Mart onslaught. Its keen focus on curtailing operating costs was enabling it to hold the line on price increases, this in spite of the fact that its unionized workforce was better paid and enjoyed better benefits than the nonunion workers at Wal-Mart. Moreover, Kroger claimed to hold the number one or number two position in 43 of its 52 major markets. Future acquisitions and new store openings were likely to be designed to bolster the company's standing in these existing territories rather than to expand into new ones.

Principal Subsidiaries

Dillon Companies, Inc.; Fred Meyer, Inc.

Principal Divisions

Atlanta Division; Central Division; Cincinnati Division; Delta Division; Great Lakes Division; Mid-Atlantic Division; Mid-South Division; Southwest Division.

Principal Operating Units

City Market; Convenience Stores and Supermarket Petroleum; Dillon Stores; Food 4 Less; Fred Meyer Jewelers; Fred Meyer Stores; Fry's; Jay C; King Soopers; Kwik Shop; Loaf 'N Jug/MiniMart; QFC; Quik Stop; Ralphs; Smith's; Tom Thumb; Turkey Hill Minit Markets.

Principal Competitors

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.; Albertson's, Inc.; Safeway Inc.; Royal Ahold N.V.

Further Reading

Benson, Eliot H., "Upswing in Kroger Results Reflects Expansion Effort," Barron's, September 16, 1974, pp. 24+.

Berss, Marcia, "Cash Flow Joe," Forbes, June 6, 1994, p. 47.

"Big Marketplace, Big Stores," Forbes, December 10, 1979, p. 101.

Byrne, Harlan S., "Bigger Is Better," Barron's, February 28, 2000, p. 22.

Coolidge, Alexander, "Top of the Food Chain," Cincinnati Post, June 24, 2004, p. C6.

Cross, Jennifer, The Supermarket Trap: The Consumer and the Food Industry, Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, rev. ed., 1976, 306 p.

Gustke, Constance, "A Quiet Giant," Progressive Grocer, November 15, 2002, pp. 18-23.

Hackney, Holt, "Kroger Co.: Price Check," Financial World, June 7, 1994, p. 18.

The Kroger Story: A Century of Innovation, Cincinnati: The Kroger Co., 1983.

Lebhar, Godfrey M., Chain Stores in America, New York: Chain Store Publishing Corporation, 1963.

Lipin, Steven, "Kroger Agrees to Acquire Fred Meyer," Wall Street Journal, October 19, 1998, p. A3.

Nee, Eric, "Kroger Emphasis Is Shifting Away from the Sun Belt," Supermarket News, May 30, 1983, pp. 1+.

Orgel, David, "Kroger Co. to Step up Expansion," Supermarket News, May 23, 1994, p. 1.

"Plain and Fancy: Supermarket Boutiques Spur Kroger's Gains," Barron's, May 25, 1981, pp. 37+.

Saporito, Bill, "Kroger: The New King of Supermarkets," Fortune, February 21, 1983, pp. 74+.

Tosh, Mark, "Kroger: Under Pressure," Supermarket News, January 18, 1993, p. 1.

Zwiebach, Elliot, "Kroger Faces Hurdles As It Consolidates Fred Meyer," Supermarket News, October 18, 1999, p. 1.

------, "Staying Power: Kroger Co. Is Putting a Familiar Face--David Dillon--at the Top and Sticking with Its Strategic Plan," Supermarket News, July 14, 2003, p. 14.

— Rene Steinke; Updated by David E. Salamie

For other uses, see Kroger (disambiguation).

The Kroger Co.

Type	Public
Traded as	NYSE: KR S&P 500 Component
Industry	Retail
Founded	1883
Founder(s)	Bernard Kroger
Headquarters	Cincinnati, Ohio, United States
Area served	United States
Key people	David Dillon, CEO & Chairman
Products	Bakery, banking, beer, dairy, deli, frozen foods, gasoline (select locations), general merchandise, liquor (select locations), meat, pharmacy, produce, seafood, wine
Revenue	US$82.189 Billion 2010[1]
Operating income	US$2.182 Billion 2010[2]
Net income	US$1.133 Billion 2010[1]
Total assets	US$ 23.505 billion (2010)[1]
Total equity	US$5.296 Billion 2010[1]
Employees	338,000 (2011) [1]
Divisions	Inter-American Products various chains
Website	Kroger corporate website Kroger website

Kroger headquarters in Downtown Cincinnati, Ohio.

A typical Kroger storefront, Bowling Green, Kentucky.

Kroger of the Villages in Hedwig Village, Texas, in Greater Houston

Kroger in Neartown Houston

Kroger sign North High Street and West North Broadway, in Clintonville, Columbus, Ohio

A young girl and presumably her mother or relative shop at King Soopers in Breckenridge, Colorado

The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR) is an American supermarket chain founded by Bernard Kroger in 1883 in Cincinnati, Ohio. It reported US$ 82.2 billion in sales during fiscal year 2010. It is the country's largest grocery store chain^[3] and its second-largest grocery retailer by volume^[4] and second-place general retailer in the country, with Walmart being the largest.^[5] As of 2010, Kroger operated, either directly or through its subsidiaries, 3,574 stores.^[6] As of that same year, it was also the world's fifth largest retailer by sales revenue, according to Deloitte.^[7]

Kroger's headquarters are centralized in downtown Cincinnati,^[8] but it spans many states with store formats that include supermarkets, hypermarkets, department stores, convenience stores and mall jewelry stores. Kroger-branded grocery stores are located throughout the Midwestern and Southern United States.

Kroger is a union company, and Kroger employees are represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW).

Contents 1 History 1.1 Beginning 1.2 Expansion 2 Chains 2.1 Former chains 3 Kroger Marketplace 4 Manufacturing 4.1 Manufacturing Plants 4.1.1 Dairies 4.1.2 Bakeries/Delis 4.1.3 Meat Plants 4.1.4 Grocery Items 5 Private Brands 5.1 Kroger Value 5.2 Banner Brands 5.3 Private Selection 5.4 Other private label brands 5.5 i-wireless (Wireless Services) 5.6 Disney Magic Selections 6 Pharmacy Group 7 Supermarket Petroleum Group 8 Movie rentals 9 Distribution/Logistics 10 Financial Services 11 Market Entries and Withdrawals 11.1 Pittsburgh 11.2 Other markets 12 Advertisements 13 Environmental record 14 Notable stores and events 15 References and footnotes 16 External links

History

Beginning

In 1883, Bernard "Barney" Kroger invested his life savings of $372 (roughly equal to $9,278.74 today) to open a grocery store in the Mount Airy neighborhood of Cincinnati. Kroger was the son of a merchant, and his slogan was simple: “Be particular. Never sell anything you would not want yourself.” Kroger tried many ways to satisfy customers. He tried to make his own products, such as bread, so that customers would not need to go to a separate bakery. In the 1930s, Kroger was the first grocery chain to monitor product quality and test foods offered to customers, and also the first to have a store surrounded on all four sides by parking lots. In 1955, Kroger acquired Henke & Pillot. Kroger rebranded that chain as Kroger in 1966. In the 1970s, Kroger became the first grocer in America to test an electronic scanner, and the first to formalize consumer research.

Expansion

In 1983, The Kroger Company acquired Dillon Companies^[9] grocery chain in Kansas along with its subsidiaries, King Soopers, City Market, Fry's, Gerbes, and the convenience store chain Kwik Shop. David Dillon, a fourth-generation descendant of J.S. Dillon, the founder of Dillon Companies, is now the CEO of Kroger. In the late 1990s, Kroger acquired Pay Less Food Markets, Owen's Market, JayC Food Stores, and Hilander Foods. In 1997, Kroger merged with fifth-largest grocery company Fred Meyer along with its subsidiaries, Ralphs, QFC, and Smith's. In 2001, Kroger acquired Baker's from Fleming Companies, Inc. In 2007, Kroger acquired Scott's Food & Pharmacy from SuperValu Inc. In 2011, Kroger sold its Hilander chain to Schnucks.

Chains

Kroger owned supermarkets include^{[citation needed]}:

• Baker's (Nebraska)
• City Market (Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico)
• Dillons (Kansas, Missouri)
  • Dillons Marketplace
• Food 4 Less (Southern California; Las Vegas, Nevada; Portland, Oregon; Chicago, Illinois; NW Indiana, and they have a former location in Allentown, Pennsylvania and Tahlequah, Oklahoma)
• Foods Co. (Northern California)
• Fred Meyer (Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, Washington)
  • Fred Meyer Marketplace
  • Fred Meyer Northwest Best
• Fred Meyer Jewelers (Illinois, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Utah, Washington, Nebraska, Oregon, Colorado, Texas, Idaho, Arizona)
  • Barclay Jewelers
  • Fox's Jewelers
  • Littman Jewelers
• Fry's Food and Drug (Arizona)
  • Fry's Marketplace
  • Fry's Mercado
  • Fry's Signature
• Gerbes (Missouri)
• JayC Food Stores (Indiana)
• King Soopers (Colorado, Wyoming)
  • King Soopers Fresh Fare
  • King Soopers Marketplace
• Kroger Food and Drug (Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana)
  • Kroger Fresh Fare
  • Kroger Marketplace
  • Kroger Signature
• Kwik Shop (Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska)
• Loaf 'N Jug (Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Wyoming)
• Owen's Market (Indiana)
• Pay Less Food Markets (Indiana)
• Quality Food Centers (Oregon, Washington)
  • QFC Fresh Fare
• Quik Stop (California, Nevada)
• Ralphs (California)
  • Ralphs Fresh Fare
  • Ralphs Marketplace
• Scott's Food & Pharmacy (Indiana)
• Smith's Express (Utah)
• Smith's Food and Drug (Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming)
  • Smith's Fresh Fare
  • Smith's Marketplace
• Tom Thumb Food Stores (Alabama, Florida)
• Turkey Hill Minit Markets (Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana)

Former chains

• Cala Foods and Bell Markets (California) Locations sold to DeLano's IGA, last Kroger-owned location closed in 2011
• Henke & Pillot (Texas) Acquired May 1955, name phased out in 1966^[10]
• Hilander Foods (Illinois) Acquired 1998, sold to Schnucks in 2011

Kroger Marketplace

Kroger Marketplace is a chain of hypermarkets. The brand was introduced in 2004 in the Columbus, Ohio, area, which lost the Big Bear and Big Bear Plus chains in Penn Traffic's Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The Kroger Marketplace format is based on the Fry's Marketplace stores that the Arizona division of Kroger is currently operating.

Similar to rival chains Meijer, Sears Grand, Super Kmart, Walmart Supercenter, and Albertsons, and modeled after Kroger-owned Fred Meyer, these stores contain multiple departments. In addition to the grocery department, they contain a Fred Meyer Jewelers, Starbucks, Donatos Pizza, and an in-store bank, as well as sections for toys, appliances, home furnishings, and bed and bath, something that Big Bear once had in their stores in the Columbus area.

In 2005, the company began renovating many Kroger Food & Drug stores in Ohio to give out an expanded and remodeled look, converting them to the Kroger Marketplace format. In February 2006, Kroger announced plans for two new Kroger Marketplace stores to open by the end of the summer in Cincinnati suburbs Lebanon and Liberty Township.^[11] The store in Liberty Township opened in July 2006.^[12] On October 5, 2006, a new Kroger Marketplace opened in Gahanna. With the Gahanna opening, the number of Kroger Marketplace stores is six, four in the Columbus area and two in the Cincinnati area. Two more stores were planned in 2007, one in Middletown(which opened in 2008, and the old store was razed and made part of the current parking lot) and one in Englewood.^[13]

In 2011, the Elder Beerman in Centerville, OH^[14] was torn down and a new marketplace has been built in its place with a fuel center and opened on Dec. 8, replacing the 60000 square foot store in the same shopping center. This newest marketplace is the largest Kroger store ever built to date at 147000 square feet. Two more stores have opened in the Cincinnati area, in the Northern Kentucky suburbs of Hebron and Walton which were completed in November 2008. A Kroger Marketplace store has opened in Newport, Kentucky on December 10, 2009. Another renovated store has recently opened in Blue Ash, and two more opened in Lexington, KY in 2009. Another store has been opened in Beavercreek, Ohio. A Mt. Orab, Ohio store is planned to open in the spring of 2010.^[15] Kroger opened a new 60,000 sq ft (5,600 m²) store in North Augusta, SC. The store includes a fuel center.

Kroger Marketplace in Frisco, Texas opened in 2010.

The first Kroger Marketplace store in Texas opened October 9, 2009 in the Waterside Marketplace in Richmond, Texas.^[16] The second Kroger Marketplace store in Rosenberg, Texas opened December 4, 2009.^[17] The third opened in Frisco, Texas in early 2010.^[18] The fourth Kroger Marketplace in Willis, Texas opened August 11, 2011.^[19] The next Kroger Marketplace stores in Texas are: in Little Elm, Texas; Fort Worth's Alliance Town Center; Wylie, Texas and Mansfield.^[18] Also recently added to the list is Wylie, Texas. ^[20]

The first Kroger Marketplace store in Tennessee opened in Farragut, TN (a small suburb outside of Knoxville) at the end of 2008, and a second store in Thompson's Station, TN (about 20 miles (32 km) south of Nashville) in early 2009. A third location opened in Gallatin, TN on March 11, 2010. On February 11, 2010, Kroger sold 4 Brookshire's stores in Jackson, Mississippi which were Albertsons.

The first Kroger Marketplace in Arkansas opened in August 2010 on Chenal Parkway in West Little Rock.

The first Kroger Marketplace in Virginia is planned to open on Midlothian Turnpike in Richmond, VA, on the site of the former Cloverleaf Mall.^[21] The progress of construction has been slow. The mall has yet to be razed, despite numerous announcements dating as far back as 2003. In fact, events continue to be planned inside the mall (as of Sept. 2011).^[22] The second Kroger Marketplace in Virginia is planned to open in Virginia Beach, VA, on the site of a former Super Kmart. It is scheduled to open in summer 2013.^[23]

The first Kroger Marketplace in Indiana opened on September 29, 2011 on Dupont Road on Fort Wayne's northwest side. This store is a rebuilt Kroger Food & Drug. A second Kroger Marketplace will open from a rebuilt Scott's Food and Pharmacy in the Village at Coventry on the southwest side of Fort Wayne. Construction on this store is underway, with plans for a 2012 opening. These two stores are part of a $100 million expansion project in the Fort Wayne area.

Manufacturing

As well as stocking a variety of regional brand products, The Kroger Co. also employs one of the largest networks of private label manufacturing in the country. Forty plants (either wholly owned or used with operating agreements) in seventeen states create about half of Kroger's nearly 20,000 private label products. Similar to most major supermarket retailers, Kroger uses a three-tiered private label marketing strategy. One private brand emphasizes no-frills products at the lowest possible price, another is intended to be comparable to leading national brands but a better value, and the third is a premium, often organic, brand.

Manufacturing Plants

Kroger operates 40 manufacturing plants, and packages and sells items for other retailers under the Inter-American Products Company name.^[24][25]

Dairies

Kroger operates 15 dairies and three ice cream plants

• Centennial Farms Dairy - Atlanta, Georgia
• Compton Creamery - Compton, California
• Crossroad Farms Dairy - Indianapolis, Indiana
• Heritage Farms Dairy - Murfreesboro, Tennessee
• Jackson Dairy - Hutchinson, Kansas
• Jackson Ice Cream - Denver, Colorado
• King Soopers Dairy - Denver, Colorado
• Layton Dairy - Layton, Utah
• Michigan Dairy - Livonia, Michigan
• Pace Dairy of Indiana - Crawfordsville, Indiana
• Pace Dairy of Minnesota - Rochester, Minnesota
• Riverside Creamery - Riverside, California
• Swan Island Dairy - Portland, Oregon
• Tamarack Farms Dairy - Newark, Ohio
• Tolleson Dairy - Tolleson, Arizona
• Turkey Hill Dairy - Conestoga, Pennsylvania
• Vandervoort Dairy - Fort Worth, Texas
• Westover Dairy - Lynchburg, Virginia
• Winchester Farms Dairy - Winchester, Kentucky

Bakeries/Delis

• Anderson Bakery - Anderson, South Carolina
• Clackamas Bakery - Clackamas, Oregon
• Columbus Bakery - Columbus, Ohio
• Country Oven Bakery - Bowling Green, Kentucky
• Dillons Bakery - Hutchinson, Kansas
• Indianapolis Bakery - Indianapolis, Indiana
• KB Specialty Foods - Greensburg, Indiana
• King Soopers Bakery - Denver, Colorado
• La Habra Bakery - La Habra, California
• Layton Dough Plant - Layton, Utah

Meat Plants

• King Soopers Meat - Denver, Colorado
• Vernon Meat - Vernon, California

Grocery Items

• America's Beverage Co. - Irving, Texas - soft drinks, waters
• Delight Products Co. - Springfield, Tennessee - dry dog and cat foods
• Kenlake Foods - Murray, Kentucky - nuts, hot cereal, cornmeal, powdered drinks
• Pontiac Foods - Columbia, South Carolina - coffee, seasonings, spices, rice, noodles, sauces
• Springdale Ice Cream & Beverage - Springdale, Ohio - soft drinks, waters, ice cream
• State Avenue - Cincinnati, Ohio - salad dressings, red sauces, syrups, broths, jams and jellies
• Tara Foods - Albany, Georgia - peanut butter, flavorings, steak sauces, vinegar, cooking wines, lemon juice, soy sauce^[26]

Private Brands

Kroger Value

Kroger Value Brand

The Kroger Value line of products was introduced in 1981 by the name of Cost Cutter and was known for its near-generic product labeling. It was then succeeded by FMV, which was a backronym to mean For Maximum Value, originally meaning Fred Meyer Value. It offered staple products such as sugar, flour, bread, and canned goods at the lowest price for that particular product in the store. Though some FMV products (such as their cheese made with water and partially hydrogenated soybean oil) use a lower-quality manufacturing process, other products appear to be indistinguishable from their banner brand equivalent (FMV sugar and Kroger sugar, for example) other than the price.

In early 2007, Kroger replaced FMV with the new Kroger Value brand. This has led to a situation where Kroger brand and Kroger Value brand products are sold side-by-side with little to distinguish them except for packaging and price. The brand change departed from the typical orange-fade-to-yellow labels and is now simply white with blue and red. Since then Kroger has expanded the line to many other items, for example: frozen food, butter, dog and cat food, ice cream, paper towels, bleach, and other food and household items. Most Kroger Value brand items are labeled bilingually (English and Spanish).

Banner Brands

Banner Brands, goods that bear the name of Kroger or its subsidiaries (i.e., Ralphs, King Soopers, etc.) or make reference to them (i.e., Big K) are offered with a "Try it, Like it, or Get the National Brand Free" guarantee, where if the customer does not believe the Kroger brand product is as good as the national brand, they can exchange the unused portion of the product with their receipt for the equivalent national brand for free. Many of Kroger's health and beauty goods, one of the company's fastest-growing private label categories, are manufactured by third-party providers; these products include goods like ibuprofen and contact lens solution.

Private Selection

Kroger Private Selection Brand

Products marked Private Selection are offered to compare with gourmet brands or regional brands that may be considered more upscale than the standard Kroger brand products.

While the Private Selection name includes many products, two of the most popular Private Selection items are ice cream and deli meat.

Other private label brands

As well as the major grocery brands, Kroger's manufacturing creates a variety of general merchandise brands. These are featured especially in Fred Meyer stores, where more than half the goods sold are non-food, or in the smaller Fred Meyer-based Marketplace stores. The following brands might be found in various Kroger-owned stores:

Bread

• SuperKids - IronKids bread competitor

Dairy

• Springdale - milk by the gallon
• Mountain Dairy - milk by the gallon (QFC, Fred Meyer, Smith's, Fry's and Ralphs)
• Sungold - sweet and unsweet gallon jug tea
• Thirst Rockers - imitation juice (water, high fructose corn syrup, 0% juice)
• Country Club - butter

Deli

• Wholesome @ Home - new name to include all private label products(pizza, pasta, sides, etc.)
• Your Deli Selection - baked beans, coleslaw, potato salad

Drug & General Merchandise

• HD Designs – upscale home goods
• MotoTech – automotive supplies
• Office Works – stationery and office supplies
• Splash Sport, Splash Spa, and Bath & Body Therapies – bath and body supplies
• Comforts For Baby - baby and infant supplies, diapers

Frozen Food

• Country Club - real butter sticks, half-gallon ice cream/frozen yogurt (Discontinued in Scotts Food and Pharmacy stores)
• Old Fashioned - gallon tub ice cream/frozen yogurt

Grocery and General Merchandise

• aromaFUSIONS - air freshener supplies, scented candles
• Big K - soda, cooler drinks, sparkling water
• Crystal Clear - flavored sparkling water
• Disney's Old Yeller - dry dog food
• Everyday Living – kitchen gadgets & cleaning supplies, furniture
• On the House - margarita and other drink mixes
• Pet Pride - dry dog and cat food, cat litter
• Tempo - laundry detergent and fabric softener

Whole Health (Nutrition)

• Simple Truth – organic and natural foods

i-wireless (Wireless Services)

i-wireless is a national wireless service provider sold in over 2,200 retail locations within the Kroger family of stores across 31 states. i-wireless allows customers to accrue minutes on their i-wireless phone in exchange for using their shopper's card on qualifying purchases. The i-wireless service functions over the Nationwide Sprint Network. Customers can choose from monthly, unlimited, or pay-per-use plans that do not have contracts, activation fees, or roaming charges.

Disney Magic Selections

In 2006, Kroger partnered with the consumer products division of The Walt Disney Company to add the Disney Magic Selections line to its private label offerings.^[27] In reality, many of these products have been substituted in place of Kroger's Signature brand equivalents on the shelf, often with an increase in price. With packaging featuring animated Disney and Pixar characters, such as Mickey Mouse as Chef Mickey, these products are marketed to help promote healthy eating among children. Most of the approximately one hundred initial products contain zero grams of trans fat and include food offerings such as yogurt, breakfast foods, and small fresh fruit cups.^{[citation needed]} This product offering is currently in a phase out process and being re-replaced with Kroger Brand product. They no longer offer this brand.

Pharmacy Group

Kroger previously owned and operated the SupeRx drug store chain. In 1985, Kroger outbid Rite Aid for the Hook's Drug Stores chain, based in Indianapolis, IN, and combined it with SupeRx to become Hook's-SupeRx. In 1994, Kroger decided to get out of the stand-alone drug-store business, and sold its SupeRx stores to Revco, which later was sold to CVS.^[28]

Today, Kroger operates more than 1,900 pharmacies. Most of them are located inside its supermarkets. The Kroger Pharmacies continue as a profitable portion of the business, and have been expanding to now include pharmacies in City Market, Dillons, Fred Meyer, Fry’s, King Soopers, QFC, Ralphs, Smith’s Food and Drug, and Kroger Supermarkets.^[29]

Supermarket Petroleum Group

Since 1998, Kroger has added fuel centers in the parking lots of its supermarkets, and as of the first quarter of 2010, Kroger operated 909 of them.^[30]

Movie rentals

Most Kroger locations now feature Redbox movie rental kiosks. Previously, some Kroger locations featured kiosks from The New Release (aka Moviecube); most of these kiosks have since been replaced by Redbox kiosks. Also, until 2012, Kroger locations in the Columbus, Ohio area featured kiosks by Blockbuster Express (originally DVD Play).

Distribution/Logistics

Kroger has a 3-tiered distribution system. The 2nd and 3rd tiers, internally known as "Peyton's", service retail stores and provide promotional and seasonal products. Kroger operates five "Peyton's" which include:^[31]

• Peytons Northern - Bluffton and Fort Wayne, Indiana
• Peytons Midsouth - Portland, Tennessee
• Peytons Southeastern - Cleveland, Tennessee
• Peytons Phoenix - Phoenix, Arizona
• Peytons GHC

Kroger operates its own fleet of trucks and trailers to distribute products to its various stores, in addition to contracts with trucking companies First Fleet and Quickway Distribution.

Food distribution and buying takes place under various subsidiaries and divisions. These include:

• Inter-American Products - private label goods
• Wesco Foods - produce buying^[32]

Financial Services

Kroger Personal Finance was introduced in 2007 to offer various stores' branded MasterCards; mortgages; home equity loans; pet, renter's and home insurance and identity theft protection.^[33]

Market Entries and Withdrawals

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Pittsburgh

Kroger had a number of stores in the Western Pennsylvania region, encompassing Pittsburgh and surrounding areas until the early 1980s, when the U.S. began experiencing a severe economic recession. The recession had two significant and related effects on Kroger's operations in the region. First, the highly cyclical manufacturing-based economy of the region declined in greater proportion than the rest of the U.S., which undercut demand for the higher-end products and services offered by Kroger. The second effect of the economic recession was to worsen labor-management relations which led to a protracted labor strike in 1983 and 1984. During the strike, Kroger withdrew all of its stores from the Western Pennsylvania market, including some recently opened "superstores" and "greenhouses". The new superstores in Western Pennsylvania, which included at least the one at North Huntingdon Township (Irwin, PA) and another at Cranberry Township, were Kroger's state-of-the-art facilities. They were equipped with optical (bar-code) check-out scanners that were new to the industry, and especially to the region. In addition to the usual meat/dairy/produce departments, they contained a separate bakery, deli, cheese shop, and seafood counter, amenities that have come to define the modern suburban grocery store. In an innovation that did not define future trends, the new superstores also included extensive non-foods departments that sold among other things, televisions, and other electronics.^[34] Hence, the closure of these newly opened, trend-setting facilities represented an abrupt retreat in the region.

Kroger's exit ceded the market to lower-cost, locally owned rivals, most notably Giant Eagle and the Supervalu-supplied Shop 'n Save and FoodLand chains. (Ironically, Kroger bought Eagle Grocery company, whose founders went on to create Giant Eagle.) There has been recent speculation that Kroger may be re-entering the market since Giant Eagle and Wal-Mart (through the numerous supercenters Wal-Mart has opened in the Pittsburgh area in recent years) have since formed a de facto monopoly in the market as a result of Supervalu's inability to compete, as well as the launch of Kroger's Turkey Hill dairy brand in the area in 2005. Kroger still maintains a presence in the nearby Morgantown, West Virginia, Wheeling, West Virginia, and Weirton, West Virginia/Steubenville, Ohio areas where Giant Eagle has a much smaller presence and the Supervalu-supplied stores are virtually nonexistent, though in all of these cases Wal-Mart remains a major competitor and Aldi is the only other supermarket with any market overlap.

Other markets

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Kroger also experienced a similar withdrawal from Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1989. Many of these stores were sold to the local grocery chain Red Food, which was in turn bought by BI-LO in 1994. Today, Chattanooga is the only metropolitan market in Tennessee in which Kroger does not operate.

In northeastern Ohio, Kroger had a plant in Solon, Ohio, which is a suburb of Cleveland, until the mid-1980s. When that plant shut down, Kroger closed its northeastern Ohio stores in the Cleveland, Akron and Youngstown areas. Some of those former Kroger stores were taken over by stores like Acme Fresh Markets, Giant Eagle and Heinens.

Kroger stores existed in various Florida markets from the 1960s until 1986, when the chain decided to exit the state and sold most of its stores to Albertsons and Kash n' Karry. Kroger operated in Florida under the "SupeRx" and "Florida Choice" banners. Recently, retail analysts have begun to speculate about whether Kroger may capitalize on the misfortunes of Albertsons and re-enter Florida again, but the dominance of native Publix, Winn-Dixie and the growing force of Wal-Mart in Florida would be a tough sell for Kroger.

Kroger also had some presence in the Milwaukee area in the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s, when it exited. Speculation occurred that it would return in 2008 when Roundy's was rumored to be for sale, but it never happened.

Kroger had about 50 stores in St. Louis until it left the market in 1986, saying that its stores were unprofitable. Most of its stores were bought by National, Schnucks, and Shop 'n Save.

Kroger entered the Charlotte market in 1977 and expanded rapidly throughout the 1980s when it bought some stores from BI-LO. However, most stores were in less desirable neighborhoods and did not fit in with Kroger's upscale image. Less than three months after BI-LO pulled out, that company decided to re-enter the Charlotte market, and in 1988 Kroger announced it would leave the Charlotte market and put its stores up for sale. In an ironic twist, BI-LO bought Kroger's remaining stores in the Charlotte area.^[35]

Kroger also swapped all ten of its Greensboro-area stores in 1999 to Matthews-based Harris Teeter for 11 of that company's stores in central and western Virginia. Kroger still maintains a North Carolina presence in the Raleigh-Durham area. In the Raleigh-Durham area, Kroger closed its North Raleigh store in the Wakefield Commons shopping center on July 9, 2011 because the location failed to meet sales expectations. After the closure, Kroger will operate 16 stores in the Triangle. Kroger had a store in the Greenville from the 1980s until 2010 when it sold it to Harris Teeter.^[36] A store in Wilson opened in 2002, but closed two years later.

Kroger had stores in the Charleston, South Carolina area with locations also in North Charleston, Mount Pleasant, Goose Creek, and Summerville until 1988 when they sold the stores to BI-LO along with the Charlotte area stores.^[37]

Kroger closed almost all of its northern Michigan stores in the 1980s and 1990s. The locations in Flint and the Tri-Cities were converted to Kessel Food Market beginning in 1982. These Kessel locations were bought back by Kroger in 2001; conversion was completed in 2006. In December 2008, Kroger opened a new 76,000-square-foot (7,100 m²) store in Saginaw at Green Acres Plaza on State Street. This opening neccessated the closure of the original Kessel location and one other location, both just down the road from the new site. The Kroger stores in Grand Rapids and most of northern Michigan were sold to Hamady, a chain based in Flint, Michigan.^[38]

In the mid 1950s, Kroger entered the Houston, Texas market by acquiring the Houston-based chain Henke & Pillot. The stores were eventually converted to the Kroger banner in the mid 1960s.

Kroger entered the competitive San Antonio, Texas market in 1980 but pulled out in mid-1993. On June 15, 1993, the company announced it would close its 15 area stores 60 days later.

Safeway (excluding the Randalls chain) exited the Houston market in early 1988. It sold many of its own properties to Kroger, the market leader in the region, which is still followed by Randalls (now owned by Safeway) today.

Albertsons exited the San Antonio and Houston markets in early 2002, selling many of the Houston stores to Kroger.

In the late 1990s, it acquired many stores from Super Fresh as it exited many markets in the South.

Long the dominant grocer in western Virginia, Kroger entered the Richmond, Virginia, market in 2000, where it competes against market leaders Former Ukrop's and Food Lion. Kroger entered the market by purchasing Hannaford stores that either already existed or were being built in Richmond, Hannaford purchases also included the competitive Hampton Roads market where it now competes with Farm Fresh, Harris Teeter, and Food Lion.^[39] The Hannaford locations in these markets were purchased from Delhaize by Kroger as a condition of Delhaize's 2000 acquisition of the Hannaford chain, which had previously competed against Food Lion, also owned by Delhaize.^[40] Wal-Mart Supercenters are also major competitors in both markets, and the chain briefly competed against Winn-Dixie, which has now exited Virginia.

In 2004, Kroger bought most of the old Thriftway stores in Cincinnati, Ohio, when Winn-Dixie left the area. These stores were reopened as Kroger stores.

Although Kroger has long operated stores in the Huntsville-Decatur area of northern Alabama (as a southern extension of its Nashville, Tennessee, region), it has not operated in the state's largest market, Birmingham, since the early 1970s, when it exited as a result of intense competition from Winn-Dixie and local chains Bruno's Supermarkets and Western Supermarkets.

In August 2010, Kroger and Publix are among potential bidders for the aforementioned BI-LO chain in the southeast. Neither of those chains, however, would give additional details.^[41]

Advertisements

"Right Store. Right Price." and "More Value for The Way You Live" are the current advertising slogans for Kroger and most other chains owned by the Kroger company. In the Southwest Division the current advertising slogans are "Right Store. Right Price." and "LOW PRICES plus MORE!" Probably the best known advertising slogan in the company's history was "Let's Go Krogering," which was accompanied by a jingle of the same name. It still appears on the bottom of some stickers which are placed on large items, handed out to children in stores (just like banks give lollipops to children). Other previously used slogans included "Your Total Value Leader", "Kroger, Where It Costs Less to Get More", "See What We're Doing Today", "Feel the Difference", "Listen to the scissors, don't you love the sound of a price coming down" and "Kroger, Count on Us".

Environmental record

On its website, Kroger mentions they have diverted recyclable materials ranging from composting to recycling cardboard. Like many grocery stores, they participate in plastic bag recycling.^[42]

Notable stores and events

• James Earl Ray was sentenced to 20 years at the Missouri State Penitentiary after robbing a Kroger in St. Louis of $120 in 1959. After Ray escaped from the prison he assassinated Martin Luther King.^[43]
• The Kroger supermarket on Ponce de Leon Avenue in the Ford Factory complex in Atlanta is the basis for a pop culture theme and Internet meme (viral concept made popular via the Internet). The store itself is considered a local landmark^[44][45] known by the nickname "Murder Kroger", after a murder that took place in the parking lot in 2002.^[46]
• In Knoxville, Tennessee a Kroger Store on 2217 N Broadway St is affectionately called the "Fellini Kroger" (an allusion to the Italian filmmaker). The store is known for the unique cross-section of society that regularly shops at the store. Residents have long called that store the "Fellini Kroger" but it is unclear as to who originally coined the phrase.^[47]

References and footnotes

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} [www.thekrogerco.com/finance/documents/proxystatement.pdf "proxystatement"]. The Kroger Co. www.thekrogerco.com/finance/documents/proxystatement.pdf. 
2. ^ [www.thekrogerco.com/finance/documents/2010_KrogerFactBook.pdf "2010_KrogerFactBook"]. The Kroger Co. www.thekrogerco.com/finance/documents/2010_KrogerFactBook.pdf. 
3. ^ "Grocery Chaiins". http://www.americancompanies.com/industry.asp?ID=Grocery%20Chains. Retrieved 2009-09-20. ^{[dead link]}
4. ^ 2007 Top 75 North American Food Retailers, Supermarket News, Last accessed March 1, 2008.
5. ^ "Fortune 500 2009: Fortune 1000 Companies 1-100". CNN. http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2009/full_list/. 
6. ^ http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/56873/000110465912021358/a12-1263_110k.htm
7. ^ Delotte, Switching Channels: Global Powers of Retailing 2012, January 2012, at p. G11.
8. ^ "Contact Us." Kroger. Retrieved on April 30, 2009.
9. ^ Dillon Companies, Inc., answers.com
10. ^ Gonzales, J.R. "Houston's own Henke & Pillot." Houston Chronicle blogs. October 20, 2010. Retrieved on January 13, 2011. "Offices at 3021 Washington"
11. ^ "Kroger Marketplaces coming". The Cincinnati Enquirer. February 27, 2006. http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060227/BIZ01/602270312. Retrieved 1 October 2006. 
12. ^ "Kroger casts net more broadly". The Cincinnati Enquirer. July 19, 2006. http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060719/BIZ01/607190323/-1/all. Retrieved 8 October 2006. 
13. ^ "Colossal Kroger set to open soon". The Western Star. July 13, 2006. http://www.western-star.com/news/content/news/stories/2006/07/13/WS0713kroger.html. Retrieved 8 October 2006. 
14. ^ http://www.daytondailynews.com/business/biggest-kroger-marketplace-to-open-in-centerville-1295252.html
15. ^ http://www.whiotv.com/news/17955585/detail.html
16. ^ http://www.progressivegrocer.com/progressivegrocer/content_display/features/beverage/e3i4fb04ccd3a536c41e4db38c5a570edca^{[dead link]}
17. ^ http://www.fbherald.com/articles/2008/09/03/news/doc48beee65c6a33233501057.txt
18. ^ ^{a b} http://www.wfaa.com/home/Kroger-in-Frisco-to-sell-not-only-food-but-the-dining-table-too-82244867.html
19. ^ http://www.newquest.com/PDFs/News/WillisKrogerannouncement-02102010.pdf^{[dead link]}
20. ^ http://www.wylietexas.gov/city_government/communications/docs/March_Wylie_Living_Proof.pdf
21. ^ http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/local/article/CLOV13_20091012-223403/299056/
22. ^ http://www.pinebeltpacers.org/RaceInfo/Fliers11/LYL/LYL2011.pdf
23. ^ http://hamptonroads.com/2012/05/kroger-store-tap-former-va-beach-kmart-site
24. ^ Inter-American Products: Home
25. ^ The Kroger Co. - Operations: Manufacturing List
26. ^ http://interamericanproducts.com/plants/grocery.htm
27. ^ "Kroger introduces Disney Magic Selections in stores nationwide". The Kroger Co. http://www.thekrogerco.com/corpnews/corpnewsinfo_pressreleases_07252006.htm. Retrieved 8 October 2006. 
28. ^ Hooks Drug Store Museum and Soda Fountain, Indianapolis, Indiana
29. ^ Kroger Pharmacy Careers
30. ^ The Kroger Co. - Operations: Grocery
31. ^ http://www.groceryec.com/kroger_divisions.htm^{[dead link]}
32. ^ The Kroger Co. - Corporate News & Info: Historic Timeline
33. ^ KPF: Great Idea Home
34. ^ The merchandising of this higher-value inventory may have been a net detriment to some stores. At the North Huntingdon store, several night shift employees were arrested and fired for an organized and sustained scheme involving the stealing and re-selling of electronics and other high-valued non-food merchandise.
35. ^ Charlotte Observer, Kroger will Close Charlotte, Charleston Stores in January. 11-17-1988
36. ^ http://www2.wnct.com/.../harris-teeter-moving-greenville-kroger-ar-468615/^{[dead link]}
37. ^ http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=3F5JAAAAIBAJ&sjid=kQoNAAAAIBAJ&pg=6566%2C859451
38. ^ Hamady Sacks and Yankee Hats, Water Winter Wonderland, Posted February 20, 2004.
39. ^ Kroger Press Release, May 31, 2000
40. ^ FTC Agreement Allows Delhaize America, Inc. and Hannaford Bros. Co. Merger of East Coast Supermarkets
41. ^ The Packer: "Kroger, Publix reported as bidders for Bi-Lo"
42. ^ http://www.kroger.com/healthy_living/green_living/Pages/recycling.aspx "Healthy Living"
43. ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=4FbgiGjR-TgC&pg=PA195&dq=james+earl+ray+krogers&hl=en&ei=OPr_TbfsOcOx0AG_4MirDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CEQQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q&f=false
44. ^ "Basic Stuff", Vice Magazine
45. ^ http://clevortrevor.livejournal.com/2011/01/11/
46. ^ Atlanta Journal Constitution, August 2, 2002
47. ^ KnoxBlab, KnoxBlab. "Funhouse Discussion about Fellini". na. Funhouse. http://funhouserock.com/funhouse/blab/showthread.php?10744-quot-Fellini-Kroger-s-quot-what-does-it-mean-these-days/page11. Retrieved 21 October 2011. 

External links

	Cincinnati portal
	Ohio portal
	Companies portal
	Food portal

• Kroger corporate website
• Kroger-branded stores website
• Yahoo! - The Kroger Co. Company Profile
• Inter-American Products website
• Kroger Personal Finance

v t e The Kroger Company Corporate Directors: David B. Dillon · Robert D. Beyer · John T. LaMacchia · Edward M. Liddy · Katherine D. Ortega · Bobby S. Shackouls · John Clendenin · David B. Lewis · Susan M. Phillips · Reuben V. Anderson · Don W. McGeorge · W. Rodney McMullen · Clyde R. Moore · Steven R. Rogel · James A. Runde Grocery Retail Baker's · City Market · Dillons · Food 4 Less · Foods Co. · Fred Meyer · Fry's Food and Drug · Gerbes · JayC Food Stores · King Soopers · Kroger Food and Drug · Owen's Market · Pay Less Food Markets · Quality Food Centers · Ralphs · Smith's Food and Drug · Scott's Food & Pharmacy Convenience Kwik Shop · Loaf 'N Jug · Quik Stop · Turkey Hill · Tom Thumb Jewelry Barclay Jewelers · Fox Jewelers  · Fred Meyer Jewelers · Littman Jewelers Net revenue: $76.00 billion USD ($1.249 billion USD FY 2008) · Employees: 323,000 · Stock Symbol: NYSE: KR · Website: thekrogerco.com

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