19 Facts About American Stores

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 1998.

American Stores was incorporated in 1917 when The Acme Tea Company merged with four small Philadelphia-area grocery stores to form American Stores.

In 1961, American Stores company acquired California's Alpha Beta chain of supermarkets.

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.

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American Stores posted $83 million in earnings on sales of nearly $8 billion in 1983.

American Stores raised its bid for Jewel's preferred stock, increasing the total bid to $1.

In 1985, American Stores sold the White Hen chain, since convenience stores did not fit into the company's plans.

In March 1988, American Stores made an unsolicited tender offer for Lucky Stores, an Alpha Beta competitor noted for high efficiency and low prices.

Lucky accepted and American Stores was on track to become the largest supermarket chain in the United States, over the Kroger and Safeway chains.

American Stores appealed, and in April 1989, a Ninth Circuit panel in San Francisco overturned the injunction.

Meanwhile, American Stores continued to plan its integration of Lucky while it waited for the district court to lift the injunction as ordered by the Ninth Circuit.

American Stores sold the minority interest in Eagle Food Centers that it had acquired from Lucky and sold it to New York-based Odyssey Partners.

American Stores eventually made the decision to change the name of the former Sav-on stores back to Sav-on Drugs.

American Stores had long been run as a decentralized holding company, but in order to compete in the fierce retail environment of the 1990s the company announced plans in 1992 to transform itself into an integrated operating company.

From 1992 up through 1998, American Stores consolidated operations and moved major responsibilities of their subsidiaries to their headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah.

In early 1994, American Stores launched a discount warehouse food store concept in California.

Don L Skaggs was the Executive Vice President and General Manager of Skaggs Telecommunications Service, Inc a non-retail subsidiary of American Stores consisting of an audio media production company, a satellite teleport U S Satellite Corporation and an operation that sold equipment to law enforcement agencies.

American Stores was not certain if Skaggs' intention was to launch a proxy fight for control of American Stores or to alter its current management or direction.