Lucky Stores is an American supermarket chain founded in Alameda County,
California in 1935. Lucky is currently operated by Save Mart in Northern
California. In 1998, Lucky's parent company,
American Stores, was taken over by Albertsons, and by 1999 the Lucky brand
had disappeared. On January 23, 2006, SuperValu, CVS Pharmacy, and an
investment group led by Cerberus Capital Management announced they had agreed to
acquire Albertsons for $17.4 billion. Existing Albertsons stores were divided
between Supervalu and the Cerberus-led group; the Cerberus-acquired stores
became Albertsons LLC, which then sold its northern California and northern
Nevada stores to Save Mart. In 2006, both SuperValu and Save Mart
began re-branding some Albertsons locations as Lucky stores, using the old
logo. However, the same year, Grocery Outlet, an unrelated Northern California
retailer, also began branding some of its stores as Lucky, claiming that
Albertsons had given up rights to the Lucky trademark when it had retired the
brand in 1999. In January 2009 a federal judge ruled against Grocery Outlet,
finding that Albertsons had continued to use the name Lucky even after the
re-branding of its stores. SuperValu positioned Lucky as "'true
neighborhood stores,' meaning they meet the unique needs of communities by
providing the right products and assortment at the right price."
History = Beginning =
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 Oakland.
Lucky had a big influence in transitioning from small store to
supermarket. Its first flagship store opened in 1947
in San Leandro, California. It featured a coffee shop and other conveniences.
Also known as "Lucky #50", this store was managed for years by San Leandro
native Anthony Minniti. Mr. Minniti was known for his old-fashioned approach
that emphasized customer service. Tony enjoyed having a personal rapport with
many customers over the years, and maintained a highly profitable store
during his tenure. After his retirement, the store's customer base declined over
time. It was the last Lucky Store to be re-branded after the takeover by
Albertsons. Due to dwindling profits, it later closed in 2005.
Lucky grew by acquisition in many markets including Cardinal Stores, Big
Bear Stores and Mayfair, Jim Dandy and Food Basket, Kash n' Karry, and Eagle
Food Centers. 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 1985. Lucky lacked a distribution center in
Washington state and felt that it was impractical to continue to serve the
market from California distribution and manufacturing facilities. Associated
Grocers would rename the stores from their co-op owned stores and other
independent markets. = Subsidiaries =
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Lucky Stores operated the Gemco department
stores in California, Nevada, Phoenix, Tucson, and Houston and Memco in the
Chicago and Washington, D.C. areas. In 1983 Lucky closed five Houston-area
Gemco discount stores. The Memco stores in the Chicago metropolitan area were
converted to Eagle Food Centers and subsequently closed. Lucky acquired
Hancock Fabrics in 1972. Due to a 1986 hostile takeover bid by Asher Edelman,
many Gemco stores were sold to Dayton-Hudson or closed, while Hancock
Fabrics was sold as a public company and Kragen Auto Parts was sold to form CSK
Auto. Lucky also owned 22 Mays Drugs in IL, IA, & WI. A lot of them were next to
Eagle Food Stores. They were closed or sold in the late '70s. The Mays Drugs
stores in Iowa were sold in 1980 to Revco Discount Drug Stores of Twinsburg,
Ohio. Lucky Stores operated 22 Houston-area Eagle Supermarkets until
March 1985, when it was decided to exit the market altogether. Twenty stores
were sold to competitors and two were closed. Eagle Supermarkets had a 6
percent share of supermarket sales in Houston one year earlier. That put it
behind Kroger, Safeway, Randalls, and Fiesta Mart, but ahead of Rice Food
Markets and Gerland's Food Fair. = Marketing =
During the 1980s and 90s, TV personality Stephanie Edwards was a spokeswoman
appearing in television commercials for Lucky stores.
= Acquisition by American Stores and Albertsons =
By 1988, Lucky became a part of American Stores Company, along with Jewel-Osco,
Acme Markets, Alpha Beta, Buttrey Food & Drug, Osco Drug, Sav-on Drugs, and Star
Market. The Alpha Beta stores in Northern California became Lucky Stores.
A number of Southern California branches were sold to Ralphs. Some Lucky Stores
with combined food and drug changed their name to Lucky-Sav-on as part of
the merger. In 1998, American Stores was bought out
by Albertsons, which became briefly the largest grocery retailer in the United
States, but became second after Kroger acquired Fred Meyer the following month.
In the year that followed, all Lucky Stores took the Albertsons name, and the
Lucky brand was phased out, in order to not create confusion. In Central
California, many Lucky Stores were bought by Save Mart Supermarkets and now
operate as Save Mart. Return
= Grocery Outlet return = In 2006, Berkeley, California-based
Grocery Outlet closed its Rocklin, California, location, only to re-open
the store with the Lucky name and the classic Lucky logo. On April 1, 2005,
the Sacramento Bee, interviewing Grocery Outlet President and COO Bob Tiernan,
reported that the "company believes the Lucky brand has value. And the new store
format, with an 'every day low pricing' strategy, reminds us of Lucky". Grocery
Outlet lawyer Peter Craigie noted that Albertsons has indicated its belief that
it continues to own the Lucky brand. However, Grocery Outlet believes that
Albertsons' failure to utilize the brand means the company has effectively
surrendered the trademark. Grocery Outlet has preemptively filed a lawsuit
against Albertsons seeking a declaration from Albertsons that the company has
surrendered the brand. On the next day, April 2, Albertsons
filed a request for a temporary restraining order for Grocery Outlet's
usage of the Lucky mark. At the same time, on the Albertsons homepage, the
Lucky trademark reappeared, seemingly as evidence for the mark's use.
The request was denied by the District Court on April 5. Albertsons had argued
that it did not intend to abandon the Lucky brand and that Lucky shopping
carts still remained at some of its stores. District Judge Jeffrey White
ruled that Albertsons failed to demonstrate that the use of the Lucky
brand demonstrated unfair competition and that the burden to prove otherwise
was wholly the responsibility of Albertsons.
On July 20, the District Court ruled in Albertsons' favor, granting a
preliminary injunction preventing Grocery Outlet from using the Lucky
name. Grocery Outlet asked the judge to put the order on hold and appealed to
the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The appeals court
upheld the ruling in favor of Albertsons on August 9, 2007.
= SuperValu return = Lucky returned in the summer of 2006.
When they opened, the new stores did not have loyalty cards, did not advertise
specials, and did not offer delivery, emphasizing consistently low prices
instead. The stores targeted the budget minded home cook.
In July 2006, Max Foods stores in Alhambra, El Centro, and San Ysidro were
rebranded as Lucky by SuperValu. The Max Foods store in Montebello, California,
was renovated and re-opened as Albertsons. The Albertsons store one
block away has closed and became a Smart and Final. The Lucky Supermarket in
Alhambra closed four years later. By October 2006, one Albertsons in North
Las Vegas, Nevada, had been rebranded as a Lucky, as well as another in Las
Vegas. According to company officials in 2007,
no additional changeovers were planned, but depending on how the stores did,
there might be a "handful" of additional changeovers.
In February 2009, SuperValu announced the closing 9 of its Albertsons'
Southern California locations. The Albertsons in South Gate was converted
into the Lucky brand. An Albertsons in Van Nuys and Oxnard were also converted
to Lucky, although in 2013, the Van Nuys store closed down and was bought by the
unrelated Super King chain of Southern California.
= Save Mart return = Save Mart acquired the Northern
California division of Albertsons LLC on November 27, 2006, which included the
right to use the Lucky brand in the areas Albertsons LLC operated. In 2007,
Save Mart converted 72 of the acquired Albertsons stores to the Lucky banner in
the San Francisco Bay Area, despite Grocery Outlet's assertion that Save
Mart had no rights to the name. Controversy
In November and October 2011, 23 Northern California self checkout
machines had been tampered with, resulting in the loss of thousands of
dollars by Lucky's customers. References
Sources "SuperValu resurrects Lucky brand in
California". retailnet.com. July 28, 2006.
"SuperValu to Get Lucky in Vegas". progressivegrocer.com. July 28, 2006.
External links Save Mart's Lucky Homepage
SuperValu's Lucky Homepage Groceteria.com's History of Lucky