Food 4 Less
Encyclopedia
Warehouse store
A warehouse store, as opposed to a warehouse club, is a retail location with a limited variety of merchandise sold in bulk at a discount to customers...
grocery chain, currently owned by Kroger
Kroger
The Kroger Co. is an American supermarket chain founded by Bernard Kroger in 1883 in Cincinnati, Ohio. It reported US$ 76.7 billion in sales during fiscal year 2009. It is the country's largest grocery store chain and its second-largest grocery retailer by volume and second-place general retailer...
. It is a no-frills grocery store
Grocery store
A grocery store is a store that retails food. A grocer, the owner of a grocery store, stocks different kinds of foods from assorted places and cultures, and sells these "groceries" to customers. Large grocery stores that stock products other than food, such as clothing or household items, are...
where the customers bag their own groceries at the checkout
Point of sale
Point of sale or checkout is the location where a transaction occurs...
. Kroger operates Food 4 Less stores in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
, Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
, and Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
.
Food 4 Less Stores owned by Kroger operate in Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
, Nebraska
Nebraska
Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....
, and Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
. In markets that Kroger does not have the rights to the Food 4 Less name, it operates as Foods Co.
There are other stores scattered throughout the United States with the Food 4 Less name, part of franchise agreements with various wholesalers including Unified Western Grocers and Associated Wholesale Grocers Midwest. These stores have particular penetration in Oregon and central and northern California. Food 4 Less was previously used by Fleming
Fleming Companies, Inc
Core-Mark Holding Company is a supplier of consumer package goods to retailers in the United States.-Fleming Companies:...
, but as Fleming exited various regions and ultimately collapsed, the rights to the name went to wholesalers who picked up some of Fleming's former customers.
Falley's
The Food-4-Less name and logo was originally conceived in the 1930s by Lou Falley, who developed a chain of stores both in the Food-4-Less name (with the warehouse/no frills format) and the Falley's name. The Falley's stores were full service supermarkets, while the Food-4-Less stores were warehouse stores, where labor costs were cut by having the groceries stocked to the shelves in the original cases, rather than stacking individual items. These stores were located throughout eastern Kansas and parts of northwestern Missouri. Over the years, the number of Falley's store diminished, and were replaced with Food-4-Less stores. Falley's also franchised Food 4 Less in states where it did not operate.Ron Burkle's Yucaipa Companies acquired Falley's in 1987. In a period of consolidation for the grocery industry, Food 4 Less merged into Ralphs
Ralphs
Ralphs is a major supermarket chain in the Southern California area and the largest subsidiary of Cincinnati-based Kroger. It is the oldest such chain west of the Mississippi River. Ralphs also operates stores under the Food 4 Less and Foods Co. names in California.-History:Ralphs Grocery Company...
; Fred Meyer
Fred Meyer
Fred Meyer, Inc., is a chain of hypermarkets founded in 1922 in Portland, Oregon, by Fred G. Meyer. The company was one of the pioneers of one-stop shopping, eventually combining a complete grocery supermarket with a drugstore, clothing store, shoe store, fine jewelers, home decor store, home...
acquired Ralphs in 1997, and was acquired by Kroger
Kroger
The Kroger Co. is an American supermarket chain founded by Bernard Kroger in 1883 in Cincinnati, Ohio. It reported US$ 76.7 billion in sales during fiscal year 2009. It is the country's largest grocery store chain and its second-largest grocery retailer by volume and second-place general retailer...
a year later.
In 1998, Fred Myer sold Falley's and the Midwest Food 4 Less to Associated Wholesale Grocers
Associated Wholesale Grocers
Associated Wholesale Grocers is the second-largest retailer-owned grocery wholesaler in the United States, after Wakefern Food Corporation. The cooperative serves over 1,900 stores in 21 states. It was founded in 1924 as Associated Grocers of Kansas City and is based in Kansas City, Kansas...
of Kansas City. The warehouse type stores were slowly phased out in favor of full service Food-4-Less stores with a new logo and format.
In January 2006, the AWG-owned Falley's and Food-4-Less stores located in Kansas were combined with sister company Homeland Stores
Homeland (supermarket)
Homeland is a supermarket chain in the United States. Homeland is currently headquartered in Edmond, Oklahoma. , it operates around 50 supermarkets in Oklahoma and Kansas. Many Homeland supermarkets also include a pharmacy.-History:...
, based in Edmond, Oklahoma
Edmond, Oklahoma
Edmond is a city in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, United States, and a part of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area in the central part of the state. As of the 2010 census, the population was 81,405, making it the sixth largest city in the state of Oklahoma....
. The company changed the names of the Food-4-Less stores, which it can't use beyond Kansas and Missouri, to AWG brands such as Price Chopper
Price Chopper / Price Mart
Price Chopper is a chain of grocery stores in the Kansas City metropolitan area. It is a premier grocery concept operated by Associated Wholesale Grocers , which operates 55 stores in Kansas and Missouri...
.
Nugget
The company uses the Foods Co name in Northern CaliforniaNorthern California
Northern California is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. The San Francisco Bay Area , and Sacramento as well as its metropolitan area are the main population centers...
, where Kroger is bound by an agreement between Falley's and grocer Nugget Markets, Inc.
Nugget Markets
Nugget Markets is a family-owned upscale supermarket chain operating within the greater Sacramento metropolitan area. It is headquartered in Woodland, California. As of October 2009, the company operates 9 of its flagship Nugget-brand stores, as well as 3 Food 4 Less franchises.- History :Nugget...
. All Food 4 Less stores in Northern California are managed and operated by Nugget. Kroger does not have any administrative control over the three Nugget Food 4 Less stores.
Nugget Food 4 Less is limited by its agreement with Fleming in its ability to advertise in circulars. Kroger Food 4 Less circulars will feature individual products on sale whereas Nugget Food 4 Less circulars only promote sales events and customer testimony. Ad Prices from the Kroger Food 4 Less chain will not be honored.
The Nugget Food 4 Less stores also feature a different selection of products than Kroger Food 4 Less stores due to Nugget's pooling of resources from its upscale Nugget Market stores. Marketing and administration of the Nugget Food 4 Less stores is handled through the Nugget Market Corporate Office in Woodland, California
Woodland, California
Woodland is the county seat of Yolo County, California, located approximately northwest of Sacramento, and is a part of the Sacramento - Arden-Arcade - Roseville Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 55,468 at the 2010 census.Woodland's origins trace back to 1850 when California...
, and any requests for other Food 4 Less stores will be deferred to the Kroger Corporate Office in Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...
. It is unclear whether Nugget Markets and Kroger will continue the Fleming relationship when the franchise agreement expires.
Fleming
Fleming was another franchisee of the Food 4 Less name. In early 2003, Fleming filed for bankruptcyBankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....
, causing the company to place all Fleming owned Food 4 Less stores up for bids to other national grocers. Three stores in Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
were purchased by Albertsons
Albertsons
Albertsons is a supermarket chain that operates 463 grocery stores in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Louisiana, Nevada, Southern California, Florida and certain parts of Utah. Supermarket News ranked parent company SuperValu number five in the 2007 "Top 75 North American Food...
, who retained two stores. The two stores kept the Food 4 Less name until January 2005, when the names changed to the Albertsons owned Super Saver
Super saver
Super saver may refer to:*Super Saver , winner of the 2010 Kentucky Derby*Super Saver Foods, a grocery store chain owned by Albertsons*Super Saver Foods , a grocery chain owned by B&R Stores...
name. Another store in Pinole, [Northern] California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
(Pinole Vista Shopping Center) was either rebranded as a Foods Co or was bought by Foods Co, a subisbiary of the same company.