Ridley's Family Markets is a family-owned chain of 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...

s based in Jerome, Idaho. It was founded in 1984 in Payson, Utah

Payson, Utah

Payson is a city in Utah County, Utah, United States. It is part of the Provo–Orem, Utah Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 12,716 at the 2000 census. The current mayor is Rick Moore, who in the 2009 election was the first write-in candidate ever to defeat an incumbent mayor in...

. As of 2009 Ridley's operates 15 supermarkets in Idaho

Idaho

Idaho is a state in the Rocky Mountain area of the United States. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans". Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state....

, northern 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...

, 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...

, and Wyoming

Wyoming

Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...

.

As of 2010 it was ranked as the 23rd largest private company in Idaho.

History

In 1984, Jerry and Connie Ridley opened a 11000 square feet (1,021.9 m²) grocery store in Payson, Utah. Ridley's first operated as an IGA

IGA (supermarkets)

IGA is a brand of grocery stores active in more than 30 countries. Contrasting with the chain store business model, IGA operates as a franchise through stores that are owned separately from the brand. Many of these stores operate in small town markets and belong to families that manage them...

 franchise called Ridley's IGA Foodliner. Two years later in 1986, the couple sold their store in Payson and opened a Food 4 Less in Orem, Utah

Orem, Utah

Orem is a city in Utah County, Utah, United States, in the north-central part of the state. It is adjacent to Provo, Lindon, and Vineyard and is about south of Salt Lake City. Orem is one of the principal cities of the Provo-Orem, Utah Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Utah and...

. Once again two years later Jerry and Connie Ridley sold that store and opened their store in Jerome, Idaho

Jerome, Idaho

Jerome is a city in Jerome County, Idaho, U.S.A. The population was 10,890 at the 2010 census. The city is the county seat of Jerome County, and sits at an elevation of 3763 feet above sea level. It is part of the Twin Falls, Idaho Micropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:Jerome is located at ...

 in 1988. Ridley's Food Corporation was incorporated that same year as a privately held company.

Ridley's has been supplied by Associated Food Stores

Associated Food Stores

Associated Food Stores is an American retailers cooperative that supplies about 500 independently owned retail supermarkets throughout Utah, Arizona, Idaho, Colorado, Montana, Oregon, Nevada and Wyoming. The company was founded by Donald P. Lloyd in 1940, who was the president of the Utah Retail...

 since the late 1990s. Earlier it was supplied by Fleming Foods.

Electronic retailing innovations

Electronic marketing innovations that Ridley's had developed around its customer loyalty program were recognized in 2006 with a Global Electronic Marketing award. Program features recognized by the award included customizable shopping lists, card points that could be redeemed for rewards and discounts, and e-mail

E-mail

Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...

 delivery of weekly ads. In 2008, it was announced that Ridley's would conduct an experimental implementation of electronic coupon

Coupon

In marketing, a coupon is a ticket or document that can be exchanged for a financial discount or rebate when purchasing a product. Customarily, coupons are issued by manufacturers of consumer packaged goods or by retailers, to be used in retail stores as a part of sales promotions...

clearing in one of its stores. This is an innovation that transfers coupon redemption information from retailers to manufacturers electronically, with the goal of eliminating the transaction costs and other problems involved with traditional methods of coupon processing. Although this technology has many perceived advantages, it had not been successfully implemented on a large scale.