Joseph A. Albertson founder of Albertson’s Inc.

Joseph Albert Albertson was born on October 17, 1906 in Yukon. After two years at the college he took a job as a clerk at local Safeway grocery store in Caldwell in the mid 1920s.

Before his 12 years career with Safeway ended, Joe was managing more than a dozen stores and learning every phase of the retail business.

Using his savings $5000, in 1939 he formed a partnership with L. S Skaggs, a fellow Safeway employee and Tim Cuthbert, an accountant and opened their first Albertson’s Food Center in Boise, Idaho.

It was considered the best and the biggest grocery store of its time that came with facilities like free parking and money back offers.

At the end of World War II, Joe opened a fourth store in Emmett, Idaho. Shortly thereafter Joe and his colleagues elected to dissolve the partnership and in December 1945, he incorporated the company as Albertsons’s Corporation.

At the end of 1991, Albertson’s operated 562 stores in 17 western and southern states. Retail operations are supported by owned company owned distribution centers.

By 2005 Albertson’s Inc, was one of the largest retail food and drug chains in the United States with almost 2500 stores on 37 states.

It was purchased by a coalition of Supervalu, CVS, Kimco Realty and Cerberus Capital Management in early 2006 and known as Albertson LLC.
Joseph A. Albertson founder of Albertson’s Inc.