Observers of California retailing say the signs are that Dublin-based Lucky Stores Company is moving into a combination grocery-drugstore mode of operation similar to that of the midwest's leading grocery-drug chain, Jewell-Osco. Lucky and Sav-on, like Jewel and Osco, are wholly owned subsidiaries of Salt Lake City-based American Stores Company, though Lucky has long been secretive about its corporate structure. (Product packages make no reference to American Stores Company, and the only way to get information about Lucky from within its own corporate structure on the worldwide web seems to be by looking up one of its sister chains—Anaheim-based Sav-on or the Philadelphia metropolitan area's Acme Markets).
The first full-fledged Lucky-Sav-on combination store in the area has recently opened in San Jose's El Paseo Shopping Center, across from Westgate Mall at the intersections of Saratoga, Hamilton, and Campbell Avenues and Lawrence Expressway-Quito Road. El Paseo has been virtually razed in recent months to be reborn in a totally new strip-mall configuration, with the Lucky-Sav-on its first retail occupant to open.
Other large Lucky Stores have also added Sav-on pharmacies and drug departments, but the El Paseo store may be the first one to give the Sav-on name equal billing with Lucky. Lucky's own brands of pharmaceuticals have been gradually changing to bear the Sav-on name.
Apparently Lucky's corporate management has had second thoughts or uncertainty about moving in this direction for some years. At one point, before the area's Alpha Beta markets were turned into Luckys, they carried drug products bearing their sister Osco brand name, and there was talk of all Sav-on's being reborn as Osco Drugs. When American Stores bought out Lucky, Sav-on was put up for sale, and the only local Sav-on—ironically located only about two miles from the present combination Lucky-Sav-on, at Campbell Avenue and San Tomas Acquino Road, was turned into a Long's drugstore.
Some Luckys started displaying Sav-on banners several years ago, but then removed them and brought on Lucky branded pharmaceuticals instead. The latest permutation is meant to be permanent, judging from all appearances, but as things go in the retail world, the death or forced retirement of one company executive could probably bring another sea change in direction at any time.
Lucky is by far California's largest grocery retailer, its stores outnumbering second-ranked Safeway in Silicon Valley by three to one. It is the only statewide grocery chain in California, though Safeway is quickly moving back into competitive position, having recently bought out the Los Angeles area's largest locally based chain, Von's. Nationally, Lucky's parent company is the number two grocer, with Acme in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland; Jewel extending from Chicago to New Mexico; Super Saver (location unknown), and Lucky in California.
American Stores was based in Philadelphia and consisted of Acme Markets and Alpha Beta from c. 1962 to 1979. Salt Lake City-based Skaggs Drug Centers, Inc., bought out American Stores and adopted that name as the corporate name in 1979. American Stores acquired Jewel Companies in 1984 and Lucky Stores, which had divested itself of Gemco Discount centers and other holdings to fight off an unfriendly takeover from outside the grocery industry only a couple of years earlier, in 1988.
When the owners of Alpha Beta acquired the much larger Lucky Stores, California's attorney general required some of the stores to be closed or sold to prevent what he considered monopoly conditions from applying in certain markets. In this area, many Alpha Beta stores became Lucky's, with others being sold. In Southern California, a number of Alpha Betas were reorganized and continue to operate under that name, independent of American Stores Company.
Hoover's Online company information listings give the following data on the company:
The nation's first-ranked grocer, the Kroger Company, has made several forays into California, most recently with acquisition of Fry's supermarkets, and earlier with Market Basket in Southern California. Kroger still owns Fry's stores in Arizona, but the California stores have been sold to Save Mart, based in the tiny town of Oakdale, east of Modesto. Kroger presently lists no California holdings.