Retail consoldation

摘要

Safeway began a flurry of merger activity unparalleled m the history of food distribution in 1997 when it acquired Von's, whose 325 supermarkets have annual sales of 5.4 billion dollar. Just months later Safeway added Dominic's, with 2.3 billion dollar in sales at 112 stores. Then came Randall's, whose 116 stores added another 2.5 billion dollar to Safeway's annual sales. Albertson's, not to be outdone, acquired Lucky's, Jewell, Osco and Acme Supermarkets in just one year. The addition of 801 stores, with revenues exceeding 14.8 billion dollar, catapulted Albertson's to the number two spot in the pantheon of the nation's corporate grocers. But Kroger's was not content to rest at number one. In 1998 the Midwest giant acquired Fred Meyer and Yucaipa,adding 15 billion dollar in annual revenues at 800 stores.