Alpha Beta was a chain of
supermarket
A supermarket is a self-service Retail#Types of outlets, shop offering a wide variety of food, Drink, beverages and Household goods, household products, organized into sections. This kind of store is larger and has a wider selection than earli ...
s in the Southwestern United States. Stores under this brand existed between 1917 and 1995. Former Alpha Beta stores have all been purchased by other grocery chains and rebranded.
History
Before Alpha Beta was the name of a store, it was the name of a marketing concept used in grocery stores founded by Albert and Hugh Gerrard. It referred to organizing the groceries in the store in
alphabetical order
Alphabetical order is a system whereby character strings are placed in order based on the position of the characters in the conventional ordering of an alphabet. It is one of the methods of collation. In mathematics, a lexicographical order is t ...
. The Gerrards applied this idea to their flagship grocery store, Triangle Grocerteria, in 1915.
Then in 1917, they opened the first Alpha Beta store in
Pomona, in eastern
Los Angeles County, California
Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the List of the most populous counties in the United States, most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, ...
. The company also launched a series of coffee shops named Alphy's (a knockoff of the more formal Alpha Beta name) with dozens around southern California. They were eventually sold; many became Denny's.
The company was bought by
American Stores
American Stores Company was an American public corporation and a holding company which ran chains of supermarkets and drugstores in the United States from 1917 through 1998. The company was incorporated in 1917 when The Acme Tea Company merged w ...
in 1961.
Skaggs Drug Centers
American Stores Company was an American public corporation and a holding company which ran chains of supermarkets and drugstores in the United States from 1917 through 1998. The company was incorporated in 1917 when The Acme Tea Company merge ...
bought American Stores in 1979 and assumed the American Stores name. Combined food and drug stores in Alpha Beta territory were re-branded as Skaggs Alpha Beta. In 1984, American Stores bought
The Jewel Companies, Inc., which had owned
Osco Drug
Osco Drug and Sav-on Drugs were the names of a pair of chain pharmacies that operated in the United States. Osco Drug was founded by the Skaggs family. Alpha Beta grocery store was purchased by American Stores in 1961. Skaggs Drug Centers boug ...
since 1961.
In 1984, all 34 Alpha Beta stores in
Arizona
Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
were sold to
ABCO Foods
ABCO Foods was a chain of grocery stores in Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona for over 15 years, formed from a 1984 spin-off sale by the Alpha Beta division of American Stores. The Arizona regional management secured private financing to purchase the Ar ...
, and the stores continued operating under the Alpha Beta name. In
Tucson
, "(at the) base of the black ill
, nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town"
, image_map =
, mapsize = 260px
, map_caption = Interactive map ...
, Alpha Beta-branded stores changed to ABCO-branded stores around 1989.
Some Alpha Beta stores carried more than the customary supermarket merchandise. For example, in 1980, a
Cupertino, California
Cupertino ( ) is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States, directly west of San Jose on the western edge of the Santa Clara Valley with portions extending into the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The population was 57,8 ...
, Alpha Beta store sold Bohsei color TVs for under $200,
Atari
Atari () is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French publisher Atari SA through a subsidiary named Atari Interactive. The original Atari, Inc. (1972–1992), Atari, Inc., ...
400 and 800 computers, and other goods.
In September 1991, Skaggs-Alpha Beta re-branded its 76 stores in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arkansas as Jewel-Osco, in an attempt to unify some of its subsidiaries under one nationally recognized name. Months later,
Albertsons
Albertsons Companies, Inc. is an American grocery company founded and headquartered in Boise, Idaho.
With 2,253 stores as of the third quarter of fiscal year 2020 and 270,000 employees as of fiscal year 2019, the company is the second-large ...
bought some of the Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas stores.
In 1994,
Yucaipa Companies
The Yucaipa Companies, LLC is an American private equity firm founded in 1986 by Ronald Burkle. It specializes in private equity and venture capital, with a focus on middle-market companies, growth capital, industry consolidation, leveraged buy ...
, then owner of the Alpha Beta chain in southern California, purchased the
Ralphs Grocery Company. All existing Alpha Beta stores in Southern California were rebranded as
Ralphs
Ralphs is an American supermarket chain in Southern California. The largest subsidiary of Cincinnati-based Kroger, it is the oldest such chain west of the Mississippi River. Kroger also operates stores under the Food 4 Less and Foods Co. names ...
or
Food 4 Less
Food 4 Less is the name of several grocery store chains, the largest of which is currently owned by Kroger. It is a no-frills grocery store where the customers bag their own groceries at the checkout. Kroger operates Food 4 Less stores in the ...
,
COMPANY NEWS; California Grocery Deal: Yucaipa to Buy Ralphs - New York Times
/ref> and the Alpha Beta name ceased to be used by September 1995.
Alpha Beta stores in Northern California and San Diego County
San Diego County (), officially the County of San Diego, is a county in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,298,634, making it California's second-most populous county and the fi ...
were taken over and rebranded by Lucky Stores
Lucky Stores is an American supermarket chain founded in San Leandro, California, in 1935. Lucky is currently operated by Albertsons in Utah and Save Mart Supermarkets in Northern California.
In 1998, Lucky's parent company, American Stores, ...
, which in turn was acquired by Albertsons, triggering another rebranding. Many of the Northern California stores were subsequently sold in 2006 to Save Mart Supermarkets
The Save Mart Companies is an American grocery store operator founded and headquartered in Modesto, California. It owns and operates stores under the names of Save Mart, Lucky, Lucky California, FoodMaxx, and Maxx Value Foods. The stores are loc ...
, which had acquired the rights to use the Lucky brand and logo from Albertsons, so many of the stores eventually were rebranded as Lucky.
;Advertising
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Alan Hamel was the television spokesman for the Alpha Beta grocery stores in California. Although the chain used various slogans such as "You Can't Lose" and "The Savings Don't Stop", every commercial featuring Hamel ended with him saying to the audience "tell a friend". Popeye was in the Alpha Beta grocery store commercial with Mickey Mouse in the 80s featuring the end of the Alpha Beta commercial with Mickey Mouse saying next to Popeye to the audience "tell a friend". Olive Oyl's voiceover ended up saying "Go shopping with Popeye at Alpha Beta" and "Tell A Friend" at the end of the Alpha Beta commercial in the 80s. Bugs Bunny, Donald Duck, and Hulk Hogan were in the commercial of Alpha Beta grocery store in the 90s featuring Hulk Hogan ended up saying "Either you're at Alpha Beta or you're not" next to Bugs Bunny. In the 90s, Looney Tunes were in the commercial of Alpha Beta grocery store commercial and Daffy Duck ended up saying "Join Looney Tunes at Alpha Beta", "Either you're at Alpha Beta or you're not", and "Tell A Friend".
References
External links
Groceteria.com: History of Alpha Beta
Ralphs website
{{Authority control
Defunct supermarkets of the United States
Companies based in Los Angeles County, California
History of Pomona, California
Retail companies established in 1917
Retail companies disestablished in 1995
1917 establishments in California
1995 disestablishments in California
Defunct companies based in Greater Los Angeles
Private equity portfolio companies
Skaggs family
Supermarkets based in California