Cala Foods was a

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 ...

chain operating in

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. Cala Foods was the sister chain to Bell Markets. The last Cala Foods store closed its doors on December 1, 2011.

History

Cala Foods was established in 1947 by the seven brothers of the Cala family. Cala Foods acquired the QFI supermarket chain in 1973. The company merged with Bell Markets in the mid-1970s. Bell Markets was founded in the 1940s when Dominick Bell and his two brothers opened a supermarket in San Francisco. Cala Foods was the first supermarket chain in San Francisco to stay open 24 hours per day, and one of the first in the US to use checkout scanners. The chain would eventually extend as far south as

Santa Clara County Santa Clara County, officially the County of Santa Clara, is the sixth-most populous county in the U.S. state of California, with a population of 1,936,259, as of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Santa Clara County and neighboring Sa ...

and as far north as

Marin County Marin County is a county located in the northwestern part of the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 262,231. Its county seat and largest city is San Rafael. Marin County is acros ...

. The Cala Foods chain was purchased by the

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 ...

in 1988. In 1994, Cala became a division of the Ralphs Grocery Company when Ralphs merged with Yucaipa. In August 2006, Ralphs reached an agreement to sell 11 of 13 Cala and Bell stores back to Harley DeLano, previous manager of the chain. While DeLano retains the right to use the Cala and Bell store names,

Kroger The Kroger Company, or simply Kroger, is an American retail company that operates (either directly or through its subsidiaries) supermarkets and multi-department stores throughout the United States. Founded by Bernard Kroger in 1883 in Cincin ...

retains ownership of the names themselves. In January 2007, DeLano Retail Partners took control of all but one Cala Foods stores and immediately rebranded the stores to DeLano's IGA. In late 2010, it was announced that Delano's was struggling financially and that the majority of DeLano's IGA locations would be closing. The store at the intersection of

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

and Hyde streets on San Francisco's

Nob Hill Nob Hill is a neighborhood of San Francisco, California, United States that is known for its numerous luxury hotels and historic mansions. Nob Hill has historically served as a center of San Francisco's upper class. Nob Hill is among the highes ...

was operated by Kroger and represented the last Cala Foods store until its closure on December 1, 2011. It was originally slated to close at the end of 2010, but would remain open for another year. Following concerns that the distinctive building would be torn down,

Trader Joe's Trader Joe's is an American chain of grocery stores headquartered in Monrovia, California. The chain has over 569 stores across the United States. The first Trader Joe's store was opened in 1967 by founder Joe Coulombe in Pasadena, Californi ...

instead opened a branch within it in 2012.

References

External links

The Kroger CompanyGroceteria article on QFI
{{Supermarkets of the United States Kroger Companies based in San Francisco Food and drink in the San Francisco Bay Area Defunct supermarkets of the United States Supermarkets based in California 1947 establishments in California 2011 disestablishments in California