Red Food Stores, Inc. (or simply Red Food) was a supermarket chain company headquartered in
Chattanooga, Tennessee
Chattanooga ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. Located along the Tennessee River bordering Georgia, it also extends into Marion County on its western end. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, ...
. It operated stores mostly in northwest
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
, northeast
Alabama
(We dare defend our rights)
, anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama"
, image_map = Alabama in United States.svg
, seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery
, LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville
, LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...
, and southeast
Tennessee
Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...
. Around 55 stores were operated in the same three states.
[ Ahold to Buy U.S. Chain](_blank)
''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', February 22, 1994 According to
The Chattanoogan
''The Chattanoogan'' and its website Chattanoogan.com is an online media outlet that concentrates on news from Chattanooga, Tennessee. It is published by John Wilson, previously a staff writer for the ''Chattanooga Free Press
The ''Chattanooga ...
, Red Food was a longtime icon in Chattanooga history.
History
Red Food was started in 1908 by Frank McDonald.
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, for the first time, Red Food sold turkeys for forty-five cents per pound to customers for
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden and ...
. They also told customers to "invite a soldier and serve turkey this Thanksgiving."
In 1979,
Promodès, a food distribution firm based in
Caen
Caen (, ; nrf, Kaem) is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the department of Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inhabitants (), while its functional urban area has 470,000,[France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...]
, made a bid to buy Red Food Stores, Inc. for $23 million. By 1980, the acquisition was completed for a total of $36 million. The Red Food purchase gave Promodès 23 supermarkets centered primarily in southern Tennessee, plus additional stores in Georgia and Alabama. In order to finance Promodès' expansion, which would invest more than Ffr 2 billion between 1979 and 1984, the company went public in 1979.
In April 1989, Red Food Store's purchase of seven supermarkets in its hometown owned by
Kroger Co. was halted at virtually the 11th hour by the
Federal Trade Commission
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil (non-criminal) antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection. The FTC shares jurisdiction ov ...
, which decided the merger would substantially hamper competition in the market. The FTC action came unexpectedly. A month later, the FTC issued a complaint, challenging Red Food Stores' $6.5 million acquisition of all seven Kroger Co. grocery stores in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The commission lodged the complaint after a Federal appeals court rejected its request for an injunction blocking the transaction.
In 1994, Red Food Stores, Inc. was bought by
Ahold
Koninklijke Ahold N.V. was a Dutch multinational retail company based in Zaandam, Netherlands. It merged with Belgium-based Delhaize Group in 2016 to form Ahold Delhaize.
History
Growth in the Netherlands
The company started in 1887, when Al ...
for $129 million, while Red Food stores were changed into Ahold's
BI-LO stores in 1995.
In July 2015,
Southeastern Grocers
Southeastern Grocers (formerly Bi-Lo Holdings) is a supermarket portfolio headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida. The portfolio was created by Lone Star Funds in September 2013 as the new parent company for Harveys, Winn-Dixie, and Fresco y MÃ ...
, the current owner of BI-LO, announced the sale of its 21 BI-LO stores in the Chattanooga market and eight stores in Northern
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
to
K-VA-T Food Stores, which would rebrand the stores under its Food City banner. This sale ended BI-LO's presence in the Tennessee market.
Logos
The first logo used by Red Food Stores, Inc. was similar to the second one (as seen in this article), but with a rooster in the middle of it. The last logo used was plain red with little or no curves around the inside and outside of the letters. It was introduced a year before Ahold bought the company.
References
{{Supermarkets of the United States
Retail companies established in 1908
Defunct supermarkets of the United States
1908 establishments in Tennessee