Unified Grocers, originally Unified Western Grocers, was a retailer-owned wholesale grocery

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-contro ...

that supplies independent supermarkets in the

Western United States The Western United States (also called the American West, the Far West, and the West) is the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term ''the We ...

. It was formed in 1999 by the merger of two West Coast cooperatives, one based in Oregon and one in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

: United Grocers of Oregon (founded 1915) and Certified Grocers of California (founded 1922). In 2007, it acquired Associated Grocers of

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region ...

, and shortened its name to Unified Grocers. The company has its headquarters in

Commerce, California Commerce is a city located in southeast Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 12,823 at the 2010 census, up from 12,568 at the 2000 census. It is usually referred to as the City of Commerce to distinguish it from the ...

. Unified Grocers was the largest retailer-owned wholesaler in the western United States. They served more than 3,000 retail stores and recorded annual sales over $4 billion in 2009.Unified Obtains an Additional $25 Million of Long-Term Debt.
''Benzinga.'' 12 Nov. 2009. There were over 500 co-op members and customers. In April 2017, the company announced that it had entered into a merger agreement with SuperValu, in which SuperValu would acquire Unified Grocers, at a cost of around $375 million. Unified is now a wholly owned subsidiary of SuperValu. The transaction was completed on June 23, 2017. Bob Ling who was the CEO at the time took a multimillion-dollar payout after his expansion of Haggen grocery stores was one of the most colossal failures in the history of the grocery industry.

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* Economy of the Western United States Supermarkets of the United States American companies established in 1999 Retail companies established in 1999 American companies disestablished in 2017 Retail companies disestablished in 2017 Retailers' cooperatives in the United States {{US-retail-company-stub