The Skaggs Companies, Inc. was the predecessor to many famous United States retailing
chains
A chain is a serial assembly of connected pieces, called links, typically made of metal, with an overall character similar to that of a rope in that it is flexible and curved in compression but linear, rigid, and load-bearing in tension. A ...
, including
Safeway
Safeway, Inc. is an American supermarket chain. The chain provides grocery items, food and general merchandise and a variety of specialty departments, such as bakery, delicatessen, floral and pharmacy, as well as Starbucks coffee shops, and veh ...
,
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 ...
,
Osco Drug, and
Longs Drugs
Longs Drugs is an American chain owned by parent company CVS Health with approximately 70 drugstores throughout the state of Hawaii and formerly in the Continental US.
Before being acquired by parent company CVS Health in 2008, it was a chain of ...
. The company owned several drugstore chains, but all of them were sold. Skaggs Cos. became
American Stores
American Stores Company, Inc. 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 Compan ...
in 1979.
History
Safeway
The first company was based in
American Falls, Idaho
American Falls is a city in and the county seat of Power County, Idaho, United States. The population was 4,568 at the time of the 2020 census.
History
American Falls was a landmark waterfall on the Snake River, named after a party of Amer ...
, where in 1915
Samuel M. Skaggs founded a grocery store and operated it as Skaggs' Cash Store, which was sold to his son
Marion Barton Skaggs. It took the name "Cash Store" as it operated on only a cash basis. With the assistance of his five brothers:
Pepper Oscar Skaggs,
Aron Sylvester Skaggs,
Loronzo L. Skaggs,
Samuel Olnie Skaggs,
Levi Justin Skaggs
Levi ( ; ) was, according to the Book of Genesis, the third of the six sons of Jacob and Leah (Jacob's third son), and the founder of the Israelite Tribe of Levi (the Levites, including the Kohanim) and the great-grandfather of Aaron, Moses and ...
, Marion Skaggs grew the chain, operated as two separate businesses, Skaggs Cash Stores (Pepper Oscar Skaggs) and Skaggs United Stores (M. B. Skaggs), to 191 stores by 1920.
In 1921, Marion Barton Skaggs moved to
Portland, Oregon
Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...
, purchased a home in the
Alameda neighborhood and established four groceries in town, in part by buying the Freeman grocer and the Java Coffee Company.
By 1926 it had grown to 673 stores, when it merged with
Sam Seelig Company (in a deal orchestrated by
Charles Merrill of
Merrill Lynch
Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, doing business as Merrill, and previously branded Merrill Lynch, is an American investment management and wealth management division of Bank of America. Along with BofA Securities, the investm ...
to form Safeway). Safeway later acquired Pay and Take It Stores from
Loronzo L. Skaggs in 1928.
[Safeway Annual Report 1928, p2] Safeway is considered the main successor to Skaggs, and despite the Skaggs Companies later being bought by Albertsons, Safeway was also acquired by Albertsons, thus bringing the Skaggs history full-circle.
Payless Drugs
In 1932 L.J. Skaggs opened Payless Drug Stores in
Tacoma, Washington
Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, southwest of Bellevue, Washington, Bellevue, northeast of the state capital, Olympia ...
, which soon expanded across the western United States. Some stores were sold to his brother Samuel "L.S." Olnie Skaggs (then an executive at Safeway) along with some colleagues. L.J. Skaggs retained California Pay Less Stores, which became part of
Thrifty PayLess
Thrifty PayLess Holdings, Inc. was a pharmacy holding company that owned the Thrifty Drugs and PayLess Drug Stores chains in the western United States. The combined company was formed in April 1994 when Los Angeles–based TCH Corporation, the ...
, and which are now owned by
Rite Aid
Rite Aid Corporation is an American drugstore chain based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1962 in Scranton, Pennsylvania, by Alex Grass under the name Thrift D Discount Center. Prior to its first bankruptcy in 2023, it was the th ...
. The remaining Pay-Less stores were renamed Skaggs Drug Stores in 1948, Skaggs Drug Centers in 1965. In 1969
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 ...
supermarkets and Skaggs Drugs partnered to create combination food and drug stores, a partnership that dissolved in 1977, with assets divided.
Payless of Tacoma would exist in Pierce, Thurston and Kitsap counties as a separate company from Payless/House of Values which was formed in 1973 after Seattle based Gov Mart/Ba'zar and House of Values were merged. To separate the two companies (and confusion), the stores remained under the House of Values name before being rebranded as Value Giant. Once Payless of Tacoma declared bankruptcy in 1991, the company was merged with the existing Payless stores from the other company and the Value Giant name was removed for the existing stores.
Early photos of a Payless Drug Store under the ownership of L.J. Skaggs are currently on display at th
Albany Regional Museumin
Albany, Oregon
Albany ( ) is the county seat of Linn County, Oregon, and is the 11th most populous city in the state. Albany is located in the Willamette Valley at the confluence of the Calapooia River and the Willamette River in both Linn and Benton count ...
. The downtown location at 2nd and Broadalbin Streets was later relocated to Santiam Highway during the 1960s.
Osco Drug
Osco Drug traces its history back to 1915 by
S.M. Skaggs in
American Falls, Idaho
American Falls is a city in and the county seat of Power County, Idaho, United States. The population was 4,568 at the time of the 2020 census.
History
American Falls was a landmark waterfall on the Snake River, named after a party of Amer ...
as a
cash and carry
Cash and carry (or inspect and pay) is a type of operation within the wholesale sector.
Overview
The main features of cash and carry are summarized best by the following definitions:
*Cash and carry is a form of trade in which goods are sold ...
store. His son
Lorenzo L. Skaggs, who had been involved in the predecessor to Safeway, founded the
Pay-Less chain in 1937 in
Rochester, Minnesota
Rochester is a city in Olmsted County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. It is located along rolling bluffs on the Zumbro River's south fork in Southeast Minnesota. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a popul ...
. In 1942, these chains merged with others and formed the Owners Service Company, shortened to Osco. In 1961,
The Jewel Companies, Inc. acquired Osco Drug Stores. In 1984,
American Stores
American Stores Company, Inc. 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 Compan ...
bought
Jewel, which had owned Osco Drug since 1961. American Stores was purchased in 1999 by
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 ...
. In 2006, Albertsons was broken up and many standalone Osco stores were purchased by
CVS Pharmacy #REDIRECT CVS Pharmacy {{R from other capitalisation
Company now has a new name to go along with it's anti-tobacco changes. New name is CVS Health ...
. The Osco name remains in place as the drug store component of Jewel-Osco and Shaw's-Osco stores.
Skaggs Drug Centers and American Stores
American Stores
American Stores Company, Inc. 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 Compan ...
, which owned
Acme Markets
Acme Markets Inc. is a supermarket chain operating 159 stores throughout Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, the Hudson Valley of New York, and Pennsylvania and, as of 1998, is a subsidiary of Albertsons, and part of its presence in t ...
and
Alpha Beta
Alpha Beta was a chain of supermarkets 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 acquired in 1979 by Skaggs Drug Centers, which adopted the American Stores Company name, and relocated the company headquarters to Salt Lake City, Utah.
American Stores was by far the larger organization, with 758 supermarkets, 139 drugstores, 53 restaurants, and 9 general merchandise stores in nine states when compared to the 241 Skaggs stores. Although the resulting entity bore the American Stores Company name, it was controlled by Skaggs management headed by Leonard S. Skaggs Jr. more familiarly known as Sam Skaggs. Stores in several markets having both an
Alpha Beta
Alpha Beta was a chain of supermarkets 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 ...
supermarket and a Skaggs Drug Center drugstore presence were combined (or expanded) to combination food and drug stores and re-branded ''Skaggs-Alpha Beta''.
*In 1977, Skaggs Companies, Inc. had amicably dissolved a partnership started in 1969 with the Albertsons supermarket chain which pioneered the first combination food-drug with stores named ''Skaggs-Albertsons''.
To consolidate the names of some of its subsidiaries under one title with nationwide recognition, American Stores renamed some of its Skaggs Alpha Beta stores to
Jewel-Osco
Jewel-Osco is a regional supermarket chain in the Chicago metropolitan area, headquartered in Itasca, a western suburb. In 2025, the company had 189 stores across northern, central, and western Illinois; eastern Iowa; and portions of northwest ...
in mid-September 1991. American replaced the Skaggs-Alpha Beta name with that of Jewel-Osco on all 76 stores in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Arkansas. One year later, Albertsons would buy 74 Jewel-Osco stores (some only months before named Skaggs-Alpha Beta) in Oklahoma, Florida, Arkansas, and Texas from American Stores. American Stores and its subsidiaries would be acquired by Albertsons in 1999.
Skaggs Foundation
L.J. Skaggs along with his wife
Mary Skaggs
Mary may refer to:
People
* Mary (name), a female given name (includes a list of people with the name)
Religion
* New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below
* Mary, mother of Jesus, also called the Blesse ...
founded the Skaggs Foundation.
See also
*
Skaggs family
The Skaggs Family, starting from a small frontier town in southern Idaho, came to have an important impact on merchandising across much of the United States. During most of the 20th century, the Skaggs name was prominent on hundreds of stores th ...
References
The Skaggs Saga
{{Supermarkets of the United States
Retail companies established in 1915
Defunct supermarkets of the United States
Defunct pharmacies of the United States
Skaggs family
Retail companies disestablished in 1991
1915 establishments in Idaho
Health care companies based in Utah
Safeway Inc.