Buttrey Food & Drug
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Buttrey Food & Drug | |
 |
|
| Type | Supermarket |
|---|---|
| Founded | Unknown |
| Headquarters | Great Falls, Montana |
| Industry | Retail |
| Products | Bakery, dairy, deli, frozen foods, general grocery, meat, pharmacy, produce, seafood, snacks, liquor |
| Website | None |
Buttrey Food & Drug was a chain of grocery stores founded in Great Falls, Montana.
Contents |
[edit] History
Buttrey was the market leader in Montana, serving some of the state's smallest towns. Buttrey first ventured outside Montana in 1962, when they built a 40,000 square foot "Superstore" in Boise, Idaho, in retaliation for Albertsons breaking the "gentlemens agreement" between the two companies that Albertson's and Buttrey's would stay out of each other's territories. [citation needed] That Boise store was a resounding success, and for many years the Hillcrest Plaza store (#37) was Buttrey's highest grossing store.[citation needed]
[edit] Jewel Companies
Buttrey's was acquired by Jewel Companies of Chicago in 1966, and many of the stores were converted to Jewel's combination store format and bannered as Buttrey-Osco, with common checkout stands but separate store management, all under one roof. Soon Jewel Companies financed a far-flung expansion plan. At its peak in the early 1980s, Buttrey operated stores in Montana, North Dakota, western Minnesota, Wyoming, eastern Washington, eastern Oregon, Utah, and Idaho, approximately 60 stores spread thinly over a 2,000-mile-wide territory.
[edit] American Stores
When Jewel was acquired by American Stores in 1984, the Buttrey stores were renamed Buttrey Food and Drug, and the food and drug management functions were merged with American's Utah "Skaggs-Alpha Beta" stores. American put Buttrey and Philadelphia-based supermarket chain Acme on the market soon after acquiring Jewel, to raise money to pay down American's staggering debt load from the Jewel acquisition. Neither chain received an acceptable offer, so American continued to operate them, but did not invest heavily in remodeling or new construction.
Buttrey retreated from several markets, closing the Skaggs Alpha-Beta stores in Utah, and all its stores in the Fargo-Moorhead market, then Boise and Pocatello, Idaho, then Idaho Falls and Twin Falls, Idaho, and finally Tri-Cities, Yakima, Moses Lake and Wenatchee, Washington. By the early 90s, Buttrey operated 34 stores in its core market in Montana, plus 8 in Wyoming and Williston and Dickinson, North Dakota.
[edit] Albertsons
Buttrey was finally spun off to its management in the early 1990s. The company was acquired by Albertsons in 1998, and most Buttrey locations were converted into Albertsons stores; 7 were sold to Fred Meyer to address anti-trust concerns and were converted to Smith's Food and Drug stores. 2 were sold to Supervalu and converted to Save-A-Lot stores.
