Dominick's
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| Dominick's | |
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| Type | Grocery store |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1918 (Chicago, Illinois) |
| Headquarters | Oak Brook, Illinois |
| Industry | Retail (Grocery) |
| Products | Bakery, dairy, deli, frozen foods, general grocery, meat, pharmacy, produce, seafood, snacks, liquor |
| Website | www.dominicks.com |
Dominick's is a grocery store chain with chains mainly in the Chicago, Illinois area. Dominick's distribution center is located in Northlake while their management offices are located in Oak Brook.
Contents |
[edit] History
[edit] Founding
Dominick Di Matteo founded the chain in 1918. It was started as a regular neighborhood store, with fresh foods. Employees and customers were even on a first-name basis with each other. The second Dominick's opened in 1934. In 1950 the Di Matteos opened their first Supermarket, a 14,000 square foot store.[1]
[edit] Expansion
By 1968 the chain had reached 19 stores. The family elected to sell their store to the Cleveland company, Fisher Foods. The Di Matteos continued to operate the chain under the financial backing of Fisher Foods. By the 1980's the family became unhappy with the agreement and bought back the chain for $100 million dollars.[1] The Di Matteos took no time to continue expansion and acquired Kohl and Eagle stores.
[edit] 1990's: Takeovers
In 1993, Dominick Di Matteo died. According to the local press, his daughters and son did not have the same passion for the supermarket business. It took three years before the company was sold to a Los-Angeles-based grocery investment firm headed by Yucaipa Co.[2] Starting in 1996, Dominick's "Fresh Stores" were developed, and stores starting having various new services, such as carry-out food, specialty bakeries, delis, floral shops, and in-store dining. The stores were a hit and made higher profits than traditional supermarkets.
In 1998 the chain's then 116 stores were acquired by Safeway Inc. Safeway soon began to push Safeway private-label and pushing out local known brand out of the shelves. According to Jim Hertel of grocery consultancy Willard Bishop Consulting Ltd., "Dominick’s focused on purchasing produce and meat on quality first, price second. Safeway did just the opposite".[3][4] Between 2002 and 2007, Dominick's market share in the Chicago region declined from 24.4 percent to 14.5 percent. Jewel-Osco's 40.5 percent is the market's leader.[5] After the store closings, Dominick's would operate 83 locations.
The most recent info February 13, 2007 from the Chicago Tribune has Jewel at 44% share and Dominick's at 15% [6]
[edit] Omni Superstore
In 1987, the chain opened Omni Superstore locations, which were "warehouse-style" supermarkets to stave off Cub Foods supermarkets. Besides traditional food items, these stores featured non-food items, movie rentals stores, and bulk items. The stores design was stark in comparison to Dominick's and featured cost-cutting techniques.
These stores began to lose money due to lack of loss prevention and throwaway inventoring.Around 1996 then-owner Yucaipa decided to convert them to the Dominick's "Fresh Store" concept.
After Dominick's was acquired by Safeway some locations were closed. Crestwood, Round Lake Beach, McHenry and Clybourn Avenue Dominick's in Chicago are the only remaining Omni Superstore buildings now occupied by Dominick's.
[edit] Brands
Dominick's private label brands vary between those branded for Safeway and ones branded Dominick's. Safeway's most notable private label is Safeway Select. In 2006 Safeway released a private brand of organics named "O Organics".
[edit] Lifestyle Branding
On April 18, 2005, Safeway, Dominick's parent company, began a 100 million dollar brand re-positioning campaign labeled "Ingredients for life". Although the campaign is used in the Chicago area, the "Ingredients for Life" slogan is not positioned with the store's logo like it is for Safeway's other divisions (i.e. at the end of commercials and on billboards only Dominick's logo is flashed, not a logo combined with the slogan, as used in Safeway's other divisions). Under this campaign many stores will be drastically remodeled to the new format. Lifestyle stores feature more upscale trends than Dominick's last re-branding, "Fresh Stores". Usually Lifestyle stores feature an olive bar, carving station, Starbucks, and a sushi bar. Architectural changes include hardwood flooring and new direct lighting schemes that tend to be less abrasive. While Safeway's logo was redesigned under the campaign, present Lifestyle stores feature the traditional Dominick's logo. The first Dominick's to be branded a Lifestyle store was in Northfield.[7]
[edit] Banking
Realizing the ease of in-store banking, Dominick's formed an agreement with First Chicago NBD Corp., the first bank opened in 1995. Today many Dominick's feature in-store bank locations and ATMs by First Chicago successor, Chase.[1]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c http://www.answers.com/topic/dominick-s-finer-foods-inc Dominick's Finer Foods - Answers.com
- ^ A taste of Calif. lifestyle in Dominick's Chicago stores
- ^ [http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=18836 Safeway's firing of seasoned veterans in corporate levels across the board made it so that Safeway kept phasing out chicagoan favorites,the products they had been accustomed to were no longer offered and left.A lesson learned by Jewel Inc.Dominick's lost market share and profits following the Safeway takeover. After closing more than 20 stores since its acquisition, Safeway announced in February 2007 that it would close another 14 stores in Chicagoland and convert 20 existing stores to the lifestyle format.<ref>[http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=23729 Dominick's to close 14 local stores], ''Crain's Chicago Business'', February 2, 2007.</li> <li id="_note-2">'''[[#_ref-2|^]]''' [http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0702030033feb03,1,1776029.story?coll=chi-news-hed Dominick's to close 14 area stores by April], ''Chicago Tribune'', February 3, 2007.</li> <li id="_note-3">'''[[#_ref-3|^]]''' [http://www.suntimes.com/business/241207,CST-FIN-dom03.article Dominick's to shut 14 outlets], ''Chicago Sun-Times'', February 3, 2007.</li> <li id="_note-4">'''[[#_ref-4|^]]''' [[http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0702130239feb13,1,6035879.story?coll=chi-news]] business section Chicago Tribune on data of February 13, 2007</li> <li id="_note-5">'''[[#_ref-5|^]]''' {{cite web|title=A taste of Calif. lifestyle in Dominick's stores|url=http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FNP/is_6_44/ai_n13619837|author=Duff,Mike|date=[[2005-03-25]]|accessdate=2007-01-02|publisher=[http://www.retailingtoday.com DSN Retailing]}}</li></ol></ref>
[edit] External links
Corporate Directors: Steven Burd | Paul Hazen | Janet E. Grove | Mohan Gyani | Robert I. MacDonnell | Douglas F. Mackenzie | Rebecca A. Stirn | William Y. Tauscher | Raymond G. Viault Chains: Carrs | Dominick's | Genuardi's | Pak 'n' Save | Pavilions | Randall's | Safeway Food & Drug | Simon David | Tom Thumb | Vons Website: Safeway
