| Type | Private/employee-owned |
|---|---|
| Industry | Retail grocer |
| Founded | 1967 |
| Headquarters | Boise, Idaho |
| Number of locations | 79 |
| Key people | William D. Long, Chairman Steven Goddard, President/CEO Richard Charrier, COO |
| Products | Bakery, dairy, deli, frozen foods, general grocery, meat, produce, seafood, snacks, liquor, tobacco, bulk foods, pizza |
| Revenue | US$3 billion (2007) [1] |
| Employees | 13,700 (2011) [1] |
| Website | www.wincofoods.com |
WinCo Foods is an employee-owned supermarket business headquartered in Boise, Idaho. The company's name was decided by the employees both in the stores and the distribution centers in a contest to rename the company, settling on "WinCo," for the five states in which the company operates its seventy stores: Washington, Idaho, Nevada, California and Oregon, but the first suggestion won in a vote.[2]
In 1967 Ralph Ward and Bud Williams opened a discount warehouse grocery store under the name Waremart in Boise, Idaho. WinCo operated stores under the names Waremart and Cub Foods before changing its name to WinCo Foods in 1999 due to the naming rights on Cub food running out and the association with other chain names like Kmart and Wal-Mart. However, one Waremart Foods store still exists in Independence, Oregon. When the company renamed all Waremart and Cub stores to WinCo, they began replacing smaller stores with bigger stores ranging from 70,000 to 90,000 square feet (8,400 m2). The chain has been employee-owned since 1985, when the WinCo Foods Employee Stock Ownership Trust (Employee Pension Plan) purchased a majority interest of WinCo from the Ward family. WinCo operates four distribution centers in Woodburn, Oregon, Myrtle Creek, Oregon, Modesto, California and Boise, Idaho.
WinCo expanded to Utah on October 19, 2009, with the opening of its 68th and 69th stores in West Valley City and Midvale. On the same day, it opened a store in Hemet, California.[3] Another store opened in Roy, Utah, on June 28, 2010[4] bringing the total number of stores expanded to Utah to five.[5] WinCo's entry into Utah has marked a return to state as the chain operated Waremart Foods locations prior to company's name change to WinCo.[6]
In January 2011, WinCo was reportedly scouting locations and signing leases in the Phoenix, Arizona, area.[7]