The Kroger Co. is an American retailer founded by Bernard Kroger in 1883 in Cincinnati, Ohio. It reported US$90.4 billion in sales for fiscal year 2012 (ending January 28, 2012). It is the country's largest grocery store chain, its second-largest general retailer by revenue, and fourth-largest retailer in the world (surpassing Germany-based Metro AG in 2012), according to Deloitte. As of 2010, Kroger operated, either directly or through its subsidiaries, 3,574 stores. 

 

Kroger's headquarters are in downtown Cincinnati. It maintains markets in most states, from Virginia to Alaska, with store formats that include supermarkets, hypermarkets, department stores, convenience stores, and mall jewelry stores. Kroger-branded grocery stores are located throughout the Midwestern and Southern United States. Kroger also is parent to several "banner" chains, such as Ralph's in California.

 

Kroger is a union company and its employees are represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW).

 

In 1883, Bernard "Barney" Kroger invested his life savings of $372 (roughly equal to $9,278.74 today) to open a grocery store in the Mount Airy neighborhood of Cincinnati. Kroger was the son of a merchant, and his slogan was simple: “Be particular. Never sell anything you would not want yourself.” Kroger tried many ways to satisfy customers. He tried to make his own products, such as bread, so that customers would not need to go to a separate bakery. In the 1930s, Kroger was the first grocery chain to monitor product quality and test foods offered to customers, and also the first to have a store surrounded on all four sides by parking lots. In 1955, Kroger acquired Henke & Pillot. Kroger re-branded that chain as Kroger in 1966. In the 1970s, Kroger became the first grocer in America to test an electronic scanner, and the first to formalize consumer research.

 

Expansion

In 1983, The Kroger Company acquired Dillon Companies grocery chain in Kansas along with its subsidiaries, King Soopers, City Market, Fry's, Gerbes, and the convenience store chain Kwik Shop. David Dillon, a fourth-generation descendant of J.S. Dillon, the founder of Dillon Companies, is now the CEO of Kroger. In the late 1990s, Kroger acquired Pay Less Food Markets, Owen's Market, JayC Food Stores, and Hilander Foods. In 1997, Kroger merged with fifth-largest grocery company Fred Meyer along with its subsidiaries, Ralphs, QFC, and Smith's. In 2001, Kroger acquired Baker's from Fleming Companies, Inc. In 2007, Kroger acquired Scott's Food & Pharmacy from SuperValu Inc. In 2011, Kroger sold its Hilander chain to Schnucks.

 

Kroger Marketplace is a chain of hypermarkets. The brand was introduced in 2004 in the Columbus, Ohio, area, which lost the Big Bear and Big Bear Plus chains in Penn Traffic's Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The Kroger Marketplace format is based on the Fry's Marketplace stores that the Arizona division of Kroger is currently operating.

 

Similar to rival chains Meijer, Sears Grand, Super Kmart, Walmart Supercenter, and Albertson's, and modeled after Kroger-owned Fred Meyer, these stores contain multiple departments. In addition to the grocery department, they contain a Fred Meyer Jewelers, Starbucks, Donatos Pizza, and an in-store bank, as well as sections for toys, appliances, home furnishings, and bed and bath, something that Big Bear once had in their stores in the Columbus area.

 

In 2005, the company began renovating many Kroger Food & Drug stores in Ohio to give out an expanded and remodeled look, converting them to the Kroger Marketplace format. In February 2006, Kroger announced plans for two new Kroger Marketplace stores to open by the end of the summer in Cincinnati suburbs Lebanon and Liberty Township. The store in Liberty Township opened in July 2006. On October 5, 2006, a new Kroger Marketplace opened in Gahanna. With the Gahanna opening, the number of Kroger Marketplace stores is six, four in the Columbus area and two in the Cincinnati area. Two more stores were planned in 2007, one in Middletown(which opened in April 2007, and the old store was razed and made part of the current parking lot) and one in Englewood. 

 

In 2011 the Elder Beerman in Centerville, Ohio, was torn down and a new marketplace has been built in its place with a fuel center and opened on December 8, replacing the 60,000 square foot store in the same shopping center. This newest marketplace is the largest Kroger store ever built to date at 147,000 square feet. Two more stores have opened in the Cincinnati area, in the Northern Kentucky suburbs of Hebron and Walton which were completed in November 2008. A Kroger Marketplace store has opened in Newport, Kentucky on December 10, 2009. Another renovated store has recently opened in Blue Ash, and two more opened in Lexington, Kentucky, in 2009.

 

Another store has been opened in Beavercreek, Ohio. A Mt. Orab, Ohio store is planned to open in the spring of 2010. Kroger opened a new 60,000 sq ft (5,600 m2) store in North Augusta, SC. The store includes a fuel center.

 

Kroger Marketplace in Frisco, Texas, opened in 2010.

 

The first Kroger Marketplace store in Texas opened October 9, 2009, in the Waterside Marketplace in Richmond, Texas. The second Kroger Marketplace store in Rosenberg, Texas opened December 4, 2009. The third opened in Frisco, Texas in early 2010. The fourth Kroger Marketplace in Willis, Texas opened August 11, 2011. The next Kroger Marketplace stores in Texas are: in Little Elm, Texas; Fort Worth's Alliance Town Center; Wylie, Texas and Mansfield. Also recently added to the list is Wylie, Texas. 

 

The first Kroger Marketplace store in Tennessee opened in Farragut, Tennessee, (a small suburb outside of Knoxville) at the end of 2008, and a second store in Thompson's Station, Tennessee, (about 20 miles (32 km) south of Nashville) in early 2009. A third location opened in Gallatin, Tennessee, on March 11, 2010. On February 11, 2010, Kroger sold 4 Brookshire's stores in Jackson, Mississippi, which were Albertsons.

 

The first Kroger Marketplace in Arkansas opened in August 2010 on Chenal Parkway in Little Rock, Arkansas.

 

The first Kroger Marketplace in Virginia opened on Midlothian Turnpike in Richmond, Virginia, on the site of the former Cloverleaf Mall on December 6. Another Marketplace is currently being constructed in Virginia Beach, Virginia, at the site of a former Super K-mart. It is expected to open in Summer 2013. 

 

The first Kroger Marketplace in Indiana opened on September 29, 2011, on Dupont Road on Fort Wayne's northwest side. This store is a rebuilt Kroger Food & Drug. A second Kroger Marketplace opened on October 4, 2012 from a rebuilt Scott's Food and Pharmacy in the Village at Coventry on the southwest side of Fort Wayne. These two stores are part of a $100 million expansion project in the Fort Wayne area.