Red Food

Infobox_Defunct_Company
fate = Merged into BI-LO
defunct = 1995
company_name = Red Food
company_
slogan = "Red Food. Only the Best Will Do, For You at Red Food." "Red Food. Only the Best." (simplified version)
foundation = 1908 Chattanooga, Tennessee
location = Chattanooga, Tennessee
industry = Retail (Grocery)
products = Bakery, dairy, deli, frozen foods, snacks, meat, pharmacy, produce, seafood, bath and body care, movie rental (very few locations), pet food, cleaning products, disposable products, tobacco products, alcoholic beverages, flowers, greeting cards and general grocery.
homepage = None

Red Food Stores, Inc. (or simply Red Food) was a supermarket chain company headquartered in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It operated stores mostly in northwest Georgia, northeast Alabama, and southeast Tennessee. Around 55 stores were operated in the same three states. [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE3DF103BF931A15751C0A962958260 Ahold to Buy U.S. Chain] , "The New York Times", February 22, 1994] According to The Chattanoogan.com, Red Food was a longtime icon in Chattanooga history. [ [http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_118201.asp Chattanooga Deserves Better Grocery Stores] , "The Chattanoogan.com", December 5, 2007]

History

Red Food started in 1908 by Frank McDonald. [cite web| url= http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_76391.asp| title= Turkey Price Trend in Chattanooga, 1900 - 2005|accessdate=2007-11-01|last =Jolley|first =Harmon|date= 2005-11-23 |publisher=The Chattanoogan.com] During World War II, for their first time, Red Food sold turkeys for forty-five cents per pound to customers for Thanksgiving. They also told customers to "invite a soldier and serve turkey this Thanksgiving." [cite web| url= http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_76391.asp| title= Turkey Price Trend in Chattanooga, 1900 - 2005|accessdate=2007-11-01|last =Jolley|first =Harmon|date= 2005-11-23 |publisher=The The Chattanoogan.com] In 1979, Promodès, a food distribution firm based in Caen, France, made a bid to buy Red Food Stores, Inc. for $23 million. By 1980, the acquisition was completed, for a total of $36 million. The Red Food purchase gave Promodès 23 supermarkets centered primarily in southern Tennessee, plus additional stores in Georgia and Alabama as well. In order to finance Promodès' expansion, which would invest more than Ffr 2 billion between 1979 and 1984, the company went public in 1979.

On April, 1989, Red Food Store's purchase of seven supermarkets in its hometown owned by Kroger Co. was halted at virtually the 11th hour by the Federal Trade Commission, which decided the merger would substantially hamper competition in the market. The FTC action came unexpectedly. [cite web| url= http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb4331/is_198904/ai_n15096295| title=FTC halts Red Food's Kroger deal. (purchase of 7 supermarkets from Kroger Co. in the Chattanooga area) |accessdate=2008-01-02] A month later, the FTC issued a complaint, challenging Red Food Stores' $6.5 million acquisition of all seven Kroger Co. grocery stores in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The commission lodged the complaint after a Federal appeals court rejected its request for an injunction blocking the transaction. [cite web| url= http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb4331/is_198905/ai_n15103581| title=FTC responds with complaint as Red Food-Kroger deal closes. (Red Food acquiring Kroger supermarkets in Chattanooga) |accessdate=2008-01-02]

In 1994, Red Food Stores, Inc. was bought by Ahold for $129 million, while Red Food stores were changed into Ahold's BI-LO stores in 1995. [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE3DF103BF931A15751C0A962958260 Ahold to Buy U.S. Chain] , "The New York Times", February 22, 1994] [ [http://www.hed.msu.edu/internationalretailing/company/Ahold/expansion.html Ahold in U.S.A.] , accessed September 10, 2006] Advertisements showed a paper bag with the BI-LO logo (currently used today) standing in front of a paper bag with the last Red Food logo on it. BI-LO's slogan during that time was "BI-LO. The name fits."

Logos

The first logo used by Red Food Stores, Inc. was similar to the second one (as seen in this article), but with a rooster in the middle of it. The last logo used was plain red with little or no curves around the inside and outside of the letters. It was introduced a year before Ahold bought the company.Fact|date=May 2008

References