Shopko Stores

Infobox_Company
company_name = Shopko Stores Operating Co., LLC
company_
company_type = Discount store
company_slogan = my life, my style, my store.
foundation = 1962 Green Bay, Wisconsin
location = Green Bay, Wisconsin
key_people = James Ruben, founder
Michael R. MacDonald, Chairman & CEO
Paul Jones, President & CMO
industry = Retail
num_employees = 25,000+
products = Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, electronics, market, housewares, contact lenses.
homepage = [http://www.shopko.com/ Shopko.com]

Shopko (formerly ShopKo until May 2007) is a chain of retail stores based in Ashwaubenon, Wisconsin, outside of Green Bay, behind Bay Park Square, a shopping mall featuring Shopko as one of its anchor tenants. The company employs approximately 16,000 people and has a presence in 13 states.

Shopko was founded in 1962 in Green Bay by James Ruben. From 1991 until 2005, the company was publicly held with stock traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol SKO. In December 2005, the company was acquired by an affiliate of Sun Capital Partners and reverted to private ownership. The company generates annual sales of approximately $2.2 billion. The first Shopko store is located on 216 S. Military Avenue, in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

In 1999 Shopko purchased Pamida, a regional discount chain that operated mainly in smaller communities of three to eight thousand people. Shopko operated Pamida as a separate division until 2007, when Pamida was separated from Shopko and reestablished as a separate company.

Brands

hopko

The company operates 135 stores located in 13 states including Northern California, Iowa, Idaho, Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wisconsin. These stores are placed in small to mid-sized communities. Such stores are multi-department operations.

Chicago pharmacist James Ruben moved to Green Bay and opened the first Shopco store at 216 S. Military Avenue in Green Bay, Wisconsin, in 1962. He envisioned a larger retail store with health care services combined with the retail operations. As a result, Shopco became one of the first chains to offer services such as a pharmacy and an eye care center within the store. The name was later changed to "ShopKo" by dropping the "c" and replacing it with an uppercase "K". In 2007, the logo was updated and the spelling was changed to "Shopko" with a lower case "k" at the suggestion of Columbus, Ohio based retail design firm, Chute Gerdeman Retail. Shopko Express stores will retain the older style logo until fall 2008.

Past slogans include "ShopKo discounts the price...not the quality.", "The store for you." and "Neat stuff, neat store." Their current slogan is "My life...my style...my store" and has been in use since 2006.

Payless ShoeSource

Although not a part of the Shopko organization, in 1999, Shopko signed a contract with Payless ShoeSource, leasing the chain floorspace within Shopko stores, thus replacing the previous contract with J. Baker, Inc. as the retailer in charge of the discount shoe department. This contract, which included Payless signage both inside and outside the stores, as well as visible uniform differences between Shopko and Payless employees, marked a change from the previous Shopko policy of "two companies one store". The change-over to Payless was completed by late June 2000.

Timeline

1960s

*March 1961: Green Bay Mayor Roman Denissen and Shopco Stores, led by Chicago pharmacist James Ruben and a group of investors, announce plans for a $1 million department store on Military Avenue.
* April 1962: The first ShopKo (the spelling was changed since the initial announcement) opens at 216 S. Military Ave. A grocery store shares part of the building until its closure in 2004.
* July 1966: ShopKo East opens at 1819 Main St.

1970s

* June 1970: Ruben announces plans for corporate headquarters on Ashland Avenue in Ashwaubenon.
* June 1970: ShopKo Corp. becomes ShopKo Stores, Inc.
* January 1971: ShopKo announces plans to merge with SuperValu of Minneapolis.
* January 1971: New Ashwaubenon headquarters opens.
* April 1971: Merger with SuperValu is completed.
* August 1971: Company announces plans to start putting pharmacies in its stores.
* September 1972: William Tyrrell is named the new president; Ruben left Green Bay to become group vice president and director of SuperValu Stores.
* 1977: With 21 stores, ShopKo exceeds $100 million in sales.
* 1978: Expansion of Ashland Avenue headquarters.
* 1978: ShopKo opens its first optical center.
* November 1979: New Ashwaubenon store opens a few months before the opening of Bay Park Square shopping center.

1980s

* 1981: Second expansion of Ashland Avenue headquarters.
* 1981: ShopKo opens its 30th store.
* 1984: Company begins looking for new space for corporate offices; De Pere, Green Bay and out-of-state sites are under consideration.
* May 1986: ShopKo announces it will stay headquartered in the Green Bay area.
* 1987: Construction begins on new headquarters on 46 acre site just east of Bay Park Square; the building opens in 1988.
* 1988: With 87 stores, the company exceeds $1 billion in sales.
* 1988: ShopKo announces a new east-side store will go in at East Town Mall, replacing the 1819 Main St. store. This location was later home to Copps Food Center which operated at this location from the early 1990s to August 5, 2008 and is replaced with a new store on the site of the former Marcus Cinema movie theater located next door. The former ShopKo/Copps building is expected to be replaced with a strip mall by the end of 2008 or the beginning of 2009.

1990s

* 1990: ShopKo opens its 100th store.
* June 1991: SuperValu announces ShopKo will spin off as a publicly held company.
* Summer 1991: Dale Kramer becomes the company's third president.
* October 1991: In an initial public offering, ShopKo stock is offered at $15 a share.
* September 1996: A merger is announced with Phar-Mor of Youngstown, Ohio.
* 1997: ShopKo acquires Penn-Daniels Inc., a retailer operating 18 Jacks Discount Stores.
* April 1997: Phar-Mor deal falls apart.
* April 1997: ShopKo announces it will secure independence from SuperValu by buying back the other company's 46 percent share of ShopKo stock.
* July 1997: Buy-back from SuperValu completed.
* 1998: ShopKo enters new markets formerly served by Venture Stores by buying up most of their former locations in Illinois and Iowa.
* March 1999: William Podany becomes president and chief executive officer.
* March 1999: ShopKo announces record earnings for 1998 — earning $55.6 million or $2.23 per share.
* May 1999: ShopKo announces it will buy the 147-store Pamida chain for $375 million.
* July 1999: ShopKo begins selling stock for ProVantage, a prescription benefits company that helped spur ShopKo's growth.
* September 1999: ShopKo opens its first test prototype store in Meridian, Idaho.

2000s

* March 2000: ShopKo reports record earnings of $3.57 per share in 2000, up 70 percent from the year before.
* May 2000: ShopKo announces it will sell ProVantage to Merck & Co. for about $222 million.
* January 2001: ShopKo announces it will close 23 stores and cut 2,500 jobs, including 136 at corporate headquarters.
* April 2002: Podany resigns as president and CEO; Jeffrey Girard replaces him on an interim basis.
* October 2002: Sam Duncan becomes president and CEO.
* January 2005: ShopKo opens three ShopKo Express stores, a new, smaller concept competing with the likes of Walgreens and CVS/pharmacy.
* December 2005: ShopKo is acquired by private investment group Sun Capital Partners.
* May 2006: Michael R. MacDonald becomes CEO.
* 2007: Pamida was spun-off to form a separate company, headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, still owned by the same investment group.
*May 2007: Ground breaking begins on a new convert|80000|ft|m|abbr=on.² Shopko store to anchor the Urban Edege retail/enterainment development on 2320 Lineville Road in Suamico, Wisconsin. A new Shopko logo is introduced and will appear on advertising the following Sunday. The new logo will replace the logo used since 1992 and will be easier to read. The new design will appear on 28 existing stores and the corporate headquarters by the end of July. The company also dropped the medial capital 'K' in its logo after 45 years.
*Fall 2007: The new Shopko logo appears on the outside of Bay Park Square mall, as well as the interior mall entrance.
*September 2007: Shopko announce they will start construction on two new Shopko Express stores in the Appleton, Wisconsin area which opened in July 2008
*March 2008: Shopko opens its Suamico, Wisconsin location. Shopko announces an convert|80000|sqft|m2|sing=on prototype store in Iowa. Shopko announces convert|80000|sqft|m2|sing=on store to anchor the Marlet Place in North Branch, Minnesota. Shopko announces a Shopko Express Pharmacy location for downtown Green Bay, Wisconsin to anchor the redevelopment of the Larsen Cannery site on Broadway Street, expected to open Fall 2008.

ee also

*P.M. Place Stores
*Supervalu
*Pamida

External links

* [http://www.shopko.com Shopko Stores Operating Co., LLC]
* [https://mycontacts.shopko.com mycontacts.shopko.com]