Cub Foods

Cub Foods, Inc.

Type	Subsidiary of SuperValu Inc.
Industry	Retail, Grocery products = Bakery, dairy, deli, frozen foods, grocery, meat, pharmacy, produce, seafood, snacks, liquor
Founded	1968 in Minneapolis/St. Paul
Headquarters	Stillwater, Minnesota
Number of locations	73
Parent	SuperValu
Website	cub.com

Cub Foods is a supermarket chain with seventy-three stores in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois.^[1] The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Eden Prairie, Minnesota-based SuperValu. The store was famous for being “no frills; sack your own groceries ...”

History

Beginnings

Cub Foods was founded by Minnesota-based Hooleys Supermarkets in 1968 in the riverside city of Stillwater by brothers, Charles and Jack Hooley, and brother-in-law Robert Thueson. The name “CUB” originally stood for Consumers United for Buying, and Cub Foods was one of the first total discount food stores in the United States.^[1] The chain was bought by Minnesota-based SuperValu in 1980 with five stores in the Twin Cities. After the purchase, the chain expanded to 83 stores, in three states. Until 1999, WinCo Foods operated several Cub Foods stores. Cub Foods also operated eight stores in Colorado until 2003 when they sold most of their stores to Kroger. The chain also had locations in parts of the Southern United States, namely in the Atlanta and Nashville areas in the 1990s.

Cub Foods operated two stores in Columbus, Ohio: 3600 Soldano Boulevard (W. Broad & Wilson Road) and Columbus Square (SR 161 and Forest Hills Boulevard). On May 23, 1997, both stores and its employees were acquired by Kroger. The Kroger at Columbus Square closed in July, 2011. ^[2][3]

Cub Foods also had a joint venture with a local grocer in the Dayton, Ohio, market, which operated three stores under the Cub Foods banner. SuperValu sold off its share of the venture in 1995, although the three stores continue to use the Cub Foods name to this day under a franchise agreement with SuperValu.

Cub Foods is credited with many innovations, such as the first grocery check out conveyor belt system.

Effects from Albertsons merger

As part of SuperValu's acquisition of Albertsons, including its Chicago-based Jewel-Osco stores, SuperValu divested its Chicago-area Cub Foods locations to an investment group headed by Cerberus Capital Management, to avoid market concentration issues. Since Cerberus took control, four locations (Algonquin, Bedford Park, 87th Street in Chicago, and Naperville) closed, and Cerberus then announced that it was selling the remaining Illinois stores to other operators.^[4] The last of the Chicago area Cub Foods stores closed on December 10, 2006. A majority of them were sold to Central Grocers Cooperative and are operated as Strack and Van Til and Ultra Foods by a wholly owned unit of the cooperative, and as Garden Fresh Markets by one of its members;^[5] others were sold to Grand Mart International Foods. However, only four of the eight stores sold to Grand Mart ever opened under that company's ownership, and all were closed after less than five months of operation.

As of June 2009, the only remaining Cub Foods stores in Illinois which are still owned by SuperValu are one store in Peoria (a second store in Midtown Plaza in Peoria closed in March 2009 after just six-and-a-half years of operation) and one store in Freeport.

On October 9, 2010, the Cub Foods in Peoria, still owned and operated by SuperValu, changed its name to Shop 'n Save. This made the Freeport store the only remaining SuperValu-owned store in Illinois to continue to operate as a Cub Foods location.

Three Springfield, Illinois stores independently owned by Niemann Foods (two of which are former Jewel-Osco stores acquired from the Cerberus-led group) have a franchise to use the Cub Foods name as part of the stores' branding. These stores also carry selected Cub Foods-branded products under the same agreement.

Former slogans

(Incomplete List)

• "The Low Price Leader"
• "Great Food, Great Prices"
• "Save More, Get More"
• "Where the Great Taste of Food Costs Less"
• "I ♥ My Cub" (Made a brief return as a promotion for CUB's 40th birthday)
• "The Store Next door" ^[4]
• "Bring more to your table"
• "Your Holiday List For Less" (2009 Holiday slogan for all Supervalu stores)
• "The People You Trust, The Store You Know" (Cub Pharmacy slogan 2006-2009)
• "Helping hands are just around the corner" Cub Pharmacy slogan (2009-April 2010)
• "Good Things Are Just Around The Corner..."
• "Plenty Fresh For Plenty Less." Current Cub Foods slogan.

See also

• WinCo Foods
• Jewel-Osco

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "SuperValu:Cub Foods Corporate Banner". http://www.supervalu.com/sv-webapp/retail/banners/cub.jsp. 
2. ^ http://www.thisweeknews.com/live/content/northland/stories/2011/05/11/krogers-columbus-square-store-to-close-county-offices-may-fill-gap.html
3. ^ http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/business/2011/05/04/kroger-to-close-columbus-square-location.html
4. ^ ^{a b} Chicago Tribune
5. ^ Holecek, ANDREA (2007). "Four Sterk's stores changing hands". NWITimes. http://www.nwitimes.com/articles/2007/02/17/business/business/doce3aee02516d00ef7862572850003f588.txt. 

External links

• Official Cub Foods site
• SuperValu Cub Foods Corporate Site