15 Alpha Beta Markets in San Diego Get Lucky
Workers on Monday replaced Alpha Beta signs at 15 grocery stores in San Diego with Lucky Stores signs as a major grocery store chain completed a complicated business deal that began in 1988.
The conversion to Lucky Stores began in 1988, when Salt Lake City-based American Stores, which owned the Alpha Beta chain, purchased the rival Lucky Stores chain for $2.5 billion. The deal was held up, however, when former state Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp determined that the combination would violate state antitrust law.
On Monday, American Stores, in a deal previously cleared with the attorney general’s office, sold its Alpha Beta stock to Food 4 Less Supermarket Inc. for $251 million. Food 4 Less is owned by Claremont-based Yucaipa Cos., which also owns the Boys Markets, Viva, Market Basket and Marina Market chains.
American Stores retained the 15 Alpha Beta stores in San Diego County, which on Monday were changed over to Lucky stores. The state attorney general’s office has allowed American Stores to retain the Alpha Beta stores in San Diego County. Food 4 Less will continue to use the Alpha Beta name in other parts of the state.
The sale of the remaining 142 Alpha Beta stores to Food 4 Less restored the “competitive balance” that had been disrupted by American Stores, according to a spokesman for the attorney general’s office.
“San Diego is kind of a separate, distinct market,” said Jim Horsley, Lucky Stores’ San Diego-based regional sales manager. “We’ll now have 48 Lucky stores in San Diego County.”
Lucky plans no layoffs at the 15 stores, Horsley said. “About the only thing that shoppers should notice is lower prices,” Horsley said. “Alpha Beta tended to be a little higher-priced.”
Earlier this year, grocery store analysts suggested that American Stores would use cash obtained in the Alpha Beta sale to improve its Lucky stores.
The chain had been unwilling to make significant investments in the Lucky or Alpha Beta stores until the attorney general’s concerns were addressed.
Analysts also suggested that the sale will produce a new level of price competition for Southern California shoppers because the major chains--Vons, Lucky, Ralphs and Alpha Beta--which have been seeking to reduce their heavy debt loads, will once again seek to use lower prices to woo customer from competitors.
