Joseph A. Albertson; Built Giant Supermarket Chain
Joseph A. Albertson, a businessman and philanthropist who built a neighborhood grocery store into the nation’s sixth-largest supermarket chain, has died at his home here. He was 86.
Albertson died late Wednesday, Albertson’s Inc. said. The company would not disclose the cause of his death.
Albertson had quietly given millions of dollars to various causes, including nearly $35 million to the private College of Idaho in Caldwell, renamed Albertson College of Idaho in 1991.
He also donated 14 acres along the Boise River to the city in 1989 for what became Kathryn Albertson Park, named for his wife of 60 years, whom he met when both attended the college.
“It’s heartbreaking. He’s been a part of our lives here at the college ever since he and Kay went to school,” Albertson College President Robert Hendren said today. “He was a friend. He was a resource. Having access to him and his kind of tower of wisdom is the great loss.”
Albertson bought a Boise grocery store with two partners in 1939; the partnership was dissolved after World War II.
That first store introduced a number of services unheard of in markets of the day, such as a bakery, a magazine rack and homemade ice cream.
Albertson’s now is the nation’s sixth-largest retail food and drug company with 651 stores in 19 states in the West and South, a company statement said. It employs more than 70,000 people and has annual sales of more than $10 billion.
The company expressed its business philosophy and attitude toward its employees in a singing commercial popular in the 1970s and ‘80s:
“It’s Joe Albertson’s supermarket
“But the produce (meat, bakery, etc.) department is mine.”
Last fall, Forbes magazine ranked Albertson as the 80th-richest person in the country, estimating his worth at $930 million.
Albertson resigned from the company in 1989, but he and Mrs. Albertson remained on the board of directors and he owned about 16.5% of the company’s stock.
Albertson is survived by his wife and a daughter.
