Ralphs is a major supermarket chain in the Los Angeles, California area. It is the oldest such chain west of the Mississippi River. Ralphs Grocery Company is the largest supermarket division of Cincinnati, Ohio-based retail conglomerate Kroger.
In addition to Ralphs supermarkets, the Ralphs Grocery Company operates stores under the Cala, Bell Markets, Food4Less , and FoodsCo names in California as well as PriceRite stores in Nevada.
History
Ralphs Grocery Company was founded in 1873 in downtown Los Angeles by George S. Ralphs. In the twentieth century it became a grocery pioneer, offering self-service markets with checkout stands in distributed locations. In the 1980s it created a chain of warehouse stores call The Giant (unrelated to Northeastern chain Giant Food) which failed, but the concept returned with the company's merger with the Food-4-Less discount chain. Ralphs Grocery Company further merged with the Fred Meyer stores in 1998, which itself was acquired by Kroger the following year.
The company slogan is First in California.
2003-2004 strike
Ralphs Grocery Company has contracts with the United Food and Commercial Workers, the largest grocery union in the United States. In late 2003 and early 2004, Ralphs locked out its workers who were members of the UFCW in Southern California, in sympathy with competitor Vons (owned by Safeway Inc.); the UFCW had declared a strike against Vons. The issues in contract negotiations included healthcare benefits and wage structure, which the supermarkets contended were necessary to reduce their costs and make themselves competitive with discount chains such as Wal-Mart.
See also