The Save Mart Companies is an American grocery store operator founded and headquartered in Modesto, California. It owns and operates stores under the Save Mart, Lucky, and FoodMaxx brands. The stores are located in northern and central California and northern Nevada. Private equity firm Kingswood Capital Management owns the company.
Save Mart stores are full-service grocery stores with a broad product offering, including fresh produce, bakery goods, deli foods and ethnic foods. In Lodi and Stockton, an unrelated Save Mart chain operated and so stores were branded under the S-Mart Foods name. The unrelated chain has since folded and the stores in Lodi and Stockton are now under the Save Mart banner.
1984 – Save Mart partners with two other retailers to launch Mid-Valley Dairy, producer of Sunnyside Farms products. SMART Refrigerated Transport opens in Turlock, California.
1985 – Bob Piccinini purchases Save Mart Supermarkets and becomes CEO.
1986 – Opens its first two FoodMaxx stores in Bakersfield, California in partnership with the Fleming Company.
1988 – Partners with two other retailers to open Sunnyside Farms Dairy product plant in Turlock.
1991 – Helps found and becomes a voting partner in Super Store Industries (SSI).
1997 – Acquires ten Lucky stores in California.
2006 – Acquires Albertsons stores in the Sacramento, California area, San Francisco Bay Area, Central Valley and northern Nevada and converts them to Lucky and Save Mart stores in 2007. The acquisition marks the company's first foray outside of its home state of California.
2012 – Rebrands Monterey Bay Save Mart locations into Lucky stores.
2022 – The company is acquired by private equity firm Kingswood Capital Management.[3]
Lucky is a chain of full-service grocery stores with a broad product offering, including fresh produce, bakery goods, deli foods, and ethnic foods. The chain operates in and around the San Francisco Bay Area under its own banner and its newer banner concept, Lucky California. Lucky is a revival of the original chain after Save Mart acquired the northern California Albertsons stores from Cerberus Capital Management in 2006, which included the rights to use the Lucky name.
FoodMaxx is Save Mart's warehouse-style grocery chain. It began in 1986, when Save Mart's then-CEO Bob Piccinini saw the potential of the no-frillsgrocery store concept which offered the same products at a fraction of the price. Piccinini opened two new Food 4 Less stores in the Fresno area.[4]
After the success of the two new Food 4 Less stores, the first FoodMaxx in Fresno opened in 1989. By 2000, 15 stores had opened. As of 2021, There are currently 51 store locations in California and 2 in Nevada.[5]
Super Store Industries (Lathrop) also produces and packages bottled beverages, cultured dairy products, and frozen dairy products for several brands, including Sunnyside Farms yogurt, Stater Brothers ice cream, and Minute Maid orange juice. SSI owns and operates Sunnyside Farms (Fairfield) and Sunnyside Farms Dairy (Turlock).[6]
Yosemite Wholesale (Merced) is a dry and packaged good warehouse servicing all of the company's stores.
Save Mart Supermarkets Distribution Center (Roseville) services all of the company's stores.
SMART Refrigerated Transport (Lathrop) is a trucking firm that transports dry groceries, frozen foods, ice, and novelties to all of Save Mart Supermarkets’ stores. The company also works as an outside contractor hauling products for other retailers.
In a 2013 settlement with 35 California district attorneys, the company agreed to pay $2.55 million in civil penalties, costs and expenses for violating state law on storage, handling and disposal of hazardous materials, including bleaches, batteries, electronic devices, ignitible liquids, aerosol products and cleaning products.[19][20]
In 2015 the company agreed to pay $277,319 in back pay and damages to distribution center workers in Vacaville (now closed) and Roseville. A U.S. Department of Labor investigation found the company failed to include bonuses in the employee rate of pay when computing overtime.[21][22]
US$4.6 billion (2019)[1]
12,000 (2023)
