DOMINICK'S

'Dominick's' is a grocery store chain with chains mainly in the Chicago, Illinois area. Dominick's distribution center is located in Northlake while their management offices are located in Oak Brook.

Contents

History

Founding

Expansion

1990s: Takeovers

Omni Superstore

Brands

Lifestyle Branding

Banking

References

External links

History

Founding

Dominick DiMatteo founded the chain in 1918. It was started as a regular neighborhood store, with fresh foods. Employees and customers were even on a first-name basis with each other. The second Dominick's opened in 1934. In 1950 the DiMatteos opened their first supermarket, a 14,000 square foot store.^[1]

Expansion

By 1968 the chain had reached 19 stores. The family elected to sell their store to the Cleveland company, Fisher Foods. The DiMatteos continued to operate the chain under the financial backing of Fisher Foods. By the 1980's the family became unhappy with the agreement and bought back the chain for $100 million.¹ The DiMatteos took no time to continue expansion and acquired Kohl and Eagle stores.

1990s: Takeovers

In 1993, Dominick DiMatteo died. According to the local press, his daughters and son did not have the same passion for the supermarket business.There was corporate infighting that also contributed to the family selling the chain. It took three years before the company was sold to a Los-Angeles-based grocery investment firm headed by Yucaipa Co.^[2] Starting in 1996, Dominick's "Fresh Stores" were developed by then president Bob Mariano, and stores starting having various new services, such as carry-out food, specialty bakeries, delis, floral shops, and in-store dining. The stores were a hit and made higher profits than traditional supermarkets.
In 1998, the chain's then 116 stores were acquired by Safeway Inc. Safeway soon began to push Safeway private-label products and eliminated local known brands. According to Jim Hertel of grocery consultancy Willard Bishop Consulting Ltd., "Dominick’s focused on purchasing produce and meat on quality first, price second. Safeway did just the opposite."^[3] Dominick's lost market share and profits following the Safeway takeover. Between 2002 and 2007, Dominick's market share in the Chicago region declined from 24.4 percent to 14.5 percent. Jewel-Osco's 40.5 percent is the market's leader.^[4] During labor negotiations in 2003, Safeway unsuccessfully attempted to sell Dominick's,^[5] and reported Dominick's financial information as a discontinued operation,^[6] but, more recently, Safeway announced that it was retaining the chain.^[7]
After closing more than 20 stores since its acquisition, Safeway announced in February 2007 that it would close another 14 stores in the Chicago area and convert 20 existing stores to the lifestyle format.^[8] After the store closings, Dominick's operates 83 locations.

Omni Superstore

Main articles: Omni Superstore

In 1987, the chain opened Omni Superstore locations, which were "warehouse-style" supermarkets to stave off Cub Foods supermarkets. Besides traditional food items, these stores featured non-food items, movie rentals stores, and bulk items. The stores design was stark in comparison to Dominick's and featured cost-cutting techniques.
These stores began to lose money due to lack of loss prevention and throwaway inventorying. Around 1996 then-owner Yucaipa decided to convert them to the Dominick's "Fresh Store" concept.
After Dominick's was acquired by Safeway some locations were closed. Crestwood, McHenry and Clybourn Avenue Dominick's in Chicago are the only remaining Omni Superstore buildings now occupied by Dominick's.

Brands

Dominick's private label brands vary between those branded for Safeway and ones branded Dominick's. Safeway's most notable private label is 'Safeway Select'. In 2006 Safeway released a private brand of organics named "O Organics".

Lifestyle Branding

On April 18, 2005, Safeway, Dominick's parent company, began a 100 million dollar brand re-positioning campaign labeled "Ingredients for life". Although the campaign is used in the Chicago area, the "Ingredients for Life" slogan is not positioned with the store's logo like it is for Safeway's other divisions (i.e. at the end of commercials and on billboards only Dominick's logo is flashed, not a logo combined with the slogan, as used in Safeway's other divisions). Under this campaign many stores will be drastically remodeled to the new format. Lifestyle stores feature more upscale trends than Dominick's last re-branding, "Fresh Stores." Usually Lifestyle stores feature an olive bar, carving station, Starbucks, and a sushi bar. Architectural changes include hardwood flooring and new direct lighting schemes that tend to be less abrasive. While Safeway's logo was redesigned under the campaign, present Lifestyle stores feature the traditional Dominick's logo. The first Dominick's to be branded a Lifestyle store was in Northfield.²

Banking

Realizing the ease of in-store banking, Dominick's formed an agreement with First Chicago NBD Corp., the first bank opened in 1995. Today many Dominick's feature in-store bank locations and ATMs by First Chicago successor, Chase.¹

References

1. Dominick's Finer Foods, LLC
2. A taste of Calif. lifestyle in Dominick's Chicago stores Mike Duff
3. Safeway's mistakes offer lesson for new Jewel owner
4. Roundy's joins Chicago grocery fray
5. Talk of Safeway sale of Dominick's gets louder
6. Safeway Inc., Form 10Q
7. Safeway has no intention to sell Dominick's chain
8. Dominick's to close 14 local stores
Dominick's to close 14 area stores by April

External links

★ Dominick's