Schnucks
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Schnucks (originally "Schnuck's") is the 10th-largest privately held grocery store chain in the United States. Based in St. Louis, Missouri, the company was started in 1939 with the opening of a 1,000-square-foot store in north St. Louis and now operates over 100 stores.
[edit] History
Edwin and Anna Schnuck and sons Donald and Edward Schnuck founded Schnuck Markets, Inc., in St. Louis. In 1946, the first large scale retail store was opened. It was 2,700 square feet. By 1952, the first store was opened in Brentwood, a St. Louis suburb. The Schnucks symbol of a soldier was introduced in an advertising campaign in 1968. Schnucks continued to grow and acquire stores throughout Illinois, Indiana, Tennessee, Mississippi, Iowa, and Wisconsin. Schnucks underwent a major expansion in 1995 when it purchased from Loblaws the National Supermarkets chain, also based in St. Louis. (A previous merger in the 1970s had seen Schnucks swallow up the Bettendorf's chain of grocery stores -- temporarily forming the "Schnucks-Bettendorf's" chain until the latter half of the combined name was dropped a couple of years later -- just as Bettendorf's had swallowed up the Rapps chain of stores to form "Bettendorf-Rapps" in the 1960s.)
Part of the Schnucks growth to dominance in the St. Louis grocery market also has to do with the abandonment of the St. Louis area by the A&P chain, also in the '70s, and the Kroger chain in 1986.
[edit] Leadership
In 2006, Craig Schnuck announced he would become chairman of the executive committee while his brother Scott Schnuck assumes the role as chairman and CEO. Todd Schnuck is the current president.
