Not many Utahns ever knew Joseph A. Albertson personally, but supermarkets carrying his name have been a common neighborhood sight for decades. His rise from the owner of a single small store in Boise, Idaho, to the leader of one of the biggest grocery chains in the country is an inspiring saga of free enterprise and success from humble beginnings.
Albertson, who died this week in Boise at age 86, left behind a business empire that employs more than 70,000 people and sells groceries and other products from its 651 stores to shoppers in 19 states. The company is now the sixth largest retail food and drug outfit in the United States.Young Joe Albertson was born in Oklahoma, but his family moved to Idaho when he was a small child. Shortly after his graduation from high school, he went to work as a clerk at a local Safeway store. He eventually worked worked his way up to district manager in Ogden.
In 1939, as the Great Depression was ending, he took $5,000 he had managed to save and a loan from his wife's aunt, opened a small grocery store in Boise in partnership with Tom Cuthbert and former Safeway manager L.S. Skaggs. The market featured such innovations as an in-store bakery, a magazine rack and homemade ice cream cones - all rare items then for a grocery store.
Success was immediate and in 1944, Albertson bought out his partners and opened more and more stores, quickly expanding into several states. It was the classic story of the American dream - small town boy makes good - played out in reality. He retired as president in 1976 and resigned from the company in 1989.
Financial success is one thing. The use of wealth is quite another and Joe Albertson scored high on both counts. He quietly gave millions of dollars to various causes over the years, including $35 million to the little private College of Idaho in Caldwell where he met his wife while they were both students. He later donated some 14 acres along the Boise River to Boise City as a park named Kathryn Albertson Park for his wife of 60 years.
Through his belief in the values that made America great - including honest ambition, hard work and achievement - Joe Albertson has left an enduring and living legacy for his fellow citizens, including familiar stores and thousands of jobs like the ones that gave him his own start.