Kroger runs food and medicine stores, multi-department stores, jewelry stores, and convenience stores across the United States. Some of the food sold in its supermarkets is also manufactured and processed by the company. Food and drug stores, multi-department stores, jewelry stores, and convenience stores are all part of the company's operations. The principal food shop format is the combination food and drug store. The size of multi-department stores is far larger than that of combination stores. Multi-department stores sell a wide range of general retail items, such as apparel, home fashion and furnishings, electronics, automobile products, toys, and fine jewelry, in addition to the departments found in a normal combination store. Marketplace Stores are smaller than multi-department stores in terms of size. They have full-service supermarket and pharmacy departments, as well as a larger general store section with items like outdoor living, electronics, home goods, and toys. The Price Impact Warehouse locations have a 'no frills, low cost' warehouse model with everyday low pricing and discounts on a wide range of grocery and health and beauty care products. Barney Kroger founded the Kroger Company in 1883, and it is headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio."

"Kroger's History"

Barney Kroger put his $372 life savings into opening a grocery store at 66 Pearl Street in downtown Cincinnati in 1883. He operated his firm with a simple motto: "Be particular." He was the son of a businessman. Never sell anything that you wouldn't want." It was a motto that would serve The Kroger Co. well for the next 130 years as the grocery industry evolved into a variety of models geared at meeting shoppers' ever-changing requirements.

Kroger is one of the world's largest retailers, with more than 2,400 locations in 31 states under two dozen banners and annual sales of more than $96 billion.

Many of the company's current operations may be traced back to Mr. Kroger's early efforts to service his clients. Take, for example, two speciality categories that are now commonplace in the company's supermarkets: bakeries and meat and seafood markets. Most merchants got their bread from small bakeries in the early 1900s. Mr. Kroger, on the other hand, was always looking for ways to improve quality and make money, and he realized that if he baked his own bread, he could lower the price for his consumers while still making a profit. As a result, he became the first grocer in the country to open his own bakeries in 1901. He was also the first to combine meat and grocery sales in one location.

Mr. Kroger also saw the opportunity to boost his profits by manufacturing the goods he sold. It all started in that first Kroger on Pearl St. He bought significantly more cabbage than he expected his clients to buy when farmers brought their crop to town. He brought the cabbage home to his mother, who used her favorite recipe to make tart sauerkraut that was a hit with his German clientele.

The manufacturing effort that began in that back room has grown into one of America's largest food manufacturing companies. Kroger owns and manages 37 food processing plants that produce tens of thousands of goods ranging from bread, cookies, and milk to soda, ice cream, and peanut butter. Kroger's manufacturing operations produce around 40% of the more than 12,000 private-label items sold in the company's stores today. Today, these Corporate Brands account for a whopping 24% of Kroger's total retail dollar sales, giving the corporation a huge strategic edge.

In many other ways, though, Mr. Kroger would be hard pressed to recognize the company today. Stores have grown substantially larger to allow greater variety and merchandise in response to customers who demand the convenience of one-stop shopping. Kroger's principal format, new combination stores, now average 67,000 square feet or more. Marketplace stores, which provide extended general items, are on average 125,000 square feet, whereas multi-department stores under the Fred Meyer label are over 165,000 square feet.

Up to 50,000 goods are already on the shelves, ranging from basic supermarket staples to more inventive fare such as organic veggies, natural foods, and ready-to-eat hot meals. Kroger has over 1,940 in-store pharmacies that fill over 160 million prescriptions each year. Kroger's floral stores generate enough revenue to make it the world's largest florist. At addition, Kroger has built fuel stations in over 1,180 locations to appeal to customers who want to fill up their automobiles while shopping.

Mergers and acquisitions have aided Kroger's expansion over the years. Kroger combined with Dillon Companies Inc. in Kansas in 1983, 100 years after the company was founded, to become a coast-to-coast operator of grocery, drug, and convenience stores.

Kroger's largest merger occurred in 1999, when the firm merged with Fred Meyer, Inc. in a $13 billion deal that formed the largest supermarket chain in the food retailing sector, with the broadest geographic coverage and the widest variety of formats. Kroger was able to achieve massive economies of scale in purchasing, manufacturing, information systems, and logistics as a result of the combination. The Kroger-Fred Meyer merger stands out at an era when many larger mergers have failed.

Kroger now has a store concept to suit practically every type of shopper. Supermarkets, multi-department shops, Marketplace stores, price-impact stores, convenience stores, and fine jewelry stores are among our formats.

Kroger has been a pioneer and innovation in the food retail market throughout its long history. It was the first grocery chain to regularly check product quality and rigorously test goods in the 1930s. The company received the extremely coveted Black Pearl Award from the International Association for Food Protection in 2012 for its long-standing dedication to food safety and quality. The Black Pearl Award is given to just one company each year by the International Association for Food Protection.

Kroger was the first grocery store in America to test an electronic scanner in 1972. It was erected in a store in suburban Cincinnati, and it drew tourists from all over the country. Today, technology plays an essential role in Kroger's store operations. Kroger pioneered QueVision, an innovative speedier checkout technology that has decreased the average time consumers wait in line to check out from four minutes in 2010 to less than 30 seconds in shops today in just a few years.

The company was also the first grocer to systematize consumer research in the 1970s, interviewing 4,000 shoppers in the first year. In 2012, the company received useful comments and ideas from 1,993,227 customers.

Kroger's sustainability efforts, which attempt to improve today in order to safeguard tomorrow, are also centered on innovation. Kroger developed a procedure in the mid-2000s to quickly recover safe, edible fresh products and distribute them to local food banks. Other businesses have followed suit, and fresh foods now account for more than half of the food supplied by Feeding America, the nation's largest food bank network.

Kroger has one of the largest privately-owned truck fleets in the country, with dozens of manufacturing plants and distribution locations across the country. Every year, trucks transport merchandise and supplies between our stores, warehouses, and production sites, covering roughly 297 million miles.

Service, selection, and value - the business fundamentals that made the first Kroger store successful in 1883 – continue to guide the company's operations today. Barney Kroger founded what is now one of America's top enterprises from a single small grocery store in Cincinnati more than a century ago." Read more at greatpeople me.