Are some grocery stores region specific?

Yes, many grocery store chains are regional. The South for example has Kroegers, PigglyWiggly and Publix.

The Northwest has QFC and Albertsons.

Yup. Trader Joe’s is not in all states. Kroger has a dozen different names, and is only in less than ⅔ of the states.

Yes. @marinelife already named some. Others are Harris Teeter, we had that in NC, I assume it is in some other states. I shopped at Giant and Magruder’s in the DC metro area. Meijer’s Michigan and surrounding states. Schnuck’s in MO and some surrounding states.

There is a chain of “Holiday Markets” in my area and other Ca. locations. I love my Holiday market. :-) I don’t know if they are Ca. specific but they seem to cater to out of the way locales and offer good prices, nice environment and have recently gone organic in my zone.
You get free coupons every month and this month I got a free bouquet of flowers, last month olive oil, and next month $5 off on all Boars Head deli products.

My local Holiday also carries all the local wines from our wine zone, and locally grown organic produce and fruits!
Works for me! lol

Vons is in Southern CA but called Safeway on NorCal and Oregon. I guess the same people operate Pavillions.

Lots of businesses, including grocery stores, are local or regional. Now that we have big national and international chains, though, with every town having the same mini-malls with the same 6–12 stores repeated along the freeway, I think a lot of the charm of travelling has disappeared.

This is one reason I try to visit my local chains more heavily. So, yes.

I was so surprised when I moved to Michigan to find the complete absence of Acme and Pathmark (lowest prices in the Philly area)

But then I discovered Meijers. Not only fabulous grocery and fresh fruit and produce at great prices, but the entire other half of the store is everything else and then some. Pretty much everything you could find in Walmart, KMart or any large store like that.

Plus they offer about 6–8 different antibiotics free of charge.

If I ever move from here, I am really going to miss Meijer cuz they’re pretty much a Midwest thing, mostly Mich. And Ohio. I’ll miss Meijer far more than I ever have Acme or Pathmark. KROGER I won’t miss at all.

@Buttonstc Are you high?! Kroger > Meijer any day of the week.

And twice on Sunday.

Perhaps the Kroger in your town is fine. But definitely not the one here.

@Buttonstc Whereabouts?

The Krogers here are super nice. THe meijers are…. well… special.

Raley’s used to be only in Sacramento and the Sierra foothills, but it has merged with other small chains so it controls stores under a variety of names: Nob Hill Foods, Bel Air Markets. Aisle One.

Before the 1980s there were a lot more regional chains: Alpha Beta, Smith Food King, Petrini’s, A&P. But consolidation has consumed a lot of the smaller chains.

Yep, the horrid Winn Dixie and Piggly Wiggly (only grocery stores in the U.S. where I have seen live cockroaches) seem to only exist in the south.

There is also Bruno’s with supermarkets in Alabama and Florida. It is now part of Southern Family Markets but still trades under the Bruno name. A great supermarket with everything you could want but so quiet I don’t know how it stayed in business.

Stores spread like infections, beginning locally and moving out. Costco is a recent entrant to the St.Louis region, spreading from California.

Kroger started in Cincinnati and along the way acquired (in no particular order) Ralph’s, King Sooper, City Market, Dillons, Smith’s, Fry’s, Quality Food centers, Baker’s, Owen’s, Jay C super markets, and Scotts. In addition, Krogers also owns several lines of price-impact warehouse stores, Fred Meyer Department stores, and TurkeyHill, KwikShop, Loaf’n’Jug, QuikStop, TomThumb and Smith’s Express convenience stores.

Safeway also operates Vons stores in Southern California and Nevada, Randalls and Tom Thumb stores in Texas, Genuardi’s store in the Philadelphia area, as well as Carrs stores in Alaska.

Jewel/Osco is part of a group called Supervalu, which operates other stores including ACME, Albertsons, Bristol Farms, Cub, Farm Fresh, Hornbacher’s, Lucky, Save-A-Lot, Shaw’s/Star Market, Shop ‘n’ Save and Shoppers.

Yes, in California we have Henry’s which is similar to Trader Joe’s.

@mowens Most Krogers where I live suck! In NC and MI they were ok when I lived there years ago.

Here in New England, we had Star Market for a long time. We currently have Shaws, Hannafords, Demoulas Market Basket and Roche Bros. which I think are regional.

There is a huge store near me named Maxi. They carry all sorts of American products which I have not seen in any other grocery store in Australia. The clerks tell me they are a USA company, but I certainly never heard of them. Is there a Maxi near any of you living in USA? They are very expensive but they do have A & W root beer in cans and a few other things that I really like so I go there for a nostalgia taste now and again.

Costco, Whole Foods, and Trader Joe’s have invaded NYC metropolitan area in recent years. Whole Foods and Trader Joe have given the existing regional supermarkets a real run for their money (Food Emporium, Gristedes).

@dabbler: I remember visiting family in San Diego in around 1990 and being very impressed with Trader Joes. About ten years later, they started appearing here in Boston — I was thrilled.

The larger supermarkets seem to love the local branding, either to keep local flavor and loyalty or to mask their corporate overlordiness. Safeway is the perfect example. They maintain 3 different brands in California alone: Central and NorCal are Safeway, SoCal is Vons, and the Orange County area is Pavillions. Aside from the names, they are identical in every way.

But in SoCal (At least the Inland Empire and environs part) we have had Stater Brothers since the 1930s. They’re pretty well known for the quality of their meat department, and I didn’t even know that other supermarkets didn’t actually have true “meat departments” until I first moved out and had to start going to Albertson’s and Ralph’s.

I used to love the Tom Thumb in Dallas, some years back. When I lived up north, my choices were few: ShopRite or Mr. Z’s (which I believe is strictly in PA). Now I’m in Florida, and Publix is the only grocery store that’s truly convenient to my house. And they’re overpriced!

In Iowa and nearby states there is a grocery store called “Hy Vee” that is employee owned and are typically HUGE! Some of them even have gas stations associated with them. Because sq footage is cheaper in the areas they operate, not only are they big, but they offer almost every variety of whatever they’re offering, e.g.. every GM or Quaker Oats cereal ever made, or every Pepsi product available, etc. Not so much of the “exotic” stuff, but when it comes to mainstream, they’ve got it covered.