Kroger facts for kids
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Kroger headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio
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| Public | |
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | 1883 Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S. |
| Founder | Bernard Kroger |
| Headquarters |
Cincinnati, Ohio
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U.S.
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Number of locations
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3,010, including 2,759 supermarkets and 251 jewelers (Q2 2019) |
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Area served
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United States |
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Key people
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Rodney McMullen (CEO & Chairman) |
| Products | Supercenter/superstore, Other specialty, supermarket |
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Number of employees
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443,000 (2017) |
The Kroger Co., or simply Kroger, is an American retailing company founded by Bernard Kroger in 1883 in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is the United States' largest supermarket chain by revenue (sales), the second-largest general retailer (behind Walmart) and the seventeenth largest company in the United States.
Kroger is also the fifth-largest retailer in the world and the fourth largest American-owned private employer in the United States. Kroger is ranked #17 on the Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.
Kroger's headquarters are in downtown Cincinnati. It maintains markets in 35 states and the District of Columbia, with store formats that include hypermarkets, supermarkets, superstores, department stores, and 251 jewelry stores.
Kroger-branded grocery stores are located in the Midwestern and Southern United States.
Kroger operates 35 food processing or manufacturing facilities, 1,556 supermarket fuel centers, 2,264 pharmacies and 221 The Little Clinic in-store medical clinics.
Kroger operates its own fleet of trucks and trailers to distribute products to its various stores, in addition to contracts with various trucking companies. In June 2018, Kroger announced testing driverless cars for delivering groceries. For this, Kroger is partnering with autonomous car company Nuro.
History
In 1883, Barney Kroger invested his life savings of $372 to open a grocery store at 66 Pearl Street in downtown Cincinnati. The son of a merchant, he ran his business with a simple motto: “Be particular. Never sell anything you would not want yourself.” He experimented with making his own products, such as bread, so that customers would not need to go to a separate bakery.
In 1884 Kroger opened his second store. By 1902, the Kroger Grocery and Baking Company had been incorporated. By this time, the company had grown to forty stores and sold $1.75 million worth of merchandise each year. In addition, Kroger became the first grocery chain to have its own bakery.
In 1916 Kroger company began self-service shopping. Before this all articles were kept behind counters, and customers would ask for them, and then clerks would deliver them to customers.
In the 1930s, Kroger became the first grocery chain to monitor product quality and to test foods offered to customers, and also the first to have a store surrounded on all four sides by parking lots.
In the 1970s, Kroger became the first grocer in the United States to test an electronic scanner and the first to formalize consumer research.
Images for kids
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A regional Kroger in Fort Worth, Texas, opened in 1997 (2014) (Store #035-00536)
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Kroger Marketplace in Frisco, Texas (Store #035-00561) opened in 2010.
See also
In Spanish: Kroger para niños
