Lucky Stores is an American supermarket chain founded in San Leandro, California, in 1935. Lucky is currently operated by Albertsons in Utah and Save Mart Supermarkets in Northern California.
In 1998, Lucky's parent company, American Stores, was taken over by Albertsons, and by 1999, the Lucky brand had disappeared. On January 23, 2006, SuperValu, CVS Pharmacy and an investment group led by Cerberus Capital Management announced they had agreed to acquire Albertsons for $17.4 billion. Existing Albertsons stores were divided between Supervalu and the Cerberus-led group. The Cerberus-acquired stores became Albertsons, which then sold its Northern California and Northern Nevada stores to Save Mart Supermarkets.
In 2006, both SuperValu and Save Mart began re-branding some Albertsons locations as Lucky stores, using the old logo. However, the same year, Grocery Outlet, an unrelated Northern California retailer, also began branding some of its stores as Lucky, claiming that Albertsons had given up rights to the Lucky trademark when it retired the brand in 1999. On January 4, 2009, a federal judge ruled against Grocery Outlet, finding that Albertsons had continued to use the name Lucky even after the re-branding of its stores.
SuperValu positioned Lucky as "true neighborhood stores, meaning they meet the unique needs of communities by providing the right products and assortment at the right price".