Skaggs Family

Skaggs Family

The Skaggs Family, starting from a small frontier town in southern Idaho, came to have an important impact on merchandising across much of the United States. During most of the 20th century, the Skaggs name was prominent on hundreds of stores throughout the West and Midwest. The origins of a wide range of these grocery and drug store enterprises can be traced to this one Skaggs family. The father in the family was a Baptist minister and had moved west for a better climate. He had a large family; to supplement his income he opened a grocery store. He and six of his sons, with varying degrees of collaboration, introduced in the early 20th century two important changes in merchandising: the low-margin, cash-and-carry approach to business, and rapidly growing a multitude of common outlets, now called chain stores. Their entrepreneurial interests became a major retailing force resulting in large, retail chains that carried not only the Skaggs name itself, but names like Safeway, Osco, PayLess, Albertsons, Longs Drug Stores, Katz and others.

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