Editing Albertsons (section)

===Beginnings===
Albertsons was founded in 1939 by [[Joe Albertson]] (1906–1993) on July 21 in [[Boise, Idaho|Boise]], [[Idaho]].<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=https://www.albertsonscompanies.com/about-us/history.html|title=Our History|website=www.albertsonscompanies.com|access-date=2018-12-13|archive-date=December 16, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181216030924/https://www.albertsonscompanies.com/about-us/history.html|url-status=live}}</ref> An ad in Boise's ''[[Idaho Statesman]]'' newspaper touted Albertson's first store as "Idaho's largest and finest food store." The store was filled with perks that, at the time, were brand new: free parking, a money-back guarantee, and even an ice cream shop. The original store was built onto several times, but it was demolished in 1979, and a replacement store was built on the same property. A brick monument stands on the northwest corner of 16th and State Streets in downtown Boise, commemorating the original store.

[[File:Albertson's cheese department, 1955.jpg|thumb|The cheese department of an Albertsons in [[Seattle]] (1955)|left]]
The grocery store was an enormous success, and Albertson reinvested his profits back into the business. New stores were opened in neighboring towns to the west: [[Nampa, Idaho|Nampa]], [[Caldwell, Idaho|Caldwell]], and [[Emmett, Idaho|Emmett]], before [[Attack on Pearl Harbor|America's entry into World War II]] in late 1941. The company grew steadily in the years following [[World War II]]. When Albertson was considering putting a new store in a town, he would drive around the town and look for neighborhoods with children's clothing hanging on clotheslines, and station wagons in driveways; he knew that those kinds of neighborhoods were where he wanted to build his stores.

Albertson's, Inc. became a public company in 1959, and its growth continued, opening its hundredth store in [[Seattle]] in 1963.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Capace |first=Nancy |title=Encyclopedia of Idaho |publisher=Somerset Publishers, Inc. |year=2000 |isbn=0-403-09606-5 |location=Santa Barbara, CA |pages=143 |language=en}}</ref> in 1964, Albertsons expanded to [[Southern California|southern]] [[California]] by acquiring All American Markets, a small chain based in [[Orange County, California|Orange County]].

In 1967, Albertsons expanded into [[Colorado]], acquiring eight stores from [[Roy Furr|Furr's Supermarkets]]. By the end of the 1960s, Albertsons operated over 200 stores within a nine-state region and the stores averaged about 20,000 square feet in size.<ref name=":3" />