Editing Albertsons (section)

====American Stores acquisition====
In 1998, Albertsons made its biggest acquisition yet: [[American Stores Company]], which included the chains [[Acme Markets|ACME]] in [[Pennsylvania]], [[New Jersey]], [[Maryland]], and [[Delaware]]; [[Lucky Stores|Lucky]] in [[California]] and [[Nevada]]; [[Jewel (supermarket)|Jewel]] and [[Jewel-Osco]] in [[Illinois]], [[Indiana]], and [[Iowa]]<!--removed Michigan, evidence shows J/O did have stores in Michigan but they closed prior to 1999-->, and two drug store chains: [[Osco Drug]], with a presence in [[New England]], the Midwest, [[Montana]] and [[Arizona]]; and [[Sav-on Drugs]], with a presence in [[Southern California]], Nevada, Western Arizona, and [[New Mexico]]. The acquisition briefly made Albertsons the largest American food and drug operator, with over 2,500 stores (including stand-alone drug stores) in 37 states, until [[Kroger]]'s acquisition of [[Fred Meyer]] closed the following month.  To make the acquisition, Albertsons was forced by anti-trust concerns to divest 146 stores, primarily in California, Nevada, and New Mexico, to Certified Grocers: [[Raley's]], [[Ralphs]], [[Stater Bros.]], and [[Vons]]. In California, Nevada, and New Mexico, there were already Albertsons stores, so in order to not have two banners in the same area, 508 Lucky stores were converted to the Albertsons banner in November 1999, and the Lucky brand name was retired.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.supermarketnews.com/archive/albertsons-lucky-wed-508-banners-are-changed|title=ALBERTSON'S, LUCKY 'WED'; 508 BANNERS ARE CHANGED|date=November 8, 1999|work=supermarketnews.com|access-date=April 9, 2021|archive-date=March 17, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210317024915/https://www.supermarketnews.com/archive/albertsons-lucky-wed-508-banners-are-changed|url-status=live}}</ref> The brand was reintroduced in the early 2000s.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Carroll |first1=Paul B. |title=Billion Dollar Lessons: What You Can Learn from the Most Inexcusable Business Failures of the Last 25 Ye ars |last2=Mui |first2=Chunka |publisher=Penguin |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-59184-219-4 |location=New York, NY |pages=184 |language=en}}</ref>

In January 2001, Albertsons restructured its "districts" to a divisional structure mostly based around distribution centers, with a drug store division and 18 regional division offices.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.supermarketnews.com/archive/albertsons-switching-divisional-structure|title=ALBERTSON'S SWITCHING TO DIVISIONAL STRUCTURE|date=January 22, 2001|work=supermarketnews.com|access-date=March 10, 2017|archive-date=March 12, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170312053548/http://www.supermarketnews.com/archive/albertsons-switching-divisional-structure|url-status=live}}</ref>