JEWEL FOOD STORES, INC.

division of American Stores Company that was formerly a major American retailer of food and drugs operating as Jewel Companies Inc. The company traced its origins to 1899, when Frank Vernon Skiff and Frank Ross founded the Jewel Tea Company to supply condiments to the Chicago area from horse-drawn wagons. As the automobile gained in importance, the firm moved from wagons to motorized trucks to deliver its goods across the Midwest. It incorporated in Illinois in 1903 and changed its name to Jewel Companies Inc. in 1966. The enactment of the Green River Ordinance, an antipeddler law in the 1930s, encouraged the company to move into the retail food business, and in 1932 it formed Jewel Food Stores, Inc., to acquire the grocery store business formerly owned by Loblaw Groceterias. The Jewel company flourished in the Midwest with a strong consumer-service image. In 1961 the company expanded into the retail drugstore business with the acquisition of the Osco Drug, Inc., drug chain. The company operated under a number of different names, including Jewel supermarkets, Osco drugstores, and White Hen Pantry. Jewel Companies Inc. was purchased by the drug-and-grocery retailer American Stores Company in 1984.