Buttrey Food & Drug

Buttrey Food & Drug

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Company type	Supermarket
Industry	Retail
Founded	1896 (Havre, Montana)
Headquarters	Great Falls, Montana
Products	Bakery, dairy, deli, frozen foods, general grocery, meat, pharmacy, produce, seafood, snacks, liquor
Website	None

Buttrey Food & Drug was a chain of grocery stores founded in Great Falls, Montana.

History

Buttrey Department Store

Buttrey Food & Drug was founded in 1896 by Frank A. Buttrey when Frank opened The Fair Store in Havre, Montana. The original store was destroyed by fire in 1904 which caused him re-open is store but this time under a new name Buttrey Department Store. The in early 1940s Frank Buttrey starting opening grocery stores and soon became the market leader in Montana, serving some of the state's smallest and biggest towns. During the time when the grocery stores were opened the department stores were named Buttrey Suburban. Frank Buttrey died in 1949. In 1966, the company sold it's department store subsidiary when the company was acquired by Jewel. The department stores eventually closed in the 1970s.

Venture out of Montana

Buttrey first ventured outside Montana in 1962, when they built a 40,000 square foot "Superstore" in Boise, Idaho, in retaliation for Albertsons breaking the "gentlemens agreement" between the two companies that Albertson's and Buttrey's would stay out of each other's territories. That Boise store was a resounding success, and for many years the Hillcrest Plaza store (#37) was Buttrey's highest grossing store.

Jewel Companies

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Buttrey logo used until 1980

Buttrey's was acquired by Jewel Companies of Chicago in 1966, and many of the stores were converted to Jewel's combination store format and bannered as Buttrey-Osco, with common checkout stands but separate store management, all under one roof. Soon Jewel Companies financed a far-flung expansion plan. At its peak in the early 1980s, Buttrey operated stores in Montana, North Dakota, western Minnesota, Wyoming, eastern Washington, eastern Oregon, Utah, and Idaho, approximately 60 stores spread thinly over a 2,000-mile-wide territory.

American Stores

When Jewel was acquired by American Stores in 1984, the Buttrey stores were renamed Buttrey Food and Drug, and the food and drug management functions were merged with American's Utah "Skaggs-Alpha Beta" stores. American put Buttrey and Philadelphia-based supermarket chain Acme on the market soon after acquiring Jewel, to raise money to pay down American's staggering debt load from the Jewel acquisition. Neither chain received an acceptable offer, so American continued to operate them, but did not invest heavily in remodeling or new construction.

Buttrey retreated from several markets, closing the Skaggs Alpha-Beta stores in Utah, and all its stores in the Fargo-Moorhead market, then Boise and Pocatello, Idaho, then Idaho Falls and Twin Falls, Idaho, and finally Tri-Cities, Yakima, Moses Lake and Wenatchee, Washington. By the early 90s, Buttrey operated 34 stores in its core market in Montana, plus 8 in Wyoming and Williston and Dickinson, North Dakota.

Albertsons

Buttrey was finally spun off to its management in the early 1990s. The company was acquired by Albertsons in 1998, and most Buttrey locations were converted into Albertsons stores; 7 were sold to Fred Meyer to address anti-trust concerns and were converted to Smith's Food and Drug stores. 2 were sold to Supervalu and converted to Save-A-Lot stores.

Former locations

Idaho

• Boise:
  • Maple Tree Plaza (opened 1981, now Albertsons)
  • Hillcrest Shopping Center (opened 1962, now Albertsons)
  • Five Mile Plaza (opened 1978, now Albertsons)
  • 16th and Main (Club Wholesale in 1990, now Napa Auto Parts and KBCI-TV)
  • Fairview and Cole (Mac's Crafts until 2003, became Gold's Gym in 2007)
• Nampa: Karcher Mall (later House of Fabrics, renamed Jo-Ann Fabrics, moved 2001, Ross Dress For Less in 2003)
• Pocatello: Buttrey-Osco Family Center (Albertsons in 1998, now Pocatello City Hall)

Montana

• Helena:
  • Jackson and 13th. Ave. (opened 1939. Moved mid-1950s)
  • Hustad Center, Helena Ave. (Moved 1970s)
  • Buttrey-Osco, Montana Ave.
• Great Falls:
  • Great Falls Marketplace (opened 1997, became Smith's Food & Drug in 1998)
  • 10th Avenue South (opened 1992, became Albertsons 1998)
  • Downtown Great Falls (became Albertsons 1998)
  • Westgate Mall (moved 1991)
  • Smelter Avenue (opened 1992, became Albertsons 1998)
  • Holiday Village Mall (Buttrey Suburban) (closed 1970s, became JCPenney)
  • Holiday Village Mall (closed 1992, demolished for Sears)
• Bozeman:
  • Gallatin Valley Mall (became Smith's in 1998, closed 2000, Barnes & Noble/Cinemas in 2005)
  • US Highway 191 (closed 1980s, became Osco Drug, CVS/pharmacy in 2006)
• Missoula, Montana:
  • Northside Shopping Center (opened 1991, became Albertsons 1998)
  • Eastgate Shopping Center (became Albertsons 1998)
  • Tempers (became Albertsons 1998)
• Wolf Point 415 Blaine Street (replaced Safeway, became Albertsons 1998)
• Havre 730 First Street (became Albertsons 1998)
• Glasgow (became Albertsons 1998)

Wyoming

• Casper
  • Beverly Plaza
  • Mountain Plaza

References