Stater Bros. history

Since that first day in 1936, serving our "Valued" customers with the lowest prices on name brand and quality merchandise has been the goal of Stater Bros.

In 1937, they opened a grocery store in Redlands, followed in the next two years by stores in Bloomington, Colton, and Fontana.

Stater Bros. first entry into this new era of grocery retailing came in April 1948 when they opened a 12,500-square-foot supermarket in Riverside.

For a while, the facility even operated a bakery that supplied the chains' coffee shops and restaurants. It was in 1952 that Stater Bros. found itself in trouble with the government over its practice of having equal partnership in all of its stores and was sued for antitrust violations.

In 1958, Stater Bros. incorporated, and all but five of the partnerships were dissolved, and the store managers were bought out with either cash or stock.

Because all of the chain's growth was internal, the company formed a construction division in 1960 to plan and build new supermarkets and other facilities.

By the end of 1967, the chain operated 32 supermarkets located in 20 cities. (Also of note, the restaurant division was closed in July 1967.) Net sales over the previous five years had grown from $51.5 million to nearly $77 million.

At the close of 1970, the chain was 38 units strong and on the verge of reaching the $100 million mark in annual revenues.

Stater Bros. entered the next decade with a strong push, opening ten new stores in 1980.

1981: Jack Brown named is president.

In 1983, Petrolane decided to sell most of its non-energy assets, including the Stater Bros. supermarket chain.

Early in 1986, Garrett called for an emergency board meeting where he announced that he had conducted an investigation of Brown which revealed wrongdoing.

In 1993, La Cadena bought out's Craig's 50 percent share and became the sole shareholder.

1999: The company acquires 43 stores in a merger divestiture.

Not only was it a temporary windfall for the company, it was expected that at the end of the strike a large percentage of the new shoppers would remain Stater Bros. customers. Thus, when talks broke down in the fall of 2003, leading to a supermarket strike that began on October 11, Stater Bros. was able to pick up an unprecedented amount of additional business.

In 2004, Stater Bros. gained approval to build a new $200 million general office and distribution center on part of the former Norton Air Force Base in San Bernardino County.

In 2012, Smith was appointed by Jack H. Brown to the position of Vice Chairman of the Board of Stater Bros.