As We Lose Chicago's Dominick's Stores: A History

From the October 13, 2013, Chicago Tribune.

By the end of next month, the very last Dominick's grocery store will close in the Chicagoland area. Always sad to lose something that has been around that long, even if I rarely went to one.

HISTORY

Dominick's started in 1925 as a small corner market on Chicago's West Side by Italian immigrant Dominick DiMatteo, and his store eventually grew into Chicago's second-largest grocery chain behind Jewel. Between these two chains, they eventually chased other national chains, like Kroger, out by the 1970s and 1980s.

After a succession of owners, California-based Safeway bought Dominick's for $1.2 billion in 1998 and Dominick's became part of the nation's second-largest grocery chain.

In the first nine months of this year, Dominick's lost $13.7 million and has been losing market share for years to Wal-Mart, Costco and specialty markets until the store accounted for just 9% of local grocery dollars.

Sorry to See It Go. --Cooter