Sixteen brand guides to supermarket, pharmacy and convenience chains.
Grocery and convenience chains are local brands that are often owned by national or international groups. These guides cover each banner’s name and mark and who owns it today.
How to use these guides
Each guide covers who owns the name today, where the products are made — by the maker’s own account and, where it differs, by other sources — and the brand’s visual identity. A company’s description of itself is attributed to the company, and where a business has closed we say so plainly. The table at the end gathers the essentials.
Convenience-store chains
Wawa, Sheetz, QuikTrip, RaceTrac, Buc-ee’s, Casey’s and Circle K.
- Wawa — The Wood family dairy named for Wawa, Pennsylvania, whose first Wawa Food Market opened in Folsom on 16 April 1964, marked by a Canada goose in flight and the Wally Goose mascot, and privately held with its headquarters in Chester Heights.
- Sheetz — The Altoona, Pennsylvania chain Bob Sheetz started in 1952 by buying one of his father’s dairy stores, first traded as Sheetz Kwik Shopper, still run by the Sheetz family, known for made-to-order M.T.O. food and the z it adds to menu names.
- QuikTrip — The Tulsa chain Burt Holmes and Chester Cadieux opened in 1958 after Holmes saw 7-Eleven stores in Dallas, respelled from Quick-Trip to Quik-Trip, given its QT logo by Atlanta consultant Wyatt Phillips in 1976, and still led by the Cadieux family.
- RaceTrac — The Bolch family business that began as Carl Bolch Trackside Stations in St. Louis in 1934, moved through Alabama, settled in Atlanta in 1976, named its company-run stores RaceTrac and contractor-run stores RaceWay in 1979, and added Gulf Oil (2023) and Potbelly (2025).
- Buc-ee’s — The Texas travel-center chain Arch “Beaver” Aplin III opened in 1982 on the border of Lake Jackson and Clute, owned with partner Don Wasek, named for a childhood nickname and a dog called Buck, and marked by a cartoon beaver in a red cap.
- Casey’s — The Iowa convenience chain Donald Lamberti and Kurvin C. Fish started in Boone in 1968, named for Fish’s initials K.C., known for its red barn, and renamed simply Casey’s in a 2020 logo led by Interbrand. Headquartered in Ankeny, Iowa.
- Circle K — The chain Fred Hervey started in El Paso in 1951 from Kay’s Food Stores, given an encircled K for a western image, recoloured in 1983, owned by Alimentation Couche-Tard since 2003 and made its global banner from 2015.
Regional grocery chains
H-E-B, Meijer, Hy-Vee, Albertsons and Giant Eagle.
- H-E-B — The Texas grocer that began as Florence Butt’s Kerrville store in 1905, took its name from her son Howard E. Butt’s initials, adopted the H-E-B name in San Antonio in 1942 and is still controlled by the Butt family.
- Meijer — The Michigan retailer that Dutch-born barber Hendrik Meijer opened as North Side Grocery in Greenville in 1934, with a Dutch-boy mascot called Thrifty from 1949, Thrifty Acres stores from 1962 and a family that still runs it from Walker, Michigan.
- Hy-Vee — The employee-owned Midwest grocer founded by Charles Hyde and David Vredenburg in Beaconsfield, Iowa, in 1930, named in a 1952 employee contest after both founders, with a red shopping-cart logo and a “helpful smile” slogan from 1963.
- Albertsons — The Boise grocer Joe Albertson opened on 21 July 1939 with partners L.S. Skaggs and Tom Cuthbert, split between SuperValu and a Cerberus-led group in 2006, reunited under Cerberus in 2013 and merged with Safeway in 2015.
- Giant Eagle — The Pittsburgh-area supermarket formed in 1931 when OK Grocery merged with Eagle Grocery, family-run for decades, home of Market District and myPerks, which sold GetGo to Couche-Tard in 2025 and agreed a sale to Kroger in July 2026.
Grocery and pharmacy chains
Food Lion, Winn-Dixie, Piggly Wiggly and Duane Reade.
- Food Lion — The Salisbury, North Carolina grocer founded as Food Town in 1957 by Ralph Ketner, Brown Ketner and Wilson Smith, part-owned by Belgium’s Delhaize from 1974, renamed Food Lion in 1983 after its owner’s lion, and owned by Ahold Delhaize since 2016.
- Winn-Dixie — The Jacksonville grocer built by the Davis family from a Miami store bought in 1925, renamed Table Supply and then Winn & Lovett, named Winn-Dixie in 1955, owned by Aldi from 2024 and by a private investor group since February 2025.
- Piggly Wiggly — The Memphis grocery opened by Clarence Saunders in September 1916, built on a self-service format he patented in 1917, run since as a franchise name for independent grocers, and today issued by Piggly Wiggly, LLC of Keene, New Hampshire, an affiliate of C&S Wholesale Grocers.
- Duane Reade — The New York drugstore chain that began in 1960 on Broadway between Duane and Reade Streets, swapped its intersecting blue D and red R for a white-on-black mark from 2008, created the apt. 5 cosmetics label in 2002 and has been owned by Walgreens since 2010.
At a glance: founding, owner and base
Taken from each guide’s fact panel, as of October 2026. Ownership changes; follow the link for sources and detail.
| Brand | Founded | Owner | Base |
|---|---|---|---|
| Albertsons | Albertson’s Food Center, Boise, Idaho (1939) | Albertsons Companies, headquartered in Boise, Idaho | Today: Albertsons Companies, headquartered in Boise, Idaho |
| Buc-ee’s | Border of Lake Jackson and Clute, Texas (1982) | Buc-ee’s, headquartered in Lake Jackson, Texas | Today: Buc-ee’s, headquartered in Lake Jackson, Texas |
| Casey’s | Boone, Iowa (original store) (1968) | Casey’s General Stores, headquartered in Ankeny, Iowa | Today: Casey’s General Stores, headquartered in Ankeny, Iowa |
| Circle K | El Paso, Texas (1951) | Owned by Alimentation Couche-Tard, Laval, Quebec, since 2003 | Today: Owned by Alimentation Couche-Tard, Laval, Quebec, since 2003 |
| Duane Reade | Began: Broadway between Duane and Reade Streets, Lower Manhattan (1960) | Owned by Walgreens since 2010 | Today: Owned by Walgreens since 2010 |
| Food Lion | Salisbury, North Carolina (1957 (as Food Town)) | Ahold Delhaize | Owner: Ahold Delhaize |
| Giant Eagle | Merger of OK Grocery and Eagle Grocery, Pittsburgh area (1931) | Headquartered in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania; Kroger agreed to buy it in July 2026 | Today: Headquartered in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania; Kroger agreed to buy it in July 2026 |
| H-E-B | Mrs. C. C. Butt’s Staple and Fancy Grocery, Kerrville, Texas (1905) | H-E-B Grocery Company, LP, San Antonio, controlled by the Butt family | Today: H-E-B Grocery Company, LP, San Antonio, controlled by the Butt family |
| Hy-Vee | Beaconsfield Supply Store, Beaconsfield, Iowa (1930) | Hy-Vee, Inc., employee-owned, headquartered in West Des Moines, Iowa | Today: Hy-Vee, Inc., employee-owned, headquartered in West Des Moines, Iowa |
| Meijer | North Side Grocery, Greenville, Michigan (1934) | Meijer Inc., headquartered in Walker, Michigan, led by the Meijer family | Today: Meijer Inc., headquartered in Walker, Michigan, led by the Meijer family |
| Piggly Wiggly | 79 Jefferson, Memphis, Tennessee (1916) | Piggly Wiggly, LLC, Keene, New Hampshire, an affiliate of C&S Wholesale Grocers | Today: Piggly Wiggly, LLC, Keene, New Hampshire, an affiliate of C&S Wholesale Grocers |
| QuikTrip | First store opened in Tulsa, Oklahoma (per the company) (1958) | QuikTrip Corporation, headquartered in Tulsa | Today: QuikTrip Corporation, headquartered in Tulsa |
| RaceTrac | Carl Bolch Trackside Stations, St. Louis, Missouri (1934) | RaceTrac, Inc., Bolch family-owned, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia | Today: RaceTrac, Inc., Bolch family-owned, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia |
| Sheetz | Bob Sheetz buys one of his father’s dairy stores, Altoona, Pennsylvania (1952) | Sheetz, Inc., family-run, headquartered in Altoona | Today: Sheetz, Inc., family-run, headquartered in Altoona |
| Wawa | Dairy plant: Wawa, Pennsylvania (per CSP Daily News) (1902) | Wawa Inc., privately held, headquartered in Chester Heights, Pennsylvania | Today: Wawa Inc., privately held, headquartered in Chester Heights, Pennsylvania |
| Winn-Dixie | Roots: Rockmoor Grocery, Miami (1925) | Private investor group (The Winn-Dixie Co.) | Owner: Private investor group (The Winn-Dixie Co.) |
See also all collections.