WinCo Foods facts for kids
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Formerly
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Waremart (1967–1998) |
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| Private, employee-owned | |
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | 1967 |
| Founders | Ralph Ward and Bud Williams |
| Headquarters | Boise, Idaho, U.S. |
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Number of locations
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138 |
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Area served
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10 U.S. states |
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Key people
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Gary Piva, Chairman Grant Haag, President/CEO Nathan Tucker, COO Isaac Kimball, CFO |
| Products | Bakery, grocery, produce, delicatessen, seafood, bulk foods, snacks, health and beauty products, general merchandise |
| Services | Supermarket |
| Revenue | US$8.2 billion (2021) |
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Number of employees
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20,000 |
WinCo Foods, Inc. is an American chain of supermarkets based in Boise, Idaho. What makes WinCo special is that it's mostly owned by its employees through a program called an employee stock ownership plan. This means the people who work there also own a part of the company.
WinCo stores are found in ten U.S. states: Arizona, California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah, and Washington. The company started in 1967 as a simple, no-frills grocery store with low prices. Today, WinCo is famous for its large sections of bulk foods, where you can buy items like nuts, grains, and candy by the pound.
The company has over 20,000 employees and 138 stores. For a long time, the stores were called Waremart. In 2017, WinCo even brought back the Waremart Foods name for a few of its stores.
Contents
How WinCo Keeps Prices Low
WinCo Foods has a special way of doing business to keep its prices down for customers. The company is based in Boise, Idaho, and it runs six large warehouses, called distribution centers, to supply its stores. These are located in:
- Woodburn, Oregon
- Myrtle Creek, Oregon
- Boise, Idaho
- Phoenix, Arizona
- Denton, Texas
- Modesto, California
One way WinCo saves money is by buying products directly from farms and factories. This cuts out the middleman and lowers costs. Their stores are also very simple, without fancy decorations.
Another way they save is by not having employees bag your groceries. Customers bag their own items, which helps speed up checkout lines. Also, WinCo does not accept credit cards because credit card companies charge a fee for every transaction. You can still pay with a debit card or cash.
The History of WinCo
The company was started in 1967 in Boise, Idaho, by two men named Ralph Ward and Bud Williams. They originally called it Waremart. Their idea was to create a warehouse-style grocery store with very low prices.
In 1985, something amazing happened. The employees of Waremart came together and bought most of the company from the Ward family. This made Waremart an employee-owned company, which is still a big part of its identity today.
By 1991, the company was growing. It opened a huge new store in Boise that was 82,000 square feet. At that time, Waremart had 16 stores across the Northwest and was making over $300 million a year in sales.
Becoming WinCo Foods
In 1998, Waremart decided to change its name to WinCo Foods. The company worried that the name Waremart sounded too much like other big stores, such as Kmart and Walmart. The new name, WinCo, is a combination of the words "Winning Company."
Some people thought the name was an acronym for the states where it had stores (Washington, Idaho, Nevada, California, and Oregon). However, the company has said this is just a fun story and not the real reason for the name.
Even with the new name, three stores in Oregon kept the old name and are called "Waremart by WinCo."
Growing Across the Country
Throughout the 2000s and 2010s, WinCo Foods grew quickly. It opened its first stores in Utah in 2009, bringing back a brand that had been in the state years before as Waremart.
In 2012, the company expanded into Las Vegas, Nevada, and Phoenix, Arizona. Two years later, WinCo opened a new distribution center in Texas, which allowed it to open several stores in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Soon after, it expanded into Oklahoma.
In 2013, WinCo became the sponsor of a professional golf tournament called the WinCo Foods Portland Open.
By October 2024, plans were being made to open the very first WinCo Foods store in the city of Seattle.
See also
- Cub Foods
- List of companies based in Idaho
- List of supermarket chains in the United States
- Food cooperative
