Vons
Ingredients For Life Delivered To You
Downtown Los Angeles was essentially a small town when Charles Von der Ahe opened his 20-foot wide Groceteria on the corner of 7th and Figueroa in 1906 with $1200 in savings. It was a neighborhood store that catered to the needs of local families, where Von der Ahe pioneered "cash and carry" as an alternative to "charge and Delivery". His formula proved so successful that by 1928 Vons had expanded to 87 stores.
Charles Von der Ahe sold his chain the following year, but four years later, despite the Depression, two of his sons, Ted and Wil, re-started Vons. Its growth and innovation over the next 70 years was non-stop. In 1948 the brothers opened their most ambitious store at the corner of Santa Barbara and Crenshaw. Thanks to the introduction of pre-packaged perishables, they were able to offer some of the first self-service produce, meat and Deli departments.
This milestone marked the advent of the first true supermarkets as we know them today. The most explosive growth occurred during the 1970's when Vons branched out to 159 stores with 16,000 employees, making it firmly the #1 grocery retailer in Southern California. Today the Vons operation, which includes Pavilions stores, is now a part of the Safeway family of companies. Vons stretches from San Diego to Fresno, from Clark County, Nevada to the Pacific. It's 325 stores serve millions of Southern Californians and Nevadans.
The marketing area which Vons covers comprises some of the most affluent, forward thinking, culturally mixed communities in the U.S. Vons business strategy has always been to provide for the needs of these communities with the highest quality meat and produce at competitive prices. Equally important, Vons has been changing as Southern California changes. Capital spending insures a continuing pace of replacement stores and remodels.
Vons has introduced shoppers to full-service banks within its stores, one-hour photo centers, professional pharmacies, dry cleaners and customer service centers which offer copying and faxing. Vons has never forgotten its commitment to quality. Most stores now contain full-service Delis, scratch bakeries and complete floral departments. The company is particularly pleased to offer the Safeway SELECT line of premium quality products, encompassing over 1200 private label items.
Vons Cares
Vons has always taken its community responsibilities seriously. The company and its employees raise millions of dollars annually for their local Easter Seals Society. Employees are also able to earmark funds for specific charities through the Vons Foundation. The range of recipients has been broad, from teacher training to local food banks. It has always been Vons policy to support their communities at the local, personal level.
Vons has a continuing history of environmental responsibility, starting with cardboard recycling in 1960. Our environmental policy has included replacing ozone-depleting CFC´s in our store refrigeration systems. In addition our customers have helped us recycle several million pounds of shopping bags. Even more remarkable than Von's community leadership and growth to one of the largest food and drug retailers in North America is that it has not come at the expense of M.B.Scagg's vision.
His strong sense of customer value that proved so innovative in American Falls in 1915, continues to work successfully in a new century.
Vons Now Delivering in: San Fernando Valley, South Orange County, Inland Empire, North Orange County, San Gabriel Valley, West LA, South Bay, Temecula, San Diego, Oxnard, Ventura, Las Vegas, and Henderson.
