Jewel-Osco Announces Smaller Urban Format

Jewel-Osco (Melrose Park, Ill.), the regional supermarket division of Supervalu Inc. (Eden Prairie, Minn.), has announced plans for a 16,000-square-foot store in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood under the Urban Fresh, by Jewel banner. The store, just north of downtown Chicago, is scheduled to open this fall.

The food-and-drug retailer said the new store will be designed as a specialty grocery store with a focus on fresh and prepared meals for busy shoppers. “The smaller-format store is [a] complement to our larger, more traditional grocery stores,” said Jewel-Osco president Keith Nielsen. “We hope to learn as much as possible from the effort, paying close attention to customer feedback.”

The move follows efforts by other supermarket operators, including Safeway, A&P, Sobeys and Wal-Mart, to open smaller format stores in urban locations.

Jewel-Osco operates about 190 combination food-and-drug stores in Illinois and Indiana and is the largest grocery chain in Chicago, where it claims about 40 percent of the market. Supervalu, which acquired Jewel-Osco in 2006 from the old Albertson’s company (Boise, Idaho), has indicated plans for the biggest Chicago-area expansion of Jewel-Osco stores in decades.