The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. Contact John via email.Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. Read more John Weeks at online and on his blog. The company’s new 2.3 million-square- foot corporate headquarters campus in San Bernardino includes the largest under-one-roof grocery distribution center in the nation.īrown has received a long list of awards and honors, most recently the Patriot Award presented by the Congressional Medal of Honor Society during ceremonies earlier this year at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. Under his leadership, it has grown to become a chain of 167 stores throughout Southern California that employs 18,000 people and generates annual sales of $4billion. The year 2011 marks not only the 75th anniversary of Stater Bros., but the 30th anniversary of Brown’s tenure with the company. He refused three offers by Petrolane to take over Stater Bros., before relenting and taking the job in 1981. Then he was off to Omaha to run American Community Stores. Then he returned to Southern California to become top executive of Pasadena-based Pantry Food Markets. He then moved to Indiana where he served nine years as a vice president of Marsh Supermarkets, a major Midwest chain. He started his career as a box boy at the old Berk’s Market Spot in San Bernardino, then rose to prominence as a young executive at San Bernardino-based Sage’s Complete Markets. Brown was hired to revive and lead the company.īrown, who eventually would take over ownership of Stater Bros., has major chops in the grocery business. In 1981, San Bernardino native son Jack H. The new owners continued to expand the business, but profits flattened. By then the chain had grown to 32 locations with 900 employees. In 1968, the brothers sold their business for $32million to Long Beach-based Petrolane Corp. At one San Bernardino store, diners sat in a balcony-level restaurant overlooking the grocery shoppers below. stores featured coffee shops offering full- menu service (chicken-fried steak, for example, was 79 cents and a banana split was 30 cents).
STATER BROS FONTANA FREE
They also offered free plane rides as a promotion at grand- opening ceremonies for new stores.ĭuring the 1950s, some Stater Bros. They both became licensed pilots and bought a Beechcraft Twin-Bonanza airplane, which they used to fly over neighborhoods and scout locations for new stores. Starting in the late 1940s, the brothers took to the skies to conduct market research. The brothers had so much cash on hand, and no safe, that they locked half of it in Cleo’s truck and the other half in Leo’s truck. The store sold out its entire stock in two days. opened its first large-format “supermarket” in Riverside in 1948. “We cordially invite you to visit the store and get acquainted with `the twins,”‘ the ad said. 18, 1936, set the tone for the folksy, good-neighbor approach that would become a company hallmark. Cleo and twin brother Leo sold everything they had and took out loans to raise the $10,000 needed to buy not only the market but the Davis family home at Yucaipa Boulevard and E Street. In 1936, when Davis decided to retire, he offered to sell the market to his trusted young assistant. Davis Market on West Yucaipa Boulevard.Ĭleo did well, and he worked his way up. He was paid 10 cents an hour to do chores at the little W.A.
In the winter of 1931, as the Depression threatened to ruin the family of Clarence and Mary Stater of Yucaipa, eldest son Cleo, 19, dropped out of his last year of high school and took a job to help his parents make ends meet. It all started with a hardworking high-school dropout. I’ve read my copy cover to cover, and I’ve learned a great deal about the region’s largest employer and sole Fortune 500 company that I never knew before.
STATER BROS FONTANA FULL
The new book “A Dream in the Making: Remembering 75 Golden Years” is full of great stories and photos charting the whole history of Stater Bros.Īvailable to the public only for a limited time at the company’s corporate offices in San Bernardino, the hardcover, commemorative volume is a must-have for anyone interested in the life and lore of the Inland Empire.
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