Dominick's Supermarket, 1962

This retail grocery business was founded in Chicago by Dominick DiMatteo, who was eventually succeeded by his son Dominick Jr. In 1968, when it had grown to a chain of 18 stores, the company was purchased by Fisher Foods of Cleveland, Ohio. During the mid-1970s, the Dominick's chain employed about 6,000 Chicago-area residents. In 1981, when there were 71 stores in the chain, the DiMatteo family bought it back for $80 million. The chain proceeded to expand; its share of the retail grocery market in Chicago grew from about 13 percent in 1984 to about 25 percent by 1993. By the late 1980s, it had close to 18,000 workers in the Chicago area. In 1995, Oak Brook–based Dominick's was purchased by the Yucaipa Cos., a grocery company based in Los Angeles; three years later, it was acquired by a different California-based national chain, Safeway Inc. At the end of the century, the Safeway-owned Dominick's remained a leading grocery chain in the Chicago area and was still one of the area's top employers.

This entry is part of the Encyclopedia's Dictionary of Leading Chicago Businesses (1820-2000) that was prepared by Mark R. Wilson, with additional contributions from Stephen R. Porter and Janice L. Reiff.