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Porky Pig

Porky Pig is an animated character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. He was the first character created by the studio to draw audiences based on his star power, and the animators created many critically acclaimed shorts featuring the character. Even after he was supplanted by later characters, Porky continued to be popular with moviegoers and, more importantly, the Warners directors, who recast him in numerous everyman and sidekick roles.

He is known for his signature line at the end of many shorts, "(stutter) that's all, folks!" This slogan (without stuttering) had also been used by both Bosko and Buddy and even Beans at the end of Looney Tunes cartoons. Porky is the oldest continuing Looney Tunes character.

Porky's most distinctive trait is a severe stutter, for which he sometimes compensates by replacing his words; for example, "What's going on?" might become "What's guh-guh-guh-guh—...what's happening?" Porky's age varied widely in the series; originally conceived as an innocent seven-year-old piglet (explicitly mentioned as such in Porky's Preview), Porky was more frequently cast as an adult, often being cast as the competent straight man in the series in later years. At the ending of many Looney Tunes cartoons, Porky Pig bursts through a bass drum head, and his attempt to close the show with "The End" becomes "Th-Th-The, Th-Th-The, Th-Th... That's all, folks!" Porky Pig appeared in 153 cartoons in the Golden age of American animation.

Early films
The character was introduced in the 100th short, I Haven't Got a Hat (first released on March 2, 1935), directed by Friz Freleng. Studio head Leon Schlesinger suggested that Freleng do a cartoon version of the popular Our Gang films. Porky only has a minor role in the film, but the fat little stuttering pig quickly became popular. Porky's name came from two brothers who were childhood classmates of Freleng, nicknamed "Porky" and "Piggy".

Since Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising had left the studio in 1933, taking the studio's star character Bosko with them, Looney Tunes had been kept afloat by cartoons featuring the bland Buddy. Porky's introduction ushered Buddy out the door and pointed to things to come. Tex Avery was hired to the studio in 1935, and his film Gold Diggers of '49 reused much of the cast from I Haven't Got a Hat, albeit in wildly different roles. Porky transitioned from a shy little boy to an immensely fat adult. Though he was still in a supporting role, Porky got most of the laughs. The directors realized they had a star on their hands.

Porky shared his stutter with the voice actor who originally played him, Joe Dougherty, who was actually a person who stuttered. Because Dougherty could not control his stutter, however, production costs became too high as his recording sessions took hours, and Porky's additional lines were done by Count Cutelli. Mel Blanc replaced Dougherty in 1937. Blanc continued the stutter; however, it was harnessed for a more precise comedic effect (such as stumbling over a simple word only to substitute a longer word without difficulty, or vice versa). This is parodied in A Connecticut Rabbit in King Arthur's Court, where Bugs Bunny struggles to pronounce the word "porcupine", which Porky pronounces with no trouble.

Porky's Duck Hunt was released in 1937, and Blanc officially became the permanent voice of Porky until his death in 1989. In later interviews, Blanc often said that he intended Porky's stutter to be suggestive of the grunting of actual pigs. Porky's Duck Hunt was also the first film of another Looney Tunes star, Daffy Duck. Porky Pig is currently voiced by Bob Bergen.

Clampett's Porky
Porky starred in dozens of films in the late 1930s. The directors still did not have a grasp on the character, however; his appearance, age, and personality all varied from picture to picture. Several such cartoons show Porky as a child with parents: father Phineas (Porky the Rainmaker, Milk and Money, Porky's Poppa, and Porky and Teabiscuit) and an unnamed mother (Wholly Smoke and Porky's Hero Agency). Bob Clampett finally pinned Porky down in 1939, making him a permanent young adult: cuter, slimmer, smarter, and eventually less of a stutterer. Also, some cartoons show Porky as an antagonist (Porky's Duck Hunt, Porky's Hare Hunt, My Favorite Duck, A Corny Concerto, Duck Soup to Nuts, Daffy Doodles, Daffy Duck Hunt, Boobs in the Woods, Thumb Fun and Cracked Quack). Eventually, he settled into a kind persona. Clampett's Porky was an innocent traveler, taking in the world's wonders—and in Clampett's universe, the world is a very weird place. This principle is perhaps best demonstrated in Porky in Wackyland, a film that sends Porky on a quest to find the last of the surreal Dodos, Yoyo Dodo. Porky in Wackyland was selected for preservation by the National Film Registry in 2000.

In his commentary as part of the 1970s documentary film Bugs Bunny: Superstar, Clampett said that his early version of Tweety Bird had to be redesigned after his first picture because the producers thought he "looked naked". Meanwhile, as Clampett noted, nothing was ever made of the fact that "all those years, Porky never wore any pants!" However, Porky was seen with pants in Porky's Badtime Story, Tick Tock Tuckered and Brother Brat.

As a sidekick
Porky's post at the pinnacle of the Warners' pantheon was short-lived. In 1937, the studio tried pairing Porky with various sidekicks, such as love interest Petunia Pig, cantankerous foil Gabby Goat, and a screwy black duck, Daffy. Daffy Duck, the creation of Tex Avery, was by far the most popular, eventually outshining even Porky. In fact, Friz Freleng satirized this phenomenon when he directed You Ought to Be in Pictures (1940), where Daffy convinces Porky to quit his job at Warner Bros. to find better-paying work elsewhere. Porky then convinces studio head Leon Schlesinger to release him from his contract. After a highly unsuccessful foray into the real world, Porky returns happily to the studio that created him. To this day, Porky remains as a loyal sidekick while Daffy refuses to be a second banana to Bugs Bunny, who rose to prominence shortly after Daffy.

Porky always remained a sentimental favorite of the Warner directors. His mild-mannered nature and shy demeanor made him the perfect straight man for zanier characters such as Daffy. He still starred in a few solo cartoons as well, such as Frank Tashlin's Brother Brat. Other cartoons dumbed Porky down and cast him as a duck hunter after Daffy, largely paralleling the Elmer Fudd/Bugs Bunny pairings. Chuck Jones perfected the Porky-as-straight man scenarios, pairing the pig with Daffy Duck in a series of film and television parodies such as Drip-Along Daffy, Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century, Rocket Squad, Deduce, You Say!, The Scarlet Pumpernickel and Robin Hood Daffy. Jones also paired Porky with Sylvester in a series of cartoons in the late 1940s and early 1950s, in which Porky plays the curmudgeonly and naive owner of the cat and remains clueless that Sylvester is constantly saving him from homicidal mice, space aliens and other threats.

Later years
Porky was used in regular rotation in television syndication beginning in the 1960s, as were the rest of his Looney Tunes co-stars. A Saturday morning cartoon, The Porky Pig Show, ran from 1964 to 1967. In 1971, he starred in another show, Porky Pig and Friends. Both of these programs were collections of old theatrical shorts. Porky also appeared in all the classic film-feature compilations in the 1970s and 1980s. Another such collection was the 1986 film, Porky Pig in Hollywood, which ran in art and college theaters.

Porky made an appearance in the Disney/Amblin film Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) at the end of the film where he, being paired with Disney's Tinkerbell, closes the movie with his famous line "Th-Th-Th-That's All Folks!". It was the last time that Mel Blanc voiced Porky before his death in 1989. In the 1990s animated series Tiny Toon Adventures, Porky appears as the mentor of Hamton J. Pig. He was voiced by Bob Bergen in "Animaniacs" and "Hero Hamton", Rob Paulsen in "The Wacko World of Sports", Noel Blanc in "Fields of Honey", "The Acme Bowl" and "Hero Hamton", Joe Alaskey in "Music Day", and Greg Burson in "It's a Wonderful Tiny Toons Christmas Special". Porky also made cameo appearances in Animaniacs (where he was voiced by Rob Paulsen in ”De-Zanitized”, Greg Burson in “The Warners' 65th Anniversary Special”, and Bob Bergen in “Suffragette City”) and Histeria! (where he was voiced by Billy West).

Porky appears in the movie Space Jam (1996) and collaborates with Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, and Sylvester in challenging the Nerdlucks to a basketball game. He tries to get Michael Jordan's autograph when the basketball star is first recruited to join the team and later plays for the Tune Squad in the game itself, scoring one basket. Porky tries to end the movie with his famous line but is prevented by the combined efforts of Bugs, Daffy, and the Nerdlucks. He was voiced by Bob Bergen.

Porky is the star of the Super NES video game Porky Pig's Haunted Holiday (1995). He also made appearances in the games Looney Tunes: Acme Arsenal, Looney Tunes: Marvin Strikes Back!, Looney Tunes: Space Race, Looney Tunes: Back in Action, Bugs Bunny Rabbit Rampage and The Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout. Bob Bergen reprises his role in these games.

In the movie Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003), Porky (Bob Bergen again) makes a cameo appearance alongside Speedy Gonzales, where they both lament their politically incorrect status. At the end of the movie, Porky tries to say his classic line, but stutters so much, the lights are turned off around him as the studio closes for the night; so an irritated Porky simply says, "G-g-go home, folks."

Porky appears as a toddler version of himself in Baby Looney Tunes (2002), albeit only in the show's musical numbers. Petunia functioned as the show's more major pig character.

Porky appears as the "Eager Young Space Cadet" in the animated series Duck Dodgers (2003–2005), again voiced by Bob Bergen.

Porky has a descendant in Loonatics Unleashed (2005–2007) named Pinkster Pig (who was also voiced by Bob Bergen). Pinkster had been an old friend of Danger Duck (Daffy Duck's descendant), but became a villain when he was adopted by Stoney and Bugsy (descendants of Rocky and Mugsy).

Porky also appears in most episodes of Cartoon Network's animated series The Looney Tunes Show (2011–2014), voiced again by Bob Bergen. He is still friends with Daffy Duck and often sucked into Daffy's schemes. Porky is also Daffy's nervous, fall guy buddy, similar to their relationship in classic comic books. It is also revealed in the show that in his high school years, he was a jock who bullied Daffy, while during their childhood years, it was Daffy who bullied Porky.

In the documentary I Know That Voice (2013), Bob Bergen explains how to recreate the pig's famous stutter, demonstrating how difficult it is to do it without practice. He finishes the segment by joking "Nobody [else] can do that, and that's why I have job security!"

Porky appears in the direct-to-video movie Looney Tunes: Rabbits Run (2015), reprised by Bob Bergen.

Porky Pig appears as a recurring character in New Looney Tunes, voiced once again by Bob Bergen. Here, he is shown to be fatter, like some of his earlier appearances in the mid-1930s. Porky was first mentioned in "Dust Bugster", where he told Bugs about a television series whose name was not mentioned that led to Bugs binge-watching it.

In the 2018 DC Comics and Looney Tunes comic crossovers, Porky appeared in a story that paired him with Lex Luthor. This version of Porky was the successful owner of a company named Porkybux before it was hacked and ran him out of business. He is later approached by Lex to be in charge of LexCorp's social media division and lets Lex get away with harassing his employees and stealing their sandwiches as repayment for the second chance. It is later revealed that Lex gave him the position to frame Porky when he used his social media website to steal important passwords from their users. Porky begins an autobiography in prison to expose Lex for his actions. In the backup story stylized more like Looney Tunes, Porky tries selling Acme office supplies to Lex but ends up stopping Lex from defeating Superman.

Porky's latest appearance is in Looney Tunes Cartoons, where he is once again voiced by Bob Bergen. His personality is based on the earlier shorts, however, his appearance is based on later shorts like The Looney Tunes Show for example. He is mostly paired with Daffy Duck who always drives him crazy.

A humanoid version of Porky also appeared in Tom King's Batman/Elmer Fudd Special, where he ran a bar called Porky's which often featured attendants that were humanoid versions of other Looney Tunes characters. The bar and Porky also made a cameo in Tom King's Batman series.

Porky appears in the preschool series Bugs Bunny Builders which aired on Cartoon Network's Cartoonito block and HBO Max, where he is once again voiced by Bob Bergen.

Porky appears in the Teen Titans Go! episode, "Warner Bros. 100th Anniversary". He is among the Looney Tunes characters guests for the Warner Bros. centennial celebration, voiced once again by Bob Bergen.

"Blooper"
A short black-and-white cartoon was made in 1938 as part of a Warner Bros. blooper reel. It was shown on the Warner Bros. 50th Anniversary TV show. Porky is shown doing some carpentry work, pounding nails, when he smacks his thumb with the hammer. Grimacing in pain, he cries, "Oh, son of a bi-bi-, son of a bi-bi-, son of a bi-bi-bi-... gun!" He then turns to the viewers and says "Ha-ha-ha! You thought I was gonna say 's-s-son of a bitch', didn't ya?"

This short, so-called "blooper" can also be found on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 4 of 2006, under the title Porky Pig Breakdowns of 1939 (with several versions of the clip, making it look like a true "blooper"), and on an Each Dawn I Die DVD box set, also released in 2006. Though the "blooper" was made a year before Gone with the Wind famously used the word in the line "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn", due to the Motion Picture Production Code the "blooper" was not shown publicly until the aforementioned special, which by that point FCC regulations softened enough for the word "bitch" to be used on television. The blooper was also shown as part of a package of other vintage bloopers on Warner Cable pay-per-view in the 80s. The blooper was animated by Rod Scribner, widely considered as one of the best Looney Tunes animators of all time.

Voice actors

 * Joe Dougherty (1935–1937)
 * Count Cutelli (1935–1937, additional lines)
 * Mel Blanc (1937–1989)
 * Gilbert Mack (Golden Records records, Bugs Bunny Songfest)
 * Malcolm McNeill (Spin a Magic Tune)
 * Richard Andrews (Bugs Bunny Exercise and Adventure Album)
 * Scott P. Allen (1984 "That's All Folks" cover)
 * Gilbert Grilli (1984 "That's All Folks" cover)
 * Jeff Bergman (The Earth Day Special, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, Bugs Bunny's Overtures to Disaster, Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers, Special Delivery Symphony, The 1st 13th Annual Fancy Anvil Award Show Program Special...Live!...in Stereo, Cartoon Network's Funniest Bloopers and Other Embarrassing Moments, Boomerang bumpers, Porky and Daffy in the William Tell Overture)
 * Noel Blanc (You Rang? answering machine messages, Happy Birthday, Bugs!: 50 Looney Years, Tiny Toon Adventures, Bugs Bunny on Broadway, Bugs Bunny at the Symphony )
 * Rob Paulsen (Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs )
 * Bob Bergen (1990–present)
 * Joe Alaskey (Tiny Toon Adventures, Crash! Bang! Boom! The Best of WB Sound FX )
 * Keith Scott (The Christmas Looney Tunes Classic Collection, Tazos Looney Tunes commercial, Looney Tunes: What's Up Rock?!, Looney Tunes LIVE! Classroom Capers, The Looney Tunes Radio Show, Looney Rock)
 * Greg Burson (Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, Bugs Bunny: Rabbit Rampage, Acme Animation Factory, Porky Pig's Haunted Holiday, Quest for Camelot promotion )
 * Eric Goldberg (Superior Duck)
 * Billy West (Histeria!, Sprint commercial, My Generation G...G...Gap)
 * Gary Martin (Looney Tunes Take-Over Weekend promotions)
 * Eric Bauza (Space Jam: A New Legacy, Bugs and Daffy's Thanksgiving Road Trip, Acme Fools, Looney Tunes pinball machine, The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie )
 * Roger Black (Paradise PD)

Reception
Porky was ranked number 47 on TV Guide's list of top 50 cartoon characters. He was shown on one of that issue's two covers in a crossover scene with Duck Dodgers and The Powerpuff Girls.

Notable films
See also List of cartoons featuring Porky Pig
 * I Haven't Got a Hat (1935) (debut)
 * Plane Dippy (1935) (first cartoon in his series)
 * Porky's Duck Hunt (1937) (first appearance with Daffy Duck)
 * Porky in Wackyland (1938) (inducted in the National Film Registry for being culturally, historically and aesthetically significant)
 * Porky Pig's Feat (1943) (one of the few short films in which Porky interacts with both Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny)
 * Kitty Kornered (1946) (first appearance with Sylvester)
 * The Wearing of the Grin (1951) (final solo appearance)
 * Corn on the Cop (1965) (final short theatrical appearance with original footage)
 * Mucho Locos (1966) (with archive footage makes it his final short theatrical appearance)
 * Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) (cameo)
 * Space Jam (1996)
 * Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003) (cameo)
 * Space Jam: A New Legacy (2021)

title: Porky Pig


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User:Safrax

Safrax lives in the armpit of Utah, Ogden. He is often referred to as looking like the archetypal Jesus or John Lennon.

He's not sure what he wants to do with his life, but right now, he's majoring in physics at Weber State University.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: User:Safrax


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Hans von Kulmbach

Hans Suess, known as Hans von Kulmbach (1480 in Kulmbach, Franconia – prior to 3 December 1522 in Nuremberg), was a German artist active in Poland. Hans von Kulmbach was the artist who created the Kraków St John's Altar.

Life
Kulmbach probably arrived in Nuremberg around 1505. He received instruction by Jacopo de' Barbari, who for a time worked in Nuremberg. Von Kulmbach then apprenticed with Albrecht Dürer and after Dürer retired from painting altarpieces in 1510 Kulmbach took over most of his commissions. Kulmbach had his own workshop in Nuremberg and at times worked in Kraków. He also created artworks for emperor Maximilian I and for Margrave Casimir Hohenzollern von Brandenburg-Kulmbach. His best works were stained-glass windows in churches, such as the Maximilian stained-glass, Margrave stained-glass at St. Sebald in Nuremberg, the Welser stained-glass at the Frauenkirche and the Nikolaus altar at Lorenzkirche. In 1511 he finished the St. Mary's altar at Skałka in Kraków. The Catherine and St. John's altar also in Kraków, are among his best works.

title: Hans von Kulmbach


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Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party

The Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party, officially the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is the highest political body of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.

Currently, the bureau is a group of 24 top officials who oversee the party and central government. The politburo is headed by a general secretary. Unlike politburos of other communist parties, power within the CCP Politburo is further centralized in the Politburo Standing Committee, a group of 7 individuals from among the larger Politburo.

The Politburo is elected by the Central Committee. In practice, however, scholars of Chinese elite politics believe that the Politburo is a self-perpetuating body, with new members of both the Politburo and its Standing Committee chosen through a series of deliberations by current Politburo members and retired Politburo Standing Committee members. The current and former Politburo members conduct a series of informal straw polls to determine the group's level of support for each new candidate's membership in the Politburo. The process for selecting the new Politburo begins with a closed door meeting by the incumbent Politburo Standing Committee in Beidaihe in the summer before the National Congress of the CCP convenes.

The power of the Politburo resides largely in the fact that its members generally simultaneously hold positions within the People's Republic of China state positions and with the control over personnel appointments that the Politburo and Secretariat have. In addition, some Politburo members hold powerful regional positions. How the Politburo works internally is unclear, but it appears that the full Politburo meets once a month and the standing committee meets weekly. This is believed to be much less frequent than meetings of the former Soviet Politburo. The agenda for the meetings is controlled by the CCP general secretary and decisions are made by consensus rather than by majority vote.

History
The Politburo was eclipsed by the Secretariat of the Chinese Communist Party in the early 1980s under Hu Yaobang, but has re-emerged as a dominant force after Hu's ousting in 1987.

Composition and selection
Since the 1990s, Politburo members concurrently held posts in the party apparatus, in state posts, and as regional party chiefs. Some are party secretaries of important provinces or municipalities. In addition, members serving in the military and security sectors have been limited to 3 posts. In contrast, most members in the 1980s had a military command background. In 2017, for the 19th Central Committee Politburo, aside from the heads of the four main institutional hierarchies—the CCP, the National People's Congress, the State Council and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, there were six members each holding posts in the party, the national government, the regional governments, and three in the military. The average age of the 2017 Politburo's members was 62, which was similar to those in recent decades. Before that, the Party under Deng Xiaoping deliberately encouraged turnover by imposing term limits and retirement ages.

In October 2017, at the First Plenary Session of the 19th CCP Central Committee, it was decided that all Politburo members shall make an annual written presentation to the Central Committee and the General Secretary. In March 2018, all Standing Committee members and members of the Politburo made their first written presentation to the Central Committee and General Secretary Xi Jinping.

Since the 17th National Congress, the official way of electing the Politburo was through a process called "democratic recommendation" where the CCP conducted a straw poll of 200 candidates to the Politburo, which were factored into the final list of candidates presented at the National Congress of the CCP. However, this was abolished in the 19th National Congress under Xi, which denounced the "vote buying" and the "voting based on personal connections and favors" of this method, particularly in connection to politicians who fell after the anti-corruption campaign under Xi. The process was officially replaced with a method of "face-to-face interviews, investigation and study".

Cadre training
In 2001, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party published the 2001-2005 National Plan for Cadre Training elevating the importance of cadre training for Chinese economic reform. The salaries of staff in party schools were brought in line with the salaries paid in regular Chinese universities. Teaching, research, and information technology was modernized to enable distance education throughout the party school system.

Modern cadre training focuses on quality and ability. Students are trained in ideological orthodoxy, submitting to Leninism and party discipline. The young cadre is trained in applying their knowledge creatively and independently, so as to deal flexibly with complex issues and accept continuous learning. The initiative for cadre training after 2002 was buttressed by the Central Party School, and the regional party schools, including the Party Schools in Shanghai and Shenzhen.

Activities
The Politburo and the Politburo Standing Committee are the top decision-making institutions for the CCP Central Committee.

The Politburo typically meets once a month. The Politburo holds regular study sessions which serve as an opportunity for CCP leadership to promote new policies. Since 2002, these sessions have been widely publicized. Frequently, they address foreign affairs.

Current Politburo
The 20th Politburo was elected at the first plenary session of the 20th Central Committee in October 2022.


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Sidewalk

A sidewalk (North American English), pavement (British English), footpath in Australia, India, New Zealand and Ireland, or footway is a path along the side of a road. Usually constructed of concrete, pavers, brick, stone, or asphalt, it is designed for pedestrians. A sidewalk is normally higher than the roadway, and separated from it by a kerb (spelled "curb" in North America). There may also be a planted strip between the sidewalk and the roadway and between the roadway and the adjacent land.

In some places, the same term may also be used for a paved path, trail or footpath that is not next to a road, such as a path through a park.

Terminology
The term "sidewalk" is preferred in most of North America. The term "pavement" is more common in the United Kingdom and other members of the Commonwealth of Nations, as well as parts of the Mid-Atlantic United States such as Philadelphia and parts of New Jersey. Many Commonwealth countries use the term "footpath". The professional, civil engineering and legal term for this in North America is "sidewalk" while in the United Kingdom it is "footway".

In the United States, the term sidewalk is used for the pedestrian path beside a road. "Shared use paths" or "multi-use paths" are available for use by both pedestrians and bicyclists. "Walkway" is a more comprehensive term that includes stairs, ramps, passageways, and related structures that facilitate the use of a path as well as the sidewalk. In the UK, the term "footpath" is mostly used for paths that do not abut a roadway. The term "shared-use path" is used where cyclists are also able to use the same section of path as pedestrians.

History

Sidewalks have operated for at least 4,000 years. The Greek city of Corinth had sidewalks by the 4th-century BC, and the Romans built sidewalks – they called them sēmitae.

However, by the Middle Ages, narrow roads had reverted to being simultaneously used by pedestrians and wagons without any formal separation between the two categories. Early attempts at ensuring the adequate maintenance of foot-ways or sidewalks were often made, as in the Colchester Improvement Act 1623 (21 Jas. 1. c. 34) for Colchester, but they were generally not very effective.

Following the Great Fire of London in 1666, attempts were slowly made to bring some order to the sprawling city. In 1671, "Certain Orders, Rules and Directions Touching the Paving and Cleansing The Streets, Lanes and Common Passages within the City of London" were formulated, calling for all streets to be adequately paved for pedestrians with cobblestones. Purbeck stone was widely used as a durable paving material. Bollards were also installed to protect pedestrians from the traffic in the middle of the road.

The British House of Commons passed a series of Paving Acts from the 18th century. The 1766 Paving & Lighting Act authorized the City of London Corporation to establish foot-ways throughout all the streets of London, to pave them with Purbeck stone (the thoroughfare in the middle was generally cobblestone) and to raise them above the street level with kerbs forming the separation. The corporation was also made responsible for the regular upkeep of the roads, including their cleaning and repair, for which they charged a tax from 1766. Another turning point was the construction of Paris's Pont Neuf (1578–1606) which set several trends including wide, raised sidewalks separating pedestrians from the road traffic, plus the first Parisian bridge without houses built on it, and its generous width plus elegant, durable design that immediately became popular for promenading at the beginning of the century that saw Paris take its form renowned to this day. It was also a cultural phenomenon because all classes mixed on the new walkways. By the 19th-century large and spacious sidewalks were routinely constructed in European capitals, and were associated with urban sophistication.

Transportation
Sidewalks played an important role in transportation, as they provided a path for people to walk along without stepping on horse manure. They aided road safety by minimizing interaction between pedestrians, horses, carriages, and later automobiles. Sidewalks are normally in pairs, one on each side of the road, with the center section of the road for motorized vehicles. Crosswalks provide pedestrians a space to cross between the two sides of the street at predictable locations.

On rural roads, sidewalks may not be present as the amount of traffic (pedestrian or motorized) may not be enough to justify separating the two. In suburban and urban areas, sidewalks are more common. In town and city centers (known as downtown in North America) the amount of pedestrian traffic can exceed motorized traffic, and in this case the sidewalks can occupy more than half of the width of the road, or the whole road can be pedestrianized.

Environment
Sidewalks may have a small effect on reducing vehicle miles traveled and carbon dioxide emissions. A study of sidewalk and transit investments in Seattle neighborhoods found vehicle travel reductions of 6 to 8% and CO2 emission reductions of 1.3 to 2.2%

Road traffic safety

Research commissioned for the Florida Department of Transportation, published in 2005, found that, in Florida, the Crash Reduction Factor (used to estimate the expected reduction of crashes during a given period) resulting from the installation of sidewalks averaged 74%. Research at the University of North Carolina for the U.S. Department of Transportation found that the presence or absence of a sidewalk and the speed limit are significant factors in the likelihood of a vehicle/pedestrian crash. Sidewalk presence had a risk ratio of 0.118, which means that the likelihood of a crash on a road with a paved sidewalk was 88.2 percent lower than one without a sidewalk. The authors wrote that "this should not be interpreted to mean that installing sidewalks would necessarily reduce the likelihood of pedestrian/motor vehicle crashes by 88.2 percent in all situations. However, the presence of a sidewalk clearly has a strong beneficial effect of reducing the risk of a 'walking along roadway' pedestrian/motor vehicle crash." The study does not count crashes that happen when walking across a roadway. The speed limit risk ratio was 1.116, which means that a 16.1-km/h (10-mi/h) increase in the limit yields a factor of (1.116)10 or 3.

The presence or absence of sidewalks was one of three factors that were found to encourage drivers to choose lower, safer speeds.

On the other hand, the implementation of schemes which involve the removal of sidewalks, such as shared space schemes, are reported to deliver a dramatic drop in crashes and congestion too, which indicates that a number of other factors, such as the local speed environment, also play an important role in whether sidewalks are necessarily the best local solution for pedestrian safety.

In cold weather, black ice is a common problem with unsalted sidewalks. The ice forms a thin transparent surface film which is almost impossible to see, and so results in many slips by pedestrians.

Riding bicycles on sidewalks is discouraged since some research shows it to be more dangerous than riding in the street. Some jurisdictions prohibit sidewalk riding except for children. In addition to the risk of cyclist/pedestrian collisions, cyclists face increase risks from collisions with motor vehicles at street crossings and driveways. Riding in the direction opposite to traffic in the adjacent lane is especially risky.

Health
Since residents of neighborhoods with sidewalks are more likely to walk, they tend to have lower rates of cardiovascular disease, obesity, and other health issues related to sedentary lifestyles. Also, children who walk to school have been shown to have better concentration.

Social uses
Some sidewalks may be used as social spaces with sidewalk cafés, markets, or busking musicians, as well as for parking for a variety of vehicles including cars, motorbikes and bicycles. Sidewalk surfing was often used in the early 1960s to describe skateboarding. )

Construction
Contemporary sidewalks are most often made of concrete in North America, while tarmac, asphalt, brick, stone, slab and (increasingly) rubber are more common in Europe. Different materials are more or less friendly environmentally: pumice-based trass, for example, when used as an extender is less energy-intensive than Portland cement concrete or petroleum-based materials such as asphalt or tar-penetration macadam. Multi-use paths alongside roads are sometimes made of materials that are softer than concrete, such as asphalt.

Some sidewalks may be built like a Meandering Sidewalk. The meandering sidewalk is the wavy sidewalk that veers back and forth at the side of the road, no matter how straight the street. These sidewalks are common in North America and are used to break up the monotonous alignments of city blocks.

Wood
In the 19th century and early 20th century, sidewalks of wood were common in some North American locations. They may still be found at historic beach locations and in conservation areas to protect the land beneath and around, called boardwalks.

Brick
Brick sidewalks are found in some urban areas, usually for aesthetic purposes. Brick sidewalks are generally consolidated with brick hammers, rollers, and sometimes motorized vibrators.

Stone
Stone slabs called flagstones or flags are sometimes used where an attractive appearance is required, as in historic town centers.

For example, in Melbourne, Australia, bluestone has been used to pave the sidewalks of the CBD since the Gold rush in the 1850s because it proved to be stronger, more plentiful and easier to work than most other available materials.

Stone and concrete pavers
Pre-cast concrete pavers are used for sidewalks, often colored or textured to resemble stone. Sometimes cobblestones are used, though they are generally considered too uneven for comfortable walking.

Concrete
In the United States and Canada, the most common type of sidewalk consists of a poured concrete "ribbon", examples of which from as early as the 1860s can be found in good repair in San Francisco, and stamped with the name of the contractor and date of installation. When Portland cement was first imported to the United States in the 1880s, its principal use was in the construction of sidewalks.

Today, most sidewalk ribbons are constructed with cross-lying strain-relief grooves placed or sawn at regular intervals, typically 5 ft apart. This partitioning, an improvement over the continuous slab ribbon, was patented in 1924 by Arthur Wesley Hall and William Alexander McVay, who wished to minimize damage to the concrete from the effects of tectonic and temperature fluctuations, both of which can crack longer segments. The technique is not perfect, as freeze-thaw cycles (in cold-winter regions) and tree root growth can eventually result in damage which requires repair.

In highly variable climates which undergo multiple freeze-thaw cycles, concrete blocks will be formed with separations, called expansion joints, to allow for thermal expansion without breakage. The use of expansion joints in sidewalks may not be necessary, as the concrete will shrink while setting.

Tarmac and asphalt
In the United Kingdom, Australia and France suburban sidewalks are most commonly constructed of tarmac. In urban or inner-city areas sidewalks are most commonly constructed of slabs, stone, or brick depending upon the surrounding street architecture and furniture.

title: Sidewalk


text:
John Doe

John Doe (male) and Jane Doe (female) are multiple-use placeholder names that are used in the United States when the true name of a person is unknown or is being intentionally concealed. In the context of law enforcement in the United States, such names are often used to refer to a corpse whose identity is unknown or cannot be confirmed. These names are also often used to refer to a hypothetical "everyman" in other contexts, like John Q. Public or "Joe Public". There are many variants to the above names, including John (or Richard)/Jane Roe, John/Jane Smith, John/Jane Bloggs, and Johnie/Janie Doe or just Baby Doe for children.

A. N. Other is also a placeholder name, mainly used in the United Kingdom — which is gender neutral — along side Joe / Jo Bloggs and the now occasional use of the "John" and "Jane Doe" names.

In criminal investigation
In other English-speaking countries, unique placeholder names, numbers or codenames have become more often used in the context of police investigations. This has included the United Kingdom, where usage of "John Doe" originated during the Middle Ages. However, the legal term John Doe injunction or John Doe order has survived in English law and other legal systems influenced by it. Other names, such as "Joe Bloggs" or "John Smith", have sometimes been informally used as placeholders for an every-man in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand; however such names are seldom used in legal or police circles in the same sense as John Doe.

Well-known legal cases named after placeholders include:
 * The landmark 1973 US Supreme Court decisions regarding abortion: Roe v. Wade ("Roe" being a pseudonym) and Doe v. Bolton (1973); and
 * The civil cases Doe dem. John Hurrell Luscombe v Yates, Hawker, and Mudge (1822) 5 B. & Ald. 544 (England), McKeogh v. John Doe (Ireland; 2012) and Uber Technologies, Inc. v. Doe I (California, 2015).

History
Under the legal terminology of Ancient Rome, the names "Numerius Negidius" and "Aulus Agerius" were used in relation to hypothetical defendants and plaintiffs.

The names "John Doe" (or "John Do") and "Richard Roe" (along with "John Roe") were regularly invoked in English legal instruments to satisfy technical requirements governing standing and jurisdiction, beginning perhaps as early as the reign of England's King Edward III (1327–1377). Though the rationale behind the choices of Doe and Roe is unknown, there are many suggested folk etymologies. Other fictitious names for a person involved in litigation in medieval English law were "John Noakes" (or "Nokes") and "John-a-Stiles" (or "John Stiles"). The Oxford English Dictionary states that John Doe is "the name given to the fictitious lessee of the plaintiff, in the (now obsolete in the UK) mixed action of ejectment, the fictitious defendant being called Richard Roe".

This usage is mocked in the 1834 English song "John Doe and Richard Roe":

This particular use became obsolete in the UK in 1852: "As is well known, the device of involving real people as notional lessees and ejectors was used to enable freeholders to sue the real ejectors. These were then replaced by the fictional characters John Doe and Richard Roe. Eventually the medieval remedies were (mostly) abolished by the Real Property Limitation Act of 1833; the fictional characters of John Doe and Richard Roe by the Common Law Procedure Act 1852; and the forms of action themselves by the Judicature Acts 1873–75.' Secretary of State for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs v Meier and others (2009)."

In the UK, usage of "John Doe" survives mainly in the form of John Doe injunction or John Doe order (see above).

"8.02 If an unknown person has possession of the confidential personal information and is threatening to disclose it, a 'John Doe' injunction may be sought against that person. The first time this form of injunction was used since 1852 in the United Kingdom was in 2005 when lawyers acting for JK Rowling and her publishers obtained an interim order against an unidentified person who had offered to sell chapters of a stolen copy of an unpublished Harry Potter novel to the media."

Unlike the United States, the name "John Doe" does not actually appear in the formal name of the case, for example: X & Y v Persons Unknown [2007] HRLR 4.

Well-known cases of unidentified decedents include "Caledonia Jane Doe" (1979), "Princess Doe" (1982) and "Walker County Jane Doe" (1980), all of whom have been identified. The baby victim in a 2001 murder case in Kansas City, Missouri, was referred to as Precious Doe.

In 2009, the New York Times reported the difficulties and unwanted attention experienced by a man actually named John Doe, who had often been suspected of using a pseudonym. He had been questioned repeatedly by airport security staff. Another man named John Doe was often suspected of being an incognito celebrity.

Other variants
In cases where a large number of unidentified individuals are mentioned, numbers may be appended, such as "Doe #2" or "Doe II". Operation Delego (2009), which targeted an international child sexual abuse ring, cited 21 numbered "John Does", as well as other people known by the surnames "Doe", "Roe", "Hoe" and "Poe".

"John Stiles", "Richard Miles" have been used for the third and fourth participants in an action. "Mary Major" has been used in some federal cases in the US. "James Doe" and "Judy Doe" are among other common variants.

Less often, other surnames ending in -oe have been used when more than two unknown or unidentified persons are named in U.S. court proceedings, e.g.,
 * Poe v. Snyder, 834 F.Supp.2d 721 (W. D. Mich. 2011), whose full style is Jane Poe, John Doe, Richard Roe, Robert Roe, Mark Moe, Larry Loe, Degage Ministries, and Mel Trotter Ministries, Plaintiffs, v. Rick Snyder, Governor of the State of Michigan, Bill Schuette, Attorney General of the State of Michigan, Kriste Etue, Director of the Michigan State Police, William Forsyth, Kent County Prosecutor, in their official capacities, Defendants; and
 * Friedman v. Ferguson, No. 87-3758, unpublished disposition, 850 F.2d 689 (4th Cir., 29 June 1988), whose full style is Wilbur H. Friedman, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Thomas B. FERGUSON, Director, Department of Animal Control, a State Actor, In His Official and Individual Capacities; Brett Boe; Carla Coe; Donna Doe; Frank Foe; Grace Goe; Harry Hoe; State Actors, Advisors To Defendant Ferguson, In Their Official and Individual Capacities (identities currently unknown); Marta Moe; Norma Noe; Paula Poe; Ralph Roe; Sammy Soe; Tommy Toe; Private Individuals Who Conspired With the Foregoing State Actors (identities currently unknown); Roger W. Galvin, Chairman, Animal Matters Hearing Board; Vince Voe; William Woe; Xerxes Xoe; Members of the Animal Matters Hearing Board, State Actors, In Their Official and Individual Capacities (identities currently unknown), Defendants-Appellees.

In Massachusetts, "Mary Moe" is used to refer to pregnant women under the age of 18 petitioning the Superior Court for a judicial bypass exception to the parental consent requirement for abortion. "Mary Moe" is also used to refer to such cases generally, i.e. "Mary Moe cases". Sometimes "Mary Doe" may be used for the individuals.

Parallels in other countries include:
 * "Ashok Kumar" has been used in court cases in India.
 * "X ben X" (lit. 'X, son of X', إكس بن إكس or سين بن سين) is used in Morocco for unidentified bodies, suspects, hospital patients, amnesiacs, homeless people with no identity documents, and orphans.
 * the abbreviation N.N., which is commonly used in European legal systems, as an abbreviation for Latin terms such as:
 * nomen nescio ("I do not know the name") in Belgium, Germany, Italy and Serbia; and
 * nomen nominandum ("the name must be mentioned") in the Netherlands.
 * Ploni, Almoni, or Ploni Almoni are used in Israel, the names originating in the Hebrew Bible. Israel Israeli is a newer variant, used in Israel today.

In 1997, New York City police discovered a decapitated body and were not able to find the killer. The body was named Peaches (murder victim) and also Jane Doe 3.

Famous court cases

 * The landmark 1973 abortion cases Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton get their names from anonymous plaintiffs later revealed to be, respectively, Norma McCorvey and Sandra Cano.
 * A Toronto woman, publicly known only as Jane Doe, waged an 11-year court battle against the Toronto Police Service after being raped in 1986, alleging that the police had used her as bait to catch the Balcony Rapist. She won the case in 1998, and was named Chatelaine Woman of the Year that year. She published a book about her experience, The Story of Jane Doe: A Book about Rape, in 2003.
 * A Doe subpoena is an investigatory tool that a plaintiff may use to seek the identity of an unknown defendant. Doe subpoenas are often served on online service providers and ISPs to obtain the identity of the author of an anonymous post.
 * Serial killer Richard Laurence Marquette confessed to the murder of an unknown woman identified only as Jane Doe.
 * File sharing websites were blocked in India on 21 July 2011 on some ISPs including Bharti Airtel, BSNL, and Reliance Communications, because Reliance BIG Pictures got a "John Doe" order from Delhi High Court allowing them to serve cease and desist notices on people illegally redistributing the film Singham. This allegedly brought down copyright infringement of the film by 30%.
 * On 29 August 2011, Reliance Entertainment procured a 'John Doe' order from the Delhi High Court to prevent the illegal broadcast or streaming of its upcoming film Bodyguard. This order gives protection to the intellectual property owner, Reliance Entertainment, from copyright violation by prospective anonymous offenders.

The use and selection of pseudonyms is not standardized in U.S. courts. The practice was rare prior to 1969, and is sometimes objected to on legal grounds. "Currently there are no court rules about pseudonym use. The rules of civil procedure ... are silent on the matter ... Rule of Civil Procedure 10(a) reads, '... In the complaint, the title of the action shall include the names of all the parties ...' The rule contains no guidance as to what parties should do to keep their names confidential." "Prior to ... 1969, only one Supreme Court case, three court of appeals' decisions, and one district court decision in the previous quarter-century featured an anonymous individual as the sole or lead plaintiff. Between 1969 and 22 January 1973, the date when the Supreme Court decided Roe and Doe, there were twenty-one district court and two court of appeals decisions featuring anonymous plaintiffs."
 * On 18 January 2015, a woman was sexually assaulted on the campus of Stanford University in California. The victim impact statement that the woman, referred to as Emily Doe in court documents, read at her assailant's sentencing hearing the following year went viral, and she was named a "woman of the year" by Glamour magazine. She publicly revealed her real name, Chanel Miller, in 2019.
 * On 10 March 2015, HTG Capital Partners LLC filed a federal lawsuit against unnamed "spoofers", whom the suit referred to as John Doe(s), in the hopes of getting a judge to force the Chicago Mercantile Exchange to reveal the names of the firms. HTG said it had found evidence of thousands of such manipulations over 2013 and 2014.
 * In November 2016, a woman only identified as "Jane Doe" abandoned plans to go public about allegedly being raped by Donald Trump.
 * In October 2017, an unidentified minor Jane Doe detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement sued to enjoin the government from obstructing her access to abortion in Garza v. Hargan.
 * In March 2021, Justice Molloy of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice named mass murderer and perpetrator of the 2018 Toronto van attack, Alek Minassian, who was seeking notoriety, as John Doe when reading a highly publicized court decision (R. v. Minassian, 2021 ONSC 1258).

title: John Doe


text:
Jane Doe (disambiguation)

Jane Doe is a placeholder name for a party whose true identity is unknown or must be otherwise withheld; especially if the unknown party is known, perceived or presumed to be female (a girl or woman).

Jane Doe may also refer to:

Film

 * Jane Doe (2001 film), a 2001 American television film
 * Jane Doe (film series), on the Hallmark cable channel
 * The Autopsy of Jane Doe, a 2016 American supernatural horror film

Music

 * Jane Doe (album), a 2001 album by the band Converge
 * "Jane Doe", a bonus track by Dutch symphonic metal band Within Temptation on their album The Silent Force
 * "Jane Doe", a song by Alicia Keys from the album Songs in A Minor
 * "Jane Doe", a song by Nik Kershaw from the album To Be Frank
 * "Jane Doe" (song), the debut single of AKB48's Minami Takahashi
 * "Jane Doe", a song by Never Shout Never from the album What Is Love?
 * "Jane Doe", a song by Korean girl group Ladies' Code from the 2016 album STRANG3R

Characters

 * Ms. Jane Doe, a character on the cartoon series Camp Lazlo
 * Jane Doe, a character in the MMORPG MapleStory
 * Jane Doe, the name given to a character played by Jaimie Alexander in the TV series Blindspot
 * Jane Doe (character), a DC Comics enemy of Batman
 * Jane Doe, a character in the musical Ride the Cyclone

title: Jane Doe (disambiguation)


text:
Acme

Acme is Ancient Greek (ἀκμή; English transliteration: akmē) for "the peak", "zenith" or "prime". It may refer to:

Arts, entertainment and games

 * Acme (album), an album by the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
 * Acme and Septimius, a fictional couple in Catullus 45, a poem by Roman poet Catullus
 * Acme (band), Japanese rock band
 * Acme (card game), a form of solitaire
 * Acme Corporation, a fictional company originating in Looney Tunes cartoons, later a generic fictional company name
 * ACME Detective Agency, a fictional detective agency in the Carmen Sandiego computer games and television shows

People

 * Acme (enslaved woman) (died 5 BC), Jewish slave and personal maid to Empress Livia Drusilla
 * Andrea Carla Michaels, American crossword puzzle constructor and founder of Acme Naming

Bangladesh

 * The ACME Laboratories Ltd, a pharmaceutical company

United Kingdom

 * Acme Motor Co, a defunct motorcycle manufacturer based in Coventry
 * Acme Press Ltd., a defunct comics publisher (and retailer) in England
 * Acme Space, an architecture firm based in London
 * Acme Studios, a London charity that provides studio and living space for visual artists
 * Acme Whistles, a major producer of whistles
 * Acme, the provisional monicker that preceded Rockstar North (formerly DMA Design), a video game developer

United States

 * Acme Aircraft Co, later known as Sierradyne, an aircraft manufacturer based in Torrance, California
 * Acme Aircraft Corporation, an aircraft manufacturer based in Rockford, Illinois, during the 1920s
 * Acme (automobile) (and Acme Motor Car Company), an early motor car and manufacturer
 * Acme Boots, a manufacturer of western footwear owned by Berkshire Hathaway
 * Acme Bread Company, a bakery in Berkeley, California
 * Acme Brick, a brick manufacturer that is a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway
 * ACME Comedy Theatre, a sketch comedy and improvisational theater located near Hollywood
 * ACME Comics & Collectibles, a comics and collectibles store in Sioux City, Iowa
 * ACME Communications, a television broadcasting company, based in Santa Ana, California
 * Acme Farm Supply Building, a listed building in Nashville, Tennessee
 * Acme Fresh Market, a chain of grocery stores in northeast Ohio
 * Acme Markets, a chain of grocery stores in the northeast
 * Acme Naming, a company founded by Andrea Carla Michaels
 * ACME Newspictures
 * Acme Packet, a VoIP Session Border Controller manufacturer
 * Acme Tackle Company, a producer of fishing tackle in Providence, Rhode Island
 * Acme Tools, an American tool and equipment distributor
 * Acme Truck Line, a national transportation service based in Gretna, Louisiana
 * Acme United Corporation, a scissors manufacturer founded in 1867 in Naugatuck, Connecticut
 * Air Craft Marine Engineering, a short-lived aircraft manufacturer established in 1954
 * Australian Centre for the Moving Image, a museum in Melbourne, Australia

Canada

 * Acme, Alberta, a village

United States

 * Acme, Indiana, an unincorporated town
 * Acme, Kansas, an unincorporated community
 * Acme, Louisiana, an unincorporated community
 * Acme, Michigan, an unincorporated community
 * Acme Township, Michigan
 * Acme, North Carolina, an unincorporated community
 * Acme Township, Hettinger County, North Dakota
 * Acme, Oklahoma, a ghost town
 * Acme, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community
 * Acme, Texas, a ghost town
 * Acme, Washington, a census-designated place
 * Acme, West Virginia, an unincorporated community

Science, technology and mathematics

 * Acme (computer virus), a computer virus which infects DOS .EXE executable files
 * ACME (health software) automated determination of cause of death, used by several governments for the generation of national mortality statistics
 * Acme (text editor), a text editor and development environment originally for the Plan 9 from Bell Labs operating system
 * Acme thread form, a screw thread used in specialized applications such as vises and leadscrews
 * Acme zone, a biostratigraphic zone where a fossil reaches its peak abundance
 * Arginine catabolic mobile element, a genetic system used by bacteria to tolerate skin polyamine defense compounds
 * Automatic Certificate Management Environment, a protocol for communications between a certificate authority and its users' web or DNS servers
 * Summit or acme, a topographic term
 * Advisory Committee on Mathematics Education, a British organisation established in 2002 by the Royal Society and the Joint Mathematical Council
 * ACME Laboratories, an open source software host of Jef Poskanzer

Ships

 * Accentor-class minesweeper, a US Navy class sometimes called the Accentor/Acme class
 * USS Acme (AMc-61), a coastal minesweeper launched in 1941
 * USS Acme (MSO-508), a minesweeper launched in 1955
 * USS Abarenda (IX-131) SS Acme, original name of the, a storage tanker
 * Acme (1876), a schooner built in Sydney, Australia
 * Acme (steamboat), operated in the state of Washington from 1899 to 1910

Vehicles

 * Acme motorcycle (1911–1913), an Australian motorcycle
 * Acme motorcycle (1915–1917), a motorcycle assembled in Burnie, Tasmania
 * Acme motorcycle (1939–1949), an Australian motorcycle

title: Acme


text:
Albertsons

Albertsons Companies, Inc. is an American grocery company founded and headquartered in Boise, Idaho.

With 2,253 stores as of the third quarter of fiscal year 2020 and 270,000 employees as of fiscal year 2019, the company is the second-largest supermarket chain in North America after Kroger. Albertsons ranked 53rd in the 2018 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue. Prior to its January 2015 merger with Safeway Inc. for $9.2 billion, it had 1,075 supermarkets located in 29 U.S. states under 12 different regional banners. Its predecessor company, Albertsons, Inc., was reorganized as Albertsons LLC and sold to AB Acquisition LLC, a Cerberus Capital Management–led consortium. After buying back the majority of its former stores it sold to SuperValu in 2006, AB Acquisition announced it would change its name to Albertsons Companies Inc. in 2015. The company's corporate name was Albertson's Inc. until 2002, when the apostrophe was removed.

On October 14, 2022, Albertsons announced it would be acquired by Kroger for $25 billion. On November 30, 2023, Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen announced that the companies had satisfied the informational requirements of the Federal Trade Commission, and the deal is expected to close in early-2024. However, in January 2024, Washington state sued to block the proposed $25 billion merger between Kroger and Albertsons, warning that if approved it could raise prices and harm consumers. In February 2024, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser also filed a lawsuit, saying consumers told him they feared it "would lead to stores closing, higher prices, fewer jobs, worse customer service, and less resilient supply chains.”

Beginnings
Albertsons was founded in 1939 by Joe Albertson (1906–1993) on July 21 in Boise, Idaho. An ad in Boise's Idaho Statesman newspaper touted Albertson's first store as "Idaho's largest and finest food store." The store was filled with perks that, at the time, were brand new: free parking, a money-back guarantee, and even an ice cream shop. The original store was built onto several times, but it was demolished in 1979, and a replacement store was built on the same property. A brick monument stands on the northwest corner of 16th and State Streets in downtown Boise, commemorating the original store.

The grocery store was an enormous success, and Albertson reinvested his profits back into the business. New stores were opened in neighboring towns to the west: Nampa, Caldwell, and Emmett, before America's entry into World War II in late 1941. The company grew steadily in the years following World War II. When Albertson was considering putting a new store in a town, he would drive around the town and look for neighborhoods with children's clothing hanging on clotheslines, and station wagons in driveways; he knew that those kinds of neighborhoods were where he wanted to build his stores.

Albertson's, Inc. became a public company in 1959, and its growth continued, opening its hundredth store in Seattle in 1963. in 1964, Albertsons expanded to southern California by acquiring All American Markets, a small chain based in Orange County.

In 1967, Albertsons expanded into Colorado, acquiring eight stores from Furr's Supermarkets. By the end of the 1960s, Albertsons operated over 200 stores within a nine-state region and the stores averaged about 20,000 square feet in size.

Partnership with Skaggs and 1970s expansion
In 1969, Albertsons partnered with Skaggs Drug Centers, owned by the Skaggs Companies, Inc., to create the first combination food/drug stores, first in Texas. The partnership was a tremendous success for several years. The partnership ended due to the fact that it was getting more difficult to control. Neither partner could buy the other out, and the partnership was dissolved amicably in 1977. Skaggs kept stores in Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, and Albertsons kept stores in Florida, Alabama, and Louisiana, as well as some Texas stores (based in San Antonio).

Albertsons continued to expand its base in the West during this time. In 1973, Albertsons opened its first distribution center in Brea, California. In 1974, Albertsons bought the four-store Monte Mart chain in northern California. Albertsons bought Fazio's Shopping Bag in 1978 from Fisher Foods, adding 46 stores in Southern California.

Expansion in the 1980s
In 1981, Albertsons entered Nebraska and South Dakota.

In 1982, Albertsons reorganized its management into four regions: California, Northwest, Intermountain, and South. Albertsons continued to add stores in the 1980s, building or acquiring about 283 stores during the decade. Albertsons continued to expand in Texas beyond the Skaggs base in north Texas and San Antonio, re-entering the Dallas–Fort Worth market in 1984, and adding three Skaggs-Alpha Beta stores in Austin within months after entering that market in early 1989 with the acquisition of six Tom Thumb stores.

Albertsons built its first fully mechanized distribution center in Portland, Oregon, in 1988.

In 1989, Albertsons opened its 500th store, in Temecula, California.

Expansion in the 1990s
Albertsons began to expand heavily in the 1990s. In 1992, Albertsons bought the stores American Stores (formerly Skaggs Drugs Cos.) had in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Florida. Many of the stores had been opened as Skaggs Albertsons originally (later turning into "Skaggs Alpha Beta" under American Stores ownership) but by 1991 had been rebranded as Jewel-Osco. These included a few stores that American Stores opened in the late 1980s under that name in Florida. Additionally, a non-food distribution center in Ponca City, Oklahoma, was purchased from ASC.

In 1994, Albertsons would acquire four stores from San Diego County chain Big Bear Markets.

The Skaggs acquisition was a success, and the new stores were integrated into Albertsons's Southern division. The ease of that acquisition and Albertsons's high-flying stock price led Albertsons to attempt expansion on a grand scale. In a series of acquisitions in the late 1990s, Albertsons purchased Seessel's and 14 other stores from Bruno's, Buttrey Food & Drug (divesting seven Buttrey stores and six Albertsons stores to Smith's and another two Buttrey stores to SuperValu), the Springfield, Missouri Smitty's chain, and three Super One Foods stores from Miner's Inc. in the Des Moines market, all while building new stores across all divisions. These acquisitions brought Albertsons into five new states: Georgia, Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota, and Tennessee.

Albertsons Express gas stations
Albertsons launched a new branch of their brand in 1997, Albertsons Express, which included a fuel center and a convenience store. The first of the Albertsons Express opened that year in Eagle, Idaho. This branch was constructed in front of the parking lot of Albertson's full-size grocery store at the city's Parkcenter Boulevard. This concept was not limited to Idaho; it expanded to locations across America located on Albertsons's existing/new stores properties. A few of the locations with Express Gas Stations include Gresham, Hillsboro, and Portland in Oregon; Houston in Texas; and Casper and Cheyenne in Wyoming.

American Stores acquisition
In 1998, Albertsons made its biggest acquisition yet: American Stores Company, which included the chains ACME in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware; Lucky in California and Nevada; Jewel and Jewel-Osco in Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa, and two drug store chains: Osco Drug, with a presence in New England, the Midwest, Montana and Arizona; and Sav-on Drugs, with a presence in Southern California, Nevada, Western Arizona, and New Mexico. The acquisition briefly made Albertsons the largest American food and drug operator, with over 2,500 stores (including stand-alone drug stores) in 37 states, until Kroger's acquisition of Fred Meyer closed the following month. To make the acquisition, Albertsons was forced by anti-trust concerns to divest 146 stores, primarily in California, Nevada, and New Mexico, to Certified Grocers: Raley's, Ralphs, Stater Bros., and Vons. In California, Nevada, and New Mexico, there were already Albertsons stores, so in order to not have two banners in the same area, 508 Lucky stores were converted to the Albertsons banner in November 1999, and the Lucky brand name was retired. The brand was reintroduced in the early 2000s.

In January 2001, Albertsons restructured its "districts" to a divisional structure mostly based around distribution centers, with a drug store division and 18 regional division offices.

2001–2004 restructuring
On July 18, 2001, Larry Johnston, the new chairman and CEO of Albertson's, announced it would close 165 "underperforming" stores spread across 25 states, cut jobs, and reduce its newly created operating divisions. The first change was that the Utah, Idaho, and Big Sky (Montana) division were merged back into Intermountain, while Oregon, Washington, and the Inland Empire (eastern Washington and Northern Idaho) division would be consolidated back into a single Northwestern division. Albertsons sold its freestanding Osco Drug stores in the northeastern states to Jean Coutu Group, a Canadian drug store company (those stores were re-branded as Brooks Pharmacy after the sale was completed in January 2002). In 2001, the short-lived Des Moines stores would close as well and Albertsons began to issue Albertsons Preferred Savings Cards for all of its stores.

The following year, three more divisions were closed entirely:

 * San Antonio: Having been in San Antonio since the Skaggs Albertsons days, at the time Albertsons was ranked as the area's number two grocer by market share, compared to H-E-B's top position in the market. At the time of the withdrawal, the 44-store H-E-B chain held a commanding 61 percent market share, while Albertsons held a 15 percent market share. Albertsons had held the third position at the time Kroger exited the market in mid-1993 when it closed its 15 area stores. Then, H-E-B's 37 area stores held a 43.2 percent market share, Kroger's 15 area stores a 13.7 percent share, and Albertsons's 10 stores a 13.1 percent share. The remaining stores in the San Antonio division, primarily in the Austin area, became part of the Dallas division. The last store in South Texas to close, a store in Victoria, Texas, was closed in October.
 * Mid-South: In 2002, Albertsons shuttered its Mid-South division by selling its Seessel's supermarket chain in Memphis to Schnucks and stores in Mississippi to Brookshire's. The Albertsons-branded stores in the Nashville area, most of which had previously been Bruno's stores under the Foodmax banner, were sold to either Publix (marking its entry into the market) or Kroger.
 * Houston: After entering the market in the early 1990s, the troubled Houston division would be gone too, with Albertsons closing its 43 area stores, with most reopening as Kroger or Randalls (acquired with Safeway in 2015 and subsequent return to Houston), with 2 of them becoming H-E-B stores. The Louisiana stores from that division joined the Florida division (though they would move to the Dallas division soon after), while the stores in the Bryan–College Station area became part of the Dallas division. The Greater Houston distribution center near Katy, built in 1996 was sold to 99 Cents Only Stores in 2003.

Additionally, the distribution center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, (home of the Great Plains division) was sold to Fleming Companies, though no stores were closed. The Great Plains division stretched all the way into Omaha, Nebraska. The sale of the distribution center included a distribution deal for Fleming to continue to supply Oklahoma and Omaha.

After stabilizing the company's finances and consolidating divisions in 2004, Albertsons acquired Shaw's Supermarkets and Star Market from Sainsbury's for $2.5 billion. Albertsons also purchased Bristol Farms for $135 million. During the same time, Albertsons exited the markets of Omaha, where it closed or sold 21 stores, and New Orleans, Louisiana, where it closed seven, selling four to A&P, which converted them to Sav-A-Center.

Sale to Cerberus and SuperValu
Despite this, the acquisition spree had caused significant problems for Albertsons, Inc. Many of the acquired chains had systems that did not mesh well with Albertsons. Financing those acquisitions required Albertsons Inc. to take on significant debt. Added to those problems were significant changes in consumer buying patterns, including new competition from large discounters such as Walmart and Costco that impacted sales.

After several assessments of the company and months of rumors, it was announced on January 23, 2006, Albertsons, Inc. was to be sold to a consortium of companies. SuperValu would take the bulk of the company including the brand names and what was considered to be the stronger divisions, including 3 Albertsons divisions: the Southern California division (Southern California; Southern Nevada; along with stores in Hanford and Tulare, in Northern California), the Northwest division (Oregon except Ontario, Washington State, and the Idaho Panhandle), and the Intermountain division (Southern Idaho; Elko, Nevada; Utah; Jackson and Rock Springs, Wyoming; Montana; Ontario, Oregon; and North Dakota) as well as the ACME, Bristol Farms, Jewel-Osco, and Shaw's Supermarkets and Star Market brands. This acquisition would also lead to SuperValu gaining access to over 100 Albertsons Express fuel centers.

CVS would acquire 702 stand-alone Osco and Sav-on Drug stores and converted them to CVS Pharmacy stores. They also closed about 100 of the 702.

What was left of Albertsons Inc. became Albertsons, LLC, purchased by a Cerberus-led group of investors, and CVS Pharmacy. The acquisition was completed on June 2, 2006, with the Cerberus-led group (who also included Kimco Realty Corporation, Schottenstein Stores Corp., Lubert-Adler Partners, and Klaff Realty). They held Albertsons LLC as "AB Acquisition LLC". Albertsons LLC included 661 stores and the distribution centers and offices from five of Albertsons divisions. These five divisions were thought to be Albertsons' five weakest divisions, and conventional wisdom in the industry was that the stores would eventually be closed or sold to other operators.

As of June 2, 2006, the company's retail stores were divided as follows:
 * SuperValu had acquired 1,124 stores in the deal, including:
 * ACME (134 locations)
 * ACME Express, Jewel Express, and Albertsons Express (107 fuel centers)
 * Albertsons (564 locations in Southern California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming) – New Albertsons Inc. (later sold to Albertsons LLC)
 * Bristol Farms (11 locations)
 * Jewel and Jewel-Osco (198 locations)
 * Lazy Acres (1 location)
 * Max Foods (4 locations) (3 converted into Lucky, 1 became Albertsons in July 2006)
 * Osco Pharmacy and Sav-on Pharmacy (906 in-store pharmacies)
 * Save-A-Lot (2 stores franchised by Shaw's)
 * Shaw's (169 locations)
 * Star Market (20 locations)
 * Distribution centers (11 centers)
 * CVS acquired all (approximately 702) of the stand-alone Osco Drug and Sav-on Drugs rebranding them all as CVS Pharmacy, though they closed approximately 100 of the acquired stores. Many CVS locations were close to Sav-on stores. CVS also acquired one distribution center.
 * The Cerberus-led Albertsons LLC retained:
 * Albertsons (655 locations in Arizona, Northern California, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, and Wyoming – Albertsons LLC)
 * County Line Liquors (1 location)
 * Grocery Warehouse (1 location)
 * Jewel-Osco (2 locations)
 * Max Foods (2 locations)
 * Super Saver Foods (23 locations, 21 closed in late 2006)

Following the sale, Albertson's, Inc., was removed from the NYSE. Albertsons LLC was technically the successor company to Albertsons according to SEC filings but it was New Albertsons Inc. that assumed most of the debt, got most of the property, and transitioned Albertsons stock into SuperValu stock.

The five Albertsons Inc. divisions that remained as Albertsons LLC were the Dallas/Fort Worth division (Texas excluding El Paso, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Arkansas), the Rocky Mountain division (Colorado, Wyoming excluding Rock Springs and Jackson stores, Nebraska, and South Dakota), the Southwest division (Arizona, New Mexico and El Paso, Texas), the Florida division (Florida), and the Northern California division (northern California excluding Hanford and Tulare stores, and northern Nevada). Albertsons LLC then concentrated on rebuilding market share and its store base in its stronger areas and divesting stores and other property in its weaker areas.

On June 6, 2006, only one week after Albertsons LLC was created, the company announced its intent to close 100 Albertsons stores by August 2006, including all but two Super Saver stores. Those closures were spread across all five divisions. Soon after, the company announced that it would be shutting down its online delivery service on July 21, 2006. To distinguish the two companies, Albertsons LLC created a second website, AlbertsonsMarket.com.

A leaner company
In November 2006, it was announced that the Northern California division, consisting of stores located in northern California and northern Nevada, would be sold to Save Mart, with the deal closing in late February 2007. The company gradually converted all the stores to its Save Mart banner over summer 2007, except for stores in the San Francisco Bay area, which were rebranded as Lucky. The deal included two Northern California distribution centers. Most of the Albertsons locations had originally been branded as Lucky before Albertson's 1998 purchase of American Stores.

Most of the changes in the next six years would downscale the remaining divisions. In the Dallas–Fort Worth division, in 2007, the distribution center was sold and outsourced to Associated Wholesale Grocers, and Albertsons would exit both Oklahoma and Austin. The Oklahoma stores were sold to Associated Wholesale Grocers members while the Austin stores were sold to H-E-B. With the closures, only four stores south of the Dallas–Fort Worth area existed in Texas, all of which were closed or sold by December 2011. Additionally, many of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex stores closed during this time, even into 2011.

The Florida division, which was always discontiguous with Albertsons' main market, suffered a blow in June 2008 when Albertsons LLC entered into an agreement with Lakeland, Florida-based Publix stores to sell 49 Florida Albertsons locations to the chain. This included 15 stores in Northern and Northwest Florida, 30 locations in Central Florida, and four locations in South Florida. The sale was completed in September. In April 2012, the company closed most of its stores in Florida. The Plant City distribution center was sold to Gordon Food Service though the Florida Division continued to be located there. By April 2012, only four stores remained in the entire state of Florida.

The Rocky Mountain division slowly shed stores. By April 2007, there were only 32 stores left in the state of Colorado. In December 2007, SuperValu acquired the eight remaining Wyoming locations from Albertson's LLC not already owned by the company. These stores continued to operate under the Albertsons banner. 2008 also brought the sale of Albertsons' lone South Dakota and Nebraska stores to Nash Finch. In August 2009, the distribution center and division office closed and the 26 remaining stores moved to the Southwest division.

Only the Southwest division was spared the major cuts suffered by the other divisions. On June 12, 2007, Albertsons LLC agreed to acquire all Raley's locations in New Mexico. The acquisition includes one closed and eight operating stores in Albuquerque and one store in Taos, thus doubling Albertsons store base in the Albuquerque metro.

In June 2007, Albertson's LLC decided to discontinue its Preferred Savings Card Program, choosing instead to offer discounted items to all of its customers. In September 2007, all Albertsons stores in the Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, and Florida markets began collecting their Albertsons Preferred Savings Cards.

End of the first generation of Albertsons Express
Beginning in 2008, Albertsons began exiting the fuel business, selling 72 of over one hundred Albertsons Express gas stations to Valero Energy, which converted most of them to Corner Store locations. This wouldn't be the end though, as many Express stores still remained including Cheyenne, WY. It wouldn't be until 2011-2013 that most of the Albertsons Express locations were divested under the Supervalu company. Even then, some locations including Hillsboro still displayed Albertsons Express banners.

New Albertsons acquisition
While Albertsons LLC had restored its stores to profitability, SuperValu's New Albertsons Inc. had done poorly. While SuperValu did remodel many stores and open a few new stores, New Albertsons had shrunk. Of the 1100+ stores SuperValu acquired in 2006, fewer than 900 remained by 2013. Under SuperValu, Bristol Farms had been sold off, 36 Utah stores were sold to Associated Food Stores (leaving just three traditional Albertsons stores in the state), the Wisconsin Jewel-Osco stores had been sold or closed, as well as the Shaw's stores in Connecticut. Additionally, like Albertsons LLC, most of the fuel stations had been shuttered or sold to other operators.

On January 10, 2013, it was announced that SuperValu was selling New Albertsons (Albertsons, ACME, Shaw's/Star Market, and Jewel-Osco, though they had previously sold off Bristol Farms in 2010) to Cerberus Capital Management. The deal was closed in March 2013. On February 23, 2013, AB Acquisition announced it would split operations of the newly combined company into eight divisions: Northwestern, Intermountain, Southern California, Southern, Jewel-Osco, ACME, Shaw's, and Southwestern, and in March 2013, the deal was officially closed. On paper, Albertsons LLC controlled the Albertsons-branded stores and New Albertsons Inc. controlled ACME, Shaw's/Star Market, and Jewel-Osco, but it was operated as one company.

On June 11, 2013, Albertsons announced its plans to merge its duplicate websites, social media accounts and mobile apps onto one of each kind, ending the use of the Albertsons Market branding (though this was never used on store exteriors) and AlbertsonsMarket.com. While its website consolidation appeared to take place as expected, its applications received bad reviews —but the biggest consequence was the mistaken deletion of their previous Facebook page and loss of over 200,000 fans. While no details were given as to the mistake made, Albertsons simply admitted that while attempting to join their Albertsons page with over 200,000 Likes and their Albertsons Market page with over 80,000 Likes, something went wrong resulting in the loss of thousands of Likes and comments.

That same month, Albertsons did away with the Preferred Savings Card in the former SuperValu stores that Albertsons LLC had dispensed with in 2007. The cards briefly continued in Southern California stores before being discontinued in July 2013.

United Supermarkets acquisition
On September 9, 2013, the company acquired Lubbock-based supermarket United Supermarkets LLC. On February 4, 2014, the FTC voted 4–0 to approve the deal. The acquisition deal cost Albertsons $385 million and required Albertsons to sell its single stores in the Amarillo, Texas, and Wichita Falls, Texas, markets. The United Supermarkets family brands include Market Street, Amigos, and United Express.

After the deal was finalized, the Albertsons Market brand was revived for Albertsons stores operated by United. The first to be branded as such opened in Alamogordo, New Mexico, in January 2015.

Safeway acquisition
On February 19, 2014, Safeway began to explore selling itself, and by February 21, 2014, it was in advanced negotiations with Cerberus Capital Management. On March 6, 2014, Cerberus (parent company of Albertsons) announced it would purchase Safeway for $9.4 billion in a deal expected to close in the 4th quarter of the year.

On July 25, 2014, Safeway stockholders approved the merger with Albertsons.

In December 2014, Albertsons announced that the Haggen Company, a Bellingham, Washington, based grocery chain, was buying 146 Safeway, Albertsons and Vons stores, as required by the antitrust review of the merger.

On January 30, 2015, Albertsons officially acquired Safeway Inc. after being cleared by the FTC, thus giving it control of the Safeway store banners, including Randalls, Tom Thumb, Carrs Safeway, Vons, and Pavilions, plus Safeway's 49% share of Casa Ley, a Mexican grocery chain. Following the merger, Albertsons announced the new company would have 14 divisions led by three regional offices.

 * East Region
 * Acme Division: East Region, existing Acme Markets (based in Malvern, PA).
 * Eastern Division: East Region, existing Eastern Division of Safeway (based in Lanham, MD). Includes stores in Maryland and Virginia.
 * Jewel-Osco Division: East Region, existing Jewel-Osco (based in Itasca, IL).
 * Shaw's Division: East Region, existing Shaw's/Star Market (based in West Bridgewater, MA).
 * North Region
 * Denver Division: North Region, existing Safeway Denver division with some Albertsons stores from Intermountain. Includes stores in most of Colorado (except for the Grand Junction stores which are part of Intermountain, and the Durango stores which are part of Southwest), the eastern two-thirds of Wyoming, all of Nebraska and South Dakota, and Farmington, New Mexico.
 * Intermountain Division: North Region, most of the existing Albertsons division with some Safeway stores from the Seattle Division. Includes all stores in North Dakota, most of Idaho except for the northern panhandle (which is part of the Seattle Division), most of Utah except for the far southern portion (which is part of the Southwest Division), northeastern Nevada, the western third of Wyoming, and stores in the Grand Junction, Colorado area.
 * Northern California Division: North Region, existing Safeway division (based in Pleasanton, California). Includes stores in northern California and northwestern Nevada.
 * Portland Division: North Region, existing Safeway Portland division with Albertsons stores from Northwestern in Oregon. Includes the entire state of Oregon except for Ontario, plus Clark County, Washington.
 * Seattle Division: North Region, existing Safeway division with some Albertsons stores from Northwestern. Includes all stores in the state of Washington (except Clark County) and in the northern Idaho Panhandle.
 * South Region
 * Houston Division: South Region, existing Randalls/Tom Thumb division of Safeway, with the inclusion of South's Florida stores and southern Louisiana stores. Tom Thumb moved to Southern Division. Includes stores in Houston and Austin-areas and all Louisiana and Florida stores.
 * Southern Division: South Region, existing Albertsons South division (based in Fort Worth, Texas) combined with Tom Thumb stores. Includes stores in northeastern Texas, northern Louisiana, and all of Arkansas.
 * Southern California Division: South Region, merged Vons Safeway division (excluding southern Nevada/Las Vegas stores, which became part of the new Southwest Division) with Albertsons division (based in Fullerton, California). Includes stores in southern California.
 * Southwest Division: South Region, merged Southwest Safeway and Albertsons divisions (based in Phoenix). Includes all stores in Arizona, southern Nevada, and Utah, most of New Mexico (except for Farmington which is part of the Denver Division and southeastern New Mexico which is part of the United Division), and El Paso, Texas.
 * United Division: South Region, existing United division (based in Lubbock). Includes stores in the Texas Panhandle and western Texas (excluding El Paso, which is part of the Southwest Division), and southeastern New Mexico.

Announcement and postponement of going public and A&P acquisition
After several months of rumors, the combined operation announced it would go public as Albertsons Companies, Inc. (the new name of AB Acquisition LLC). Albertsons attempted to IPO with the ticker ABS on October 14, 2015, planning to raise as much as $1.7 billion, selling 65.3 million shares with a range of $23 - $26 per share. However, the company postponed the listing due to market conditions, particularly after Wal-Mart warned of more challenged sales earlier that day. Albertsons has reportedly postponed the IPO indefinitely, as of October 2015. All during this time, Albertsons continued to expand, purchasing 70 stores owned by the bankrupt Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company (operating under the names of The Food Emporium, A&P, A&P Fresh, Superfresh, and Pathmark), which were quickly reopened as ACME stores after two-day store resets.

Post-Safeway: Acquisitions, conversions, expansions, and selloffs
As a result of the Albertsons-Safeway merger, Albertsons began to look to divest some stores in geographies where the merger could cause a high market share. Some of these stores including one Albertsons and three Safeway stores in Wyoming were sold off to Ridley's Family Markets. Also at the time of the Albertsons-Safeway merger, the 18-store Pacific Northwest chain Haggen purchased 146 West Coast Vons, Pavilions, Albertsons, and Safeway locations that had to be sold due to anti-trust concerns, paying $300 million, plus spending $100 million to rebrand the stores. The FTC had hoped this would create a regional competitor for Albertsons. On September 1, 2015, Haggen announced that the company had filed a lawsuit against Albertsons LLC and Albertsons Holdings LLC ("Albertsons") seeking more than $1 billion in damages. The complaint, which was filed that day in United States District Court for the District of Delaware, alleged that following Haggen's December 2014 purchase of 146 Albertsons and Safeway stores, Albertsons engaged in "coordinated and systematic efforts to eliminate competition and Haggen as a viable competitor in over 130 local grocery markets in five states", and "made false representations to both Haggen and the FTC about Albertsons's commitment to a seamless transformation of the stores into viable competitors under the Haggen banner".

A week later Haggen filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and began the process of closing all but a few dozen 'core' stores in the Pacific Northwest. Albertsons would buy back 33 of the stores being sold at auction. In January 2016, Albertsons settled the lawsuit, agreeing to pay $5.75 million to Haggen, and subsequently reached an agreement to acquire the remaining 29 'core' Haggen stores located in Washington and Oregon for $106 million, the deal being approved on March 29, 2016. As part of the deal, 15 stores would still operate under the Haggen banner, with the rest converted to Albertsons locations.

During this time, the Albertsons family experienced further changes. On January 11, 2016, it was announced that the three remaining Albertsons stores in Florida, located in Largo, Altamonte Springs and Oakland Park, would be re-bannered as Safeway; this marked the first time that the Safeway brand would exist on a supermarket operation in Florida. It would also re-align the stores toward the Eastern Division. In 2016, smaller acquisitions included Homedale, Idaho-based Paul's Market and Santa Rosa, California-based G&G Supermarkets. Both brands were closed before they were converted into Albertsons and Safeway stores, respectively. Additionally, the United Supermarkets subsidiary acquired seven locations from Sweetwater, Texas-based Lawrence Brothers. These were converted into United Supermarkets or Albertsons Market stores. In late 2016, it was announced that Andronico's in the San Francisco area would be acquired as well. These stores would become "Safeway Community Markets" and still hold what made Andronico's unique, including chef-prepared items. When the first store reopened in February 2017 under the ownership of the Northern California division, it was still bannered as Andronico's due to an issue in obtaining local permits but the other stores were able to reopen as Safeway Community Markets.

On February 17, 2017, the Randalls store in south Katy, Texas, serving the Cinco Ranch area closed. On March 6, 2017, shortly after the Katy Randalls closure, it was announced that the Houston-area distribution center near Cypress, Texas, would be closed and the operations consolidated in the Roanoke, Texas, Tom Thumb distribution center in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex to supply the Houston- and Austin-area stores instead. Also, the Houston Division offices would be folded into the legacy Albertsons's South Division offices in Fort Worth. Additionally, the stores in the Albuquerque market were realigned toward the United Supermarkets division.

On September 20, 2017, Albertsons acquired meal kit company Plated for $200 million.

During the time after the Albertsons-Safeway merger, Albertsons was experimenting with different banners, converting many stores to Safeway, including many Colorado Albertsons locations. With this rebranding also came additional closures, such as Centennial, Colorado. Some exceptions include Pueblo and Durango in Colorado, which are owned by a different division.

Albertsons Express expansion
To start off 2018, Albertsons began to reenter the fuel market, opening a brand new Albertsons Express in Boise, ID at the site of a former Pizza Hut; this also introduced a new concept to the state of Idaho's gas stations, where the pumps are chip-credit-card enabled. At least one Albertsons Express from the original generation of Albertson's fuel centers located in Hillsboro, Oregon, remained open in the relaunch of Albertsons Express. As of September 2021, there are exactly seven Albertsons Express across America. They are located in Idaho with three sites; and in Louisiana, Nevada, Oregon, and Texas with one site each.

Additional acquisitions and closures
On February 20, 2018, Albertsons announced plans to acquire Rite Aid, subject to shareholder and regulatory approval. In addition to retaining the stand-alone Rite Aid pharmacies, its Osco and Sav-on pharmacies located in Albertsons's existing stores were expected to be replaced by Rite Aid pharmacies. On August 8, 2018, Rite Aid announced that the plan had failed to please shareholders and the proposed acquisition would be canceled.

That same year, Albertsons closed several stores across multiple divisions, including all three Safeway stores in Florida. These stores were sold to Publix for an undisclosed price. With the closing, Albertsons officially exited the state, which it had been in since the late 1970s when they acquired their Skaggs Albertsons stores. Additionally, the company divested its share in Casa Ley, selling it to Tenedora CL del Noroeste. Also that year three new Lucky locations in Utah opened, two in West Valley City and Salt Lake City, replacing the last two Super Saver stores, and one in Tooele, replacing a former Albertsons store. The next year, a location in West Jordan, Utah, opened, replacing another Albertsons that closed in the late 2000s.

In 2019, Albertsons opened Albertsons Market Street in Meridian, Idaho, a flagship store located in a converted ShopKo store and based on the Market Street brand of United Supermarkets. This became Albertsons's largest store at 110,000 square feet and featured a variety of departments exclusive to the store or found rarely in the chain, including an oyster bar, a full bar area, and in-house sausages. Additionally, around the same time, a new Andronico's Community Markets opened in Monterey, California, the first new store to be branded as such.

In 2020, Albertsons announced the closing of a distribution center in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, laying off up 520 people. Albertsons said its duties will be shifted to an existing distribution center in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, which will add up to 300 workers. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Albertsons's total sales experienced a growth of 27% compared to the previous year. The rise in sales and higher traffic came as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic which resulted in gross sales of $22.8 billion in the second quarter of 2020. Additionally, the company finally went public in June 2020 after years of delays. The potential IPO for the company could be valued at around $19 billion. During the time of going public, one more division change was announced when the Mid-Atlantic Division was created by combining Eastern and ACME Markets, and based out of ACME's headquarters in Malvern, PA In October 2020, Albertsons submitted a winning bid for the Kings Food Markets/Balducci's chain. These will be merged into the Mid-Atlantic Division.

Acquisition by Kroger
On October 14, 2022, Kroger announced its intent to merge with Albertsons, with Kroger acquiring all Albertsons shares and divesting some stores to secure regulatory approval. The $24.6 billion transaction is expected to close in early 2024. The announcement was met with criticism due to the potential for monopolies to form in some U.S. cities that have few other grocery chains, as well as food deserts that would form from store closures.

On November 1, 2022, Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a lawsuit in King County Superior Court against Albertsons and Kroger seeking to halt the payment of a $4 billion dividend to Albertsons shareholders. The lawsuit aims to prevent Albertsons from winding down operations and preparing store closures during regulator review of the merger. Other state attorneys general have also investigated the merger according to Reuters. In February 2024, the FTC sued to block the acquisition stating that the deal would negatively impact consumer prices and workers' wages.

Chains
Albertsons operates stores under the following banners:

Former banners/chains/names:
 * Acme Markets: 162 locations (CT, DE, MD, NJ, NY and PA)
 * Albertsons: 381 locations (AZ, AR, CA, CO, ID, LA, MT, NV, NM, ND, OR, TX, UT, WA and WY)
 * Albertsons Market: 23 locations (NM)
 * Amigos: 4 locations (TX)
 * Andronico's: 7 locations (CA)
 * Balducci's: 8 locations (CT, MD, NY, VA)
 * Carrs: 11 locations (AK)
 * Haggen: 15 locations (WA)
 * Jewel-Osco: 188 locations (IL, IA, and IN)
 * Kings Food Markets: 19 locations (CT, NJ, NY)
 * Lucky: 4 locations (UT)
 * Market Street: 19 locations (NM and TX)
 * Pak 'n Save: 2 locations (CA)
 * Pavilions: 27 locations (Southern California)
 * Randalls: 28 locations (Greater Houston and Greater Austin, TX)
 * Safeway: 914 locations (AK, AZ, CA, CO, DC, DE, HI, ID, MD, MT, NE, NV, NM, OR, SD, VA, WA, WY)
 * Shaw's: 127 locations (MA, ME, NH, RI and VT)
 * Star Market: 21 locations (MA)
 * Tom Thumb: 65 locations (Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, TX)
 * United Supermarkets: 97 locations (Texas Panhandle) plus 39 United Express locations (NM and TX)
 * Vons: 194 locations (Southern California and Southern Nevada)

 * Buttrey Food and Drug
 * Max Food and Drug/Max Foods (Connected with Econo Foods)
 * Skagg's/Skagg's Albertsons
 * Super Saver

Brands
Albertsons once owned several store brands ("private label" brands), often bearing the name of the chain sold under, e.g. "Jewel" brand products in the Jewel and Jewel-Osco locations. Other Albertsons brands over the years have included A+, Good Day, Janet Lee (named after the executive vice-president's daughter), Master's Choice, and Village Market. The drug store brands (used for health and beauty aids, over-the-counter medications, and intimate paper goods) were consolidated under the name "Equaline", rather than the previous "Sav-On Osco by Albertsons" brand. Albertsons introduced an upscale private label brand, "Essensia", in 2003, which was later renamed by SuperValu as Culinary Circle.

Store brand items in Albertsons stores included Albertsons (national brand quality food), Arctic Shores (frozen seafood), Baby Basics (diapers and infant care items), Culinary Circle ("gourmet" foods and ready-made meals), Equaline (health and beauty products), Farm Fresh (fresh produce), Flavorite (national brand quality foods, used throughout Supervalu stores), Homelife (national brand quality non-foods), Java Delight (coffee), Shoppers Value (value-priced items), Stockman & Dakota (high-quality beef), Stone Ridge (ice cream and sherbet), Super Chill (soft drinks and mixers), Whole Care Pet (pet foods and supplies), and Wild Harvest (natural and organic foods). In 2011, SuperValu announced it would eliminate Flavorite and all brands named after the chains it operates (such as Albertsons, Jewel, Shaw's, etc.) and would replace those labels with a new label, Essential Everyday.

After its purchase of Safeway, Albertsons began replacing some of its brands with Safeway's. O Organics and Open Nature replaced Wild Harvest, Pantry Essentials replaced Shoppers Value, and Refreshe replaced Super Chill. By late 2015, the remaining store brands were replaced with "Signature" (formerly Safeway Care, Farms, Home, and Kitchens). Albertsons started selling Lucerne dairy products, Mom To Mom baby products, and Priority Pet Food as well.

Albertsons Companies line of Own Brands products launches 1,100 brand new items a year, making it one of the most diverse in-house brands in the country. Albertsons Companies' O Organics line is one of the nation's largest brand of USDA-certified organic products, with annual sales over $1 billion; it offers a wide array of products, for a variety of customers.

Some of the brands in use are:

 * Signature Select - Main line of grocery products
 * Debi Lilly Design - Floral and home décor products
 * Lucerne Dairy Farms - Main dairy brand, used for ice cream, cheese, yogurt, and milk
 * O Organics - Organic products
 * Open Nature - 100% natural products
 * Primo Taglio - Deli brand for meat and cheese
 * Signature Cafe - Brand used for things sold at the Deli counter, soups, and refrigerated food made by the Deli and sold in the Deli Department
 * Signature Care - Home and wellness products
 * Signature Farms - Produce Department brand for fresh fruits and vegetables
 * Signature Reserve - Premium alternative to products in the Signature Select line
 * Value Corner - A cheaper alternative to products in the Signature Select/Lucerne line
 * Waterfront Bistro - Frozen seafood products

Operations
On average, stores in the Albertsons Companies range between 50000 sqft and 70000 sqft and almost universally feature a bakery, deli, meat counter, produce department, and seafood counter; many of the stores also feature in-store banks and pharmacies. Larger and newer stores may also offer enhanced amenities, including Starbucks coffee counters, prepared foods, in-store pizza, salad bars, and juice bars.

title: Albertsons