Albertsons LLC · Boise, ID United States

Call it the incredible shrinking grocery chain. Albertsons LLC (formerly Albertson's) runs some 240 Albertsons supermarkets in Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, New Mexico, and Texas. That's all that remains of what was once the nation's #2 supermarket operator with about 2,500 stores. Stung by competition, the firm sold itself in 2006 to a consortium that included rival grocer SUPERVALU, drugstore chain CVS, investment firm Cerberus Capital Management, and Kimco Realty for about $9.7 billion. SUPERVALU and CVS cherry-picked the company's best supermarket and drugstore assets. Subsequent divestments, including 132 stores in Northern California and 50 stores in Florida, further shrunk the company. To read the full description, subscribe now.