He described selling items on credit as 'the growing evil of installment purchasing'. Skaggs, a Baptist minister, was convinced that the prevailing system of allowing customers to buy food from stores on credit increased prices because grocers and storekeepers had to wait to get paid, and the system made the customers overly dependent on those grocers and storekeepers. The stores offer many in-house private label brands as well as name brands across all product categories. Stores may have a Starbucks, a deli counter, a meat department, a produce section, a flower department, a bakery, a pharmacy, a liquor section, and many aisles of nonperishable items. Following the organics trend, the stores have expanded the number of organic fruits and vegetables in the produce section and offer other items under the 'O Organics' label.

Safeway stores operate under the logo of a stylized white 'S' inside a rounded red square with the slogan 'Ingredients for life'. The subsidiary is headquartered in Pleasanton, California, with its parent company, Albertsons, headquartered in Boise, Idaho. Safeway's primary base of operations is in the Western United States with some stores located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the Eastern Seaboard. It is a subsidiary of Albertsons after being acquired by private equity investors led by Cerberus Capital Management in January 2015. The chain provides grocery items, food and general merchandise and features a variety of specialty departments, such as bakery, delicatessen, floral and pharmacy, as well as Starbucks coffee shops and fuel centers. is an American supermarket chain founded by Marion Barton Skaggs in April 1915 in American Falls, Idaho.

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