Albertsons Rolls Out Gas Station/C-Store Concept

Albertsons has opened Albertsons Express, a combination fuel center and convenience store, across the street from its supermarket at Parkcenter Boulevard and Apple Street in Boise, Idaho, according to published reports. The concept offers 12 gas pumps, a drive-thru lane, and a 3,100-square-foot store that carries doughnuts, fresh fruit and sandwiches, beer in a walk-in cooler, a digital soda machine, hot espresso and cold-brew coffee.

The grocer opened the first Albertsons Express in Eagle, Idaho, in 1997, Rachel Jones, fuel center sales manager for Albertsons’ Intermountain Division, told the Idaho Statesman. In 2011, however, Eden Prairie, Minn.-based wholesaler-retailer Supervalu, which acquired Albertsons in 2006, sold most of the 134 gas stations at Albertsons, Cub Foods, Hornbacher’s and Jewel-Osco locations, leaving none in the Boise market.

When Albertsons acquired Safeway in early 2015, after parting ways with Supervalu, it gained a large number of gas stations at Safeway stores. The opening of the new Albertsons Express brings the grocer’s current number of gas stations to 395, Mark Schumacher, Albertsons’ senior director of fuel and convenience, told the Statesman.

Albertsons currently has three gas stations in its home state, having obtained the other two, in Kuna and another in Boise, when it bought the Homedale, Idaho-based Paul’s Market chain in early 2016.