It operated from 1960 to 1998 with the final stores being absorbed into the Metcash owned IGA branding.
The stores had a downmarket look similar to its major rival Franklins, another discount supermarket chain based and established in Sydney.
To a lesser extent, it also competed with the Newcastle-based Shoeys discount supermarkets, later to be taken over by BI-LO from South Australia.
In 1995, Jewel Food Stores Pty Ltd was acquired by Davids Holdings that later became Metcash Trading Ltd.
This was in the same year that the Fleming family sold the 130 Jewel supermarkets to what is now Metcash (then Davids).