In January 2006, SuperValu, CVS Pharmacy and an investment group led by Cerberus Capital Management announced they had agreed to acquire Albertsons for $17.4 billion.

Around the same time that the acquisition was occurring, an independent Northern California retailer called Grocery Outlet decided to rebrand one of its stores with the Lucky brand and filed a lawsuit in Federal court against Albertsons claiming that Albertsons had previously abandon the trademark in 1999.

[1][2][3] On January 4, 2009, a federal judge ruled against Grocery Outlet, finding that Albertsons had continued to use the name Lucky even after the re-branding of its stores.

Save Mart changed most of its Albertsons stores in the San Francisco Bay Area to the Lucky California brand, most of which still survives.

It expanded into Southern California in 1956 when it bought 10 Jim Dandy stores in Los Angeles and six Food Basket supermarkets in San Diego.

[27] Lucky acquired Yellow Front Stores along with its sister company Checker Auto Parts in March 1978 for $45.9 million in stock.

[30] The Memco stores in the Chicago metropolitan area were converted to Eagle Food Centers in October 1977[31] and subsequently closed.

[citation needed] By 1986, Lucky was in a tough financial spot with its Gemco subsidiary struggling to compete with the likes of Target and Price Club.

[32] In order to fight off the takeover and improve the value of the company, Lucky closed 80 Gemco stores, selling 54 of them to Dayton-Hudson.

[33][34] By December 1986, Lucky had sold off its Checker and Kragen auto parts subsidiaries, as well as its Yellow Front chain.

[35] In 1987, Lucky spun off Hancock Fabrics as an independent company[36] and sold controlling interest in Eagle Food Centers.

[41] The case was only settled in April 1991, when American agreed to sell the rest of its Alpha Beta chain to Food 4 Less for $248 million.

[41] In 1992, Lucky Stores began selling fresh cut flowers in-store through a joint venture with distributors from Mexico.

In a April 1, 2006, interview with the Sacramento Bee, Grocery Outlet President and COO Bob Tiernan said the "company believes the Lucky brand has value.

Grocery Outlet lawyer Peter Craigie stated that although Albertsons believes that it continues to own the Lucky brand, Grocery Outlet believes that Albertsons' failure to utilize the brand means the company has effectively surrendered the trademark.

[50] On the next day, April 2, Albertsons filed a request for a temporary restraining order for Grocery Outlet's usage of the Lucky mark.

[54][55] On July 20, the District Court ruled in Albertsons' favor, granting a preliminary injunction preventing Grocery Outlet from using the Lucky name.

A second incarnation of the store opened in December 2012 as a Grocery Outlet in a shopping center on the western edge of town.

[60] After fulfilling anti-trust obligations, Supervalu completed the acquisition in early June 2006 that included acquiring 300 stores in Southern California and Nevada.

[citation needed] When they opened, the new stores did not have rewards cards, did not advertise specials, and did not offer delivery, emphasizing consistently low prices instead.

[62] In July 2006, Max Foods stores in Alhambra, El Centro, and San Ysidro were rebranded as Lucky by SuperValu.

[64] In February 2009, SuperValu announced the closing of nine of its Albertsons' Southern California locations with three additional stores in South Gate, Van Nuys, and Oxnard being converted to Lucky.

[67] In 2013, the Van Nuys store closed down and was bought by the unrelated Super King chain of Southern California.

Nicole Pesco, Save Mart's Co-President and Chief Strategy and Branding Officer, said the new concept store is "a fusion of Bay Area culture and California sourced and grown, presented with meal solutions at competitive prices".

[citation needed] Save Mart has mostly renovated and rebranded 72 other stores throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.