Headquartered in Salt Lake City with stores in Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, Smith's became a subsidiary of Kroger in 1998.

[1] When his son Dee Glen Smith joined the business after serving in World War II, he began immediately expanding it.

When Dee Smith took over as president upon his father's death in 1958, he determined Brigham City was saturated, and felt the only option was to expand to other markets.

[5] In 1997, Smith's Food & Drug was acquired by Portland-based Fred Meyer for about $700 million (equivalent to $1.33 billion in 2023) in stock.

With the transaction, Kroger regained the spot it lost to Albertsons as the nation's largest supplier of eggs and milk.

The other Utah Fred Meyer stores located in Ogden, West Valley City, and Sandy were closed.

Earlier, Fred Meyer had closed a full-service store located in Orem that failed to meet expectations.

In 2008, Smith's also remodeled the former Fred Meyer store located at 500 East and 500 South in Salt Lake City.

On December 3, 2014, Smith's opened up its eighth store in West Jordan, Utah, located off 7800 South and the Mountain View Corridor.

In early April 2019, Smith's Food & Drug had stopped accepting Visa credit cards, describing the fees as excessive.