Quality Food Centers, Inc., better known as QFC, is an American supermarket chain based in Bellevue, Washington, east of Seattle. It is a subsidiary of Kroger and has 59 stores in western Washington and northwestern Oregon, primarily located in the Puget Sound region and Portland–Vancouver metropolitan area.
History
Jack Croco began his career in the grocery business in the 1940s in Boise, Idaho, working for Albertsons. By 1950, he had become the district manager in the Northwest and was responsible for opening the first Albertson's stores in the Seattle area. Soon afterward in 1955, Croco opened his grocery store in Bellevue, called Lake Hills Thriftway.
The grocery chain that would come to be named QFC in 1963 was founded in 1955 with the first store at 6600 Roosevelt Way N.E. in Seattle by a group headed by Vern Fortin, the former president of Van de Kamp's Holland Dutch Bakeries and founder of Vernell's Fine Candies. Croco merged his store with QFC in 1960 and remained involved in the company until he died in 1991 at the age of 65,[1] though in 1986 he sold QFC to Seattle investment firm Sloan, Adkins & Co.,