As Supervalu Slims Down, Cub Foods Fights On

As Brian Audette toured Cub Foods’ Stillwater store, the supermarket chain’s president often used words like “variety” and “fresh.”

To describe a display of golden Opal apples. To point out clams, mussels and fish fillets on ice. To rhapsodize about doughnuts baked at the store and available in 40 iterations.

It’s this full-serve approach across the store, coupled with what Audette calls “value,” that Cub hopes will help turn the tide in the Twin Cities grocery wars. Cub’s market leadership has eroded over the years as low-price leaders Target and Wal-Mart gained ground.

With the recent retooling of Cub’s corporate parent, Eden Prairie-based Supervalu Inc., Audette and his co-workers at Cub have reason for optimism. Struggling Supervalu shed its four largest — and in some cases, most troublesome — conventional chains, leaving five smaller ones. The firm can focus more resources on Cub, now its largest traditional chain.

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