, a suburb of St. Louis Schnuck Markets, Inc. was founded in St. Louis in 1939. In 1943, its first large-scale retail store was opened, measuring . By 1952, its first major store was opened in
Brentwood, a St. Louis suburb. The Schnucks symbol, a soldier, was introduced in 1968. Schnucks continued to grow, adopting the motto "Friendliest Stores In Town" and acquiring stores in
Illinois,
Indiana,
Tennessee,
Mississippi,
Missouri,
Iowa, and
Wisconsin. By the late 1960s, Schnucks had 10 stores in the St. Louis area. In a merger in 1970, Schnucks acquired the
Bettendorf-Rapp chain of grocery stores—temporarily forming the Schnucks-Bettendorf's chain until the latter half of the combined name was dropped a couple of years later—just as Bettendorf's had swallowed up the Rapp chain of stores to form Bettendorf-Rapp's in the 1960s. Schnucks underwent a major expansion in 1995 when it purchased from
Loblaws the
National Supermarkets chain (a total of 57 stores), also based in St. Louis. The company's growth in the St. Louis area was bolstered by the local abandonment of two major supermarket chains:
A&P in the 1970s, and
Kroger in 1986.
Expansion In 2002, Schnucks agreed to buy 12
Seessel's stores in the Memphis, Tennessee area, from
Albertsons, Inc. Schnucks operated these stores until September 2011.
Kroger subsequently purchased these stores; eight reopened as Kroger, with the others closing altogether. Seven convenience stores operating under the Schnucks name also were sold, to be converted to the Kroger-owned brand
Kwik Shop. In 2008, Schnucks acquired grocery store Hart Food and Drug in O'Fallon, IL making it the fifth Schnucks in
St. Clair County. In August 2009, Schnucks opened a store in downtown St. Louis. This store, located at the corner of Ninth and Olive Streets in the central business district, was called "Culinaria – A Schnucks Market" and was advertised as a "new urban prototype". The store includes of shopping space, an additional mezzanine with a wine department, tapas/wine bar, a full-service pharmacy, meat and seafood departments, florist, bakery, and a Kaldi's Coffee bar. The placement of the store reflects the
downtown area's urban renewal of the 21st century, including
Washington Avenue Loft District, St. Louis loft-style condominiums and apartments. In 2020, Schnucks opened another prototype store, named "EatWell - A Natural Food Store by Schnucks", located in a former
Lucky's Market off Providence Road in
Columbia, Missouri near the campus of the
University of Missouri. Both the Culinaria and EatWell concepts were eventually abandoned and the downtown St. Louis and Providence Road locations were converted into mainline Schnucks stores. On September 18, 2018, it was announced that
SuperValu would sell 19 of its
Shop 'n Save locations to Schnucks. In 2020/2021, Schnucks exited the Iowa/
Quad Cities market with the closing of their
Bettendorf, Iowa store and a pharmacy in
Moline, Illinois (with the customers transferred to the stand-alone CVS as part of that acquisition). In September 2022, Schnucks purchased the only two locations of
Missouri-based grocer Fricks Market. In October 2022, the newly renovated Schnucks store of Union opened to the general public. In 2025, the Schnuck family founded 1939 Group, Inc. The name honors the year Anna Donovan Schnuck opened the first store location in St. Louis. In September 2025, the 1939 Group purchased 51
Wisconsin-based grocery locations, including 42
Festival Foods stores and 9 Hometown Grocers, Inc. stores, and also added over 8,000 more employees to the Schnucks family. The Festival Foods and Hometown Grocers stores will maintain their existing banners which are well-known by the communities they serve. ==Pharmacy==