WinCo Foods, Inc. is a privately held, majority employee-owned American supermarket chain based in Boise, Idaho, with retail stores in Arizona, California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah, and Washington. It was founded in 1967 as a no-frills warehouse-style store with low prices. The stores feature extensive bulk food sections. Until 1998, it operated as Waremart and Cub Foods, the latter under a franchise agreement. However, WinCo began re-establishing Waremart Foods in 2017. , WinCo has 138 retail stores and six distribution centers, with over 20,000 employees. As of May 2022, WinCo Foods was No. 46 in Forbes.com's list of the largest privately owned companies in the United States. Overview WinCo Foods is based in Boise, Idaho. It was founded in 1967, and the company is mostly owned by current and former employees through an employee stock ownership plan. WinCo operates distribution centers in: Woodburn, Oregon Myrtle Creek, Oregon Boise, Idaho Phoenix, Arizona Denton, Texas Modesto, California The company reduces operating expenses by purchasing directly from manufacturers and farmers; operating basic, no-frills stores; bagging service is not provided. In addition the company does not accept credit cards for payment (debit and WIC/EBT cards are accepted). History The company, originally called "Waremart", was founded in Boise, Idaho, in 1967 by Ralph Ward and Bud Williams as a no-frills, warehouse-style grocery store focusing on low prices. In 1985, Waremart employees established an employee stock ownership plan and purchased a majority stake of Waremart from the Ward family, making the company employee-owned. In January 1991, Waremart opened an store in Boise to replace the two older Boise stores. At the time, Waremart was operating 16 stores in the Northwest and had reported annual sales of more than $300 million. WinCo Foods In October 1998, Waremart changed its name to WinCo Foods, citing confusion with retailers Kmart and Walmart as reason for the new name. The name is a portmanteau of "winning company". Nonetheless, Oregon stores — those in Independence, Keizer, and Ontario — are branded as "Waremart by WinCo". In 2007, WinCo Foods accused a competing chain, Save Mart, of directing a lawsuit filed by a neighborhood group Tracy First of Tracy, California, to oppose city approval of a WinCo store. That same year, WinCo Foods opened in Pittsburg, California. In early 2009, WinCo opened its first two stores in the Spokane, Washington, area. In October, 2009, WinCo expanded to Utah, adding