Jim Perkins has been named president of The Save Mart Companies, the 194-store Modesto, CA-based regional chain that trades under the Save Mart, Lucky Food Maxx and Maxx Value banners in California and Nevada. The company employs about 12,000 associates.
After more than 40 years with Albertsons, Perkins left the chain in March 2024 and a month later joined Save Mart as VP and general manager for its Lucky Division, whose 61 stores are primarily located in the San Francisco Bay area.
In his new post, Perkins will have day-to-day responsibilities for store operations, merchandising planning and promotion and marketing innovation. He will report to Shane Sampson, CEO, whose relationship with Perkins goes back more than 30 years from their days at Albertsons.
Sampson joined Save Mart in early 2022 after the regional chain was acquired from the Piccinini family by private equity firm Kingswood Capital Partners. In June 2024, Kingswood sold its interest to the Jim Pattison Group, a Vancouver, British Columbia-based privately owned diversified company whose businesses include grocery retailing and wholesaling.
Prior to leaving Albertsons earlier this year, Perkins served as head of SpinCo, the entity created by Albertsons in 2022 to oversee the unaccounted divested stores that would not be part of the Kroger-Albertsons potential merger. After C&S Wholesale Grocers said they would acquire 413 of those spun off units (later expanded to 579 supermarkets), SpinCo’s purpose became obsolete.
For most of the 10-year period from 2013-2023, Perkins oversaw Albertsons’ business in the Mid-Atlantic as president of Acme, then president of Acme and Safeway and as president of the Albertsons Mid-Atlantic division which encompassed the Acme, Safeway, Kings and Balducci’s banners. He also was a corporate executive VP of Albertsons.
A native of Tennessee, Perkins’ grocery career began in 1982 at Albertson’s where he was a key leader in several areas of the country including California, Florida, Texas and Oklahoma.
