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Research dossier · General Reference

Associated Grocers

Retailers' cooperative

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 1, 2026
Entity authorityQ4809193 ↗
Source-derived summary

Associated Grocers was an American retailers' cooperative that distributed full lines of groceries and general merchandise. Founded in Seattle in 1934, the cooperative provided retail services to independent grocers in Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Hawaii, and Guam. The cooperative served over 300 members’ retail locations with 2004 sales of $794.8 million before it was acquired by another cooperative, Unified Western Grocers on September 30, 2007.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Associated Grocers” as retailers' cooperative. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Associated, Grocers and Retailers'.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1934, 2004, 2007—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Associated, Grocers and Retailers' providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Associated Grocers”, the useful work is to connect “retailers' cooperative” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4809193. The first chronological checks are 1934, 2004 and 2007.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Associated Grocers”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Associated Grocers primary sources, Associated Grocers archive and Associated research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Associated Grocers”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Associated Grocers” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.