title: Proton

text: One or more protons are present in the nucleus of every atom. They provide the attractive electrostatic central force which binds the atomic electrons. The number of protons in the nucleus is the defining property of an element, and is referred to as the atomic number (represented by the symbol "Z"). Since each element has a unique number of protons, each element has its own unique atomic number, which determines the number of atomic electrons and consequently the chemical characteristics of the element.


title: Proton

text: The word "proton" is Greek for "first", and this name was given to the hydrogen nucleus by Ernest Rutherford in 1920. In previous years, Rutherford had discovered that the hydrogen nucleus (known to be the lightest nucleus) could be extracted from the nuclei of nitrogen by atomic collisions. Protons were therefore a candidate to be a fundamental or elementary particle, and hence a building block of nitrogen and all other heavier atomic nuclei.


title: Proton

text: Although protons were originally considered elementary particles, in the modern Standard Model of particle physics, protons are now known to be composite particles, containing three valence quarks, and together with neutrons are now classified as hadrons. Protons are composed of two up quarks of charge +"e" and one down quark of charge −"e". The rest masses of quarks contribute only about 1% of a proton's mass. The remainder of a proton's mass is due to quantum chromodynamics binding energy, which includes the kinetic energy of the quarks and the energy of the gluon fields that bind the quarks together. Because protons are not fundamental particles, they possess a measurable size; the root mean square charge radius of a proton is about 0.84–0.87 fm (or to ). In 2019, two different studies, using different techniques, found this radius to be 0.833 fm, with an uncertainty of ±0.010 fm.


title: Proton

text: Free protons occur occasionally on Earth: thunderstorms can produce protons with energies of up to several tens of MeV. At sufficiently low temperatures and kinetic energies, free protons will bind to electrons. However, the character of such bound protons does not change, and they remain protons. A fast proton moving through matter will slow by interactions with electrons and nuclei, until it is captured by the electron cloud of an atom. The result is a protonated atom, which is a chemical compound of hydrogen. In a vacuum, when free electrons are present, a sufficiently slow proton may pick up a single free electron, becoming a neutral hydrogen atom, which is chemically a free radical. Such "free hydrogen atoms" tend to react chemically with many other types of atoms at sufficiently low energies. When free hydrogen atoms react with each other, they form neutral hydrogen molecules (H), which are the most common molecular component of molecular clouds in interstellar space.


title: Proton

text: Free protons are routinely used for accelerators for proton therapy or various particle physics experiments, with the most powerful example being the Large Hadron Collider.


title: Proton

text: Protons are spin- fermions and are composed of three valence quarks, making them baryons (a sub-type of hadrons). The two up quarks and one down quark of a proton are held together by the strong force, mediated by gluons. A modern perspective has a proton composed of the valence quarks (up, up, down), the gluons, and transitory pairs of sea quarks. Protons have a positive charge distribution which decays approximately exponentially, with a root mean square charge radius of about 0.8 fm.


title: Proton

text: Protons and neutrons are both nucleons, which may be bound together by the nuclear force to form atomic nuclei. The nucleus of the most common isotope of the hydrogen atom (with the chemical symbol "H") is a lone proton. The nuclei of the heavy hydrogen isotopes deuterium and tritium contain one proton bound to one and two neutrons, respectively. All other types of atomic nuclei are composed of two or more protons and various numbers of neutrons.


title: Proton

text: The concept of a hydrogen-like particle as a constituent of other atoms was developed over a long period. As early as 1815, William Prout proposed that all atoms are composed of hydrogen atoms (which he called "protyles"), based on a simplistic interpretation of early values of atomic weights (see Prout's hypothesis), which was disproved when more accurate values were measured.


title: Proton

text: In 1886, Eugen Goldstein discovered canal rays (also known as anode rays) and showed that they were positively charged particles (ions) produced from gases. However, since particles from different gases had different values of charge-to-mass ratio (e/m), they could not be identified with a single particle, unlike the negative electrons discovered by J. J. Thomson. Wilhelm Wien in 1898 identified the hydrogen ion as the particle with the highest charge-to-mass ratio in ionized gases.


title: Proton

text: Following the discovery of the atomic nucleus by Ernest Rutherford in 1911, Antonius van den Broek proposed that the place of each element in the periodic table (its atomic number) is equal to its nuclear charge. This was confirmed experimentally by Henry Moseley in 1913 using X-ray spectra.


title: Proton

text: In 1917 (in experiments reported in 1919 and 1925), Rutherford proved that the hydrogen nucleus is present in other nuclei, a result usually described as the discovery of protons. These experiments began after Rutherford had noticed that, when alpha particles were shot into air (mostly nitrogen), his scintillation detectors showed the signatures of typical hydrogen nuclei as a product. After experimentation Rutherford traced the reaction to the nitrogen in air and found that when alpha particles were introduced into pure nitrogen gas, the effect was larger. In 1919 Rutherford assumed that the alpha particle merely knocked a proton out of nitrogen, turning it into carbon. After observing Blackett's cloud chamber images in 1925, Rutherford realized that the alpha particle was absorbed. After capture of the alpha particle, a hydrogen nucleus is ejected, so that heavy oxygen, not carbon, is the result – i.e., the atomic number "Z" of the nucleus is increased rather than reduced. This was the first reported nuclear reaction, . Rutherford at first thought of our modern "p" in this equation as a hydrogen ion, .


title: Proton

text: Depending on one's perspective, either 1919 (when it was seen experimentally as derived from another source than hydrogen) or 1920 (when it was recognized and proposed as an elementary particle) may be regarded as the moment when the proton was 'discovered'.


title: Proton

text: Rutherford knew hydrogen to be the simplest and lightest element and was influenced by Prout's hypothesis that hydrogen was the building block of all elements. Discovery that the hydrogen nucleus is present in other nuclei as an elementary particle led Rutherford to give the hydrogen nucleus a special name as a particle, since he suspected that hydrogen, the lightest element, contained only one of these particles. He named this new fundamental building block of the nucleus the "proton," after the neuter singular of the Greek word for "first", . However, Rutherford also had in mind the word "protyle" as used by Prout. Rutherford spoke at the British Association for the Advancement of Science at its Cardiff meeting beginning 24 August 1920. At the meeting, he was asked by Oliver Lodge for a new name for the positive hydrogen nucleus to avoid confusion with the neutral hydrogen atom. He initially suggested both "proton" and "prouton" (after Prout). Rutherford later reported that the meeting had accepted his suggestion that the hydrogen nucleus be named the "proton", following Prout's word "protyle". The first use of the word "proton" in the scientific literature appeared in 1920.


title: Proton

text: The free proton (a proton not bound to nucleons or electrons) is a stable particle that has not been observed to break down spontaneously to other particles. Free protons are found naturally in a number of situations in which energies or temperatures are high enough to separate them from electrons, for which they have some affinity. Free protons exist in plasmas in which temperatures are too high to allow them to combine with electrons. Free protons of high energy and velocity make up 90% of cosmic rays, which propagate in vacuum for interstellar distances. Free protons are emitted directly from atomic nuclei in some rare types of radioactive decay. Protons also result (along with electrons and antineutrinos) from the radioactive decay of free neutrons, which are unstable.


title: Proton

text: The spontaneous decay of free protons has never been observed, and protons are therefore considered stable particles according to the Standard Model. However, some grand unified theories (GUTs) of particle physics predict that proton decay should take place with lifetimes between 10 to 10 years and experimental searches have established lower bounds on the mean lifetime of a proton for various assumed decay products.


title: Proton

text: Experiments at the Super-Kamiokande detector in Japan gave lower limits for proton mean lifetime of for decay to an antimuon and a neutral pion, and for decay to a positron and a neutral pion.


title: Proton

text: Another experiment at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory in Canada searched for gamma rays resulting from residual nuclei resulting from the decay of a proton from oxygen-16. This experiment was designed to detect decay to any product, and established a lower limit to a proton lifetime of .


title: Proton

text: However, protons are known to transform into neutrons through the process of electron capture (also called inverse beta decay). For free protons, this process does not occur spontaneously but only when energy is supplied. The equation is:


title: Proton

text: The process is reversible; neutrons can convert back to protons through beta decay, a common form of radioactive decay. In fact, a free neutron decays this way, with a mean lifetime of about 15 minutes. A proton can also transform into neutrons through beta plus decay (β+ decay).


title: Proton

text: According to quantum field theory, the mean proper lifetime of protons formula_1 becomes finite when they are accelerating with proper acceleration formula_2, and formula_1 decreases with increasing formula_2. Acceleration gives rise to a non-vanishing probability for the transition . This was a matter of concern in the later 1990s because formula_1 is a scalar that can be measured by the inertial and coaccelerated observers. In the inertial frame, the accelerating proton should decay according to the formula above. However, according to the coaccelerated observer the proton is at rest and hence should not decay. This puzzle is solved by realizing that in the coaccelerated frame there is a thermal bath due to Fulling–Davies–Unruh effect, an intrinsic effect of quantum field theory. In this thermal bath, experienced by the proton, there are electrons and antineutrinos with which the proton may interact according to the processes: (i) , (ii) and (iii) . Adding the contributions of each of these processes, one should obtain formula_1.


title: Proton

text: In quantum chromodynamics, the modern theory of the nuclear force, most of the mass of protons and neutrons is explained by special relativity. The mass of a proton is about 80–100 times greater than the sum of the rest masses of its three valence quarks, while the gluons have zero rest mass. The extra energy of the quarks and gluons in a proton, as compared to the rest energy of the quarks alone in the QCD vacuum, accounts for almost 99% of the proton's mass. The rest mass of a proton is, thus, the invariant mass of the system of moving quarks and gluons that make up the particle, and, in such systems, even the energy of massless particles is still measured as part of the rest mass of the system.


title: Proton

text: Two terms are used in referring to the mass of the quarks that make up protons: "current quark mass" refers to the mass of a quark by itself, while "constituent quark mass" refers to the current quark mass plus the mass of the gluon particle field surrounding the quark. These masses typically have very different values. The kinetic energy of the quarks that is a consequence of confinement is a contribution (see "Mass in special relativity"). Using lattice QCD calculations, the contributions to the mass of the proton are the quark condensate (~9%, comprising the up and down quarks and a sea of virtual strange quarks), the quark kinetic energy (~32%), the gluon kinetic energy (~37%), and the anomalous gluonic contribution (~23%, comprising contributions from condensates of all quark flavors).


title: Proton

text: The internal dynamics of protons are complicated, because they are determined by the quarks' exchanging gluons, and interacting with various vacuum condensates. Lattice QCD provides a way of calculating the mass of a proton directly from the theory to any accuracy, in principle. The most recent calculations claim that the mass is determined to better than 4% accuracy, even to 1% accuracy (see Figure S5 in Dürr "et al."). These claims are still controversial, because the calculations cannot yet be done with quarks as light as they are in the real world. This means that the predictions are found by a process of extrapolation, which can introduce systematic errors. It is hard to tell whether these errors are controlled properly, because the quantities that are compared to experiment are the masses of the hadrons, which are known in advance.


title: Proton

text: These recent calculations are performed by massive supercomputers, and, as noted by Boffi and Pasquini: "a detailed description of the nucleon structure is still missing because ... long-distance behavior requires a nonperturbative and/or numerical treatment ..."


title: Proton

text: More conceptual approaches to the structure of protons are: the topological soliton approach originally due to Tony Skyrme and the more accurate AdS/QCD approach that extends it to include a string theory of gluons, various QCD-inspired models like the bag model and the constituent quark model, which were popular in the 1980s, and the SVZ sum rules, which allow for rough approximate mass calculations. These methods do not have the same accuracy as the more brute-force lattice QCD methods, at least not yet.


title: Proton

text: The problem of defining a radius for an atomic nucleus (proton) is similar to the problem of atomic radius, in that neither atoms nor their nuclei have definite boundaries. However, the nucleus can be modeled as a sphere of positive charge for the interpretation of electron scattering experiments: because there is no definite boundary to the nucleus, the electrons "see" a range of cross-sections, for which a mean can be taken. The qualification of "rms" (for "root mean square") arises because it is the nuclear cross-section, proportional to the square of the radius, which is determining for electron scattering.


title: Proton

text: The internationally accepted value of a proton's charge radius is . This value is based on measurements involving a proton and an electron (namely, electron scattering measurements and complex calculation involving scattering cross section based on Rosenbluth equation for momentum-transfer cross section), and studies of the atomic energy levels of hydrogen and deuterium.


title: Proton

text: However, in 2010 an international research team published a proton charge radius measurement via the Lamb shift in muonic hydrogen (an exotic atom made of a proton and a negatively charged muon). As a muon is 200 times heavier than an electron, its de Broglie wavelength is correspondingly shorter. This smaller atomic orbital is much more sensitive to the proton's charge radius, so allows more precise measurement. Their measurement of the root-mean-square charge radius of a proton is ", which differs by 5.0 standard deviations from the CODATA value of ". In January 2013, an updated value for the charge radius of a proton——was published. The precision was improved by 1.7 times, increasing the significance of the discrepancy to 7"σ".


title: Proton

text: The 2014 CODATA adjustment slightly reduced the recommended value for the proton radius (computed using electron measurements only) to , but this leaves the discrepancy at (87510-84087)/sqrt(610^2 + 39^2) round 1"σ".


title: Proton

text: If no errors were found in the measurements or calculations, it would have been necessary to re-examine the world's most precise and best-tested fundamental theory: quantum electrodynamics. The proton radius was a puzzle as of 2017.


title: Proton

text: A resolution came in 2019, when two different studies, using different techniques involving the Lamb shift of the electron in hydrogen, and electron–proton scattering, found the radius of the proton to be 0.833 fm, with an uncertainty of ±0.010 fm, and 0.831 fm.


title: Proton

text: The radius of the proton is linked to the form factor and momentum-transfer cross section. The atomic form factor "G" modifies the cross section corresponding to point-like proton.


title: Proton

text: The form factor can be split in electric and magnetic form factors. These can be further written as linear combinations of Dirac and Pauli form factors.


title: Proton

text: Since the proton is composed of quarks confined by gluons, an equivalent pressure which acts on the quarks can be defined. This allows calculation of their distribution as a function of distance from the centre using Compton scattering of high-energy electrons (DVCS, for "deeply virtual Compton scattering"). The pressure is maximum at the centre, about 10 Pa, which is greater than the pressure inside a neutron star. It is positive (repulsive) to a radial distance of about 0.6 fm, negative (attractive) at greater distances, and very weak beyond about 2 fm.


title: Proton

text: The radius of the hydrated proton appears in the Born equation for calculating the hydration enthalpy of hydronium.


title: Proton

text: Although protons have affinity for oppositely charged electrons, this is a relatively low-energy interaction and so free protons must lose sufficient velocity (and kinetic energy) in order to become closely associated and bound to electrons. High energy protons, in traversing ordinary matter, lose energy by collisions with atomic nuclei, and by ionization of atoms (removing electrons) until they are slowed sufficiently to be captured by the electron cloud in a normal atom.


title: Proton

text: However, in such an association with an electron, the character of the bound proton is not changed, and it remains a proton. The attraction of low-energy free protons to any electrons present in normal matter (such as the electrons in normal atoms) causes free protons to stop and to form a new chemical bond with an atom. Such a bond happens at any sufficiently "cold" temperature (that is, comparable to temperatures at the surface of the Sun) and with any type of atom. Thus, in interaction with any type of normal (non-plasma) matter, low-velocity free protons do not remain free but are attracted to electrons in any atom or molecule with which they come into contact, causing the proton and molecule to combine. Such molecules are then said to be "protonated", and chemically they are simply compounds of hydrogen, often positively charged. Often, as a result, they become so-called Brønsted acids. For example, a proton captured by a water molecule in water becomes hydronium, the aqueous cation .


title: Proton

text: In chemistry, the number of protons in the nucleus of an atom is known as the atomic number, which determines the chemical element to which the atom belongs. For example, the atomic number of chlorine is 17; this means that each chlorine atom has 17 protons and that all atoms with 17 protons are chlorine atoms. The chemical properties of each atom are determined by the number of (negatively charged) electrons, which for neutral atoms is equal to the number of (positive) protons so that the total charge is zero. For example, a neutral chlorine atom has 17 protons and 17 electrons, whereas a Cl anion has 17 protons and 18 electrons for a total charge of −1.


title: Proton

text: All atoms of a given element are not necessarily identical, however. The number of neutrons may vary to form different isotopes, and energy levels may differ, resulting in different nuclear isomers. For example, there are two stable isotopes of chlorine: with 35 − 17 = 18 neutrons and with 37 − 17 = 20 neutrons.


title: Proton

text: In chemistry, the term proton refers to the hydrogen ion, . Since the atomic number of hydrogen is 1, a hydrogen ion has no electrons and corresponds to a bare nucleus, consisting of a proton (and 0 neutrons for the most abundant isotope "protium" ). The proton is a "bare charge" with only about 1/64,000 of the radius of a hydrogen atom, and so is extremely reactive chemically. The free proton, thus, has an extremely short lifetime in chemical systems such as liquids and it reacts immediately with the electron cloud of any available molecule. In aqueous solution, it forms the hydronium ion, HO, which in turn is further solvated by water molecules in clusters such as [HO] and [HO].


title: Proton

text: The transfer of in an acid–base reaction is usually referred to as "proton transfer". The acid is referred to as a proton donor and the base as a proton acceptor. Likewise, biochemical terms such as proton pump and proton channel refer to the movement of hydrated ions.


title: Proton

text: The ion produced by removing the electron from a deuterium atom is known as a deuteron, not a proton. Likewise, removing an electron from a tritium atom produces a triton.


title: Proton

text: Also in chemistry, the term "proton NMR" refers to the observation of hydrogen-1 nuclei in (mostly organic) molecules by nuclear magnetic resonance. This method uses the quantized spin magnetic moment of the proton, which is due to its angular momentum (or spin), which in turn has a magnitude of one-half the reduced Planck constant. (formula_11). The name refers to examination of protons as they occur in protium (hydrogen-1 atoms) in compounds, and does not imply that free protons exist in the compound being studied.


title: Proton

text: The Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Packages (ALSEP) determined that more than 95% of the particles in the solar wind are electrons and protons, in approximately equal numbers.


title: Proton

text: Protons also have extrasolar origin from galactic cosmic rays, where they make up about 90% of the total particle flux. These protons often have higher energy than solar wind protons, and their intensity is far more uniform and less variable than protons coming from the Sun, the production of which is heavily affected by solar proton events such as coronal mass ejections.


title: Proton

text: Research has been performed on the dose-rate effects of protons, as typically found in space travel, on human health. To be more specific, there are hopes to identify what specific chromosomes are damaged, and to define the damage, during cancer development from proton exposure. Another study looks into determining "the effects of exposure to proton irradiation on neurochemical and behavioral endpoints, including dopaminergic functioning, amphetamine-induced conditioned taste aversion learning, and spatial learning and memory as measured by the Morris water maze. Electrical charging of a spacecraft due to interplanetary proton bombardment has also been proposed for study. There are many more studies that pertain to space travel, including galactic cosmic rays and their possible health effects, and solar proton event exposure.


title: Proton

text: The American Biostack and Soviet Biorack space travel experiments have demonstrated the severity of molecular damage induced by heavy ions on microorganisms including Artemia cysts.


title: Proton

text: CPT-symmetry puts strong constraints on the relative properties of particles and antiparticles and, therefore, is open to stringent tests. For example, the charges of a proton and antiproton must sum to exactly zero. This equality has been tested to one part in . The equality of their masses has also been tested to better than one part in . By holding antiprotons in a Penning trap, the equality of the charge-to-mass ratio of protons and antiprotons has been tested to one part in . The magnetic moment of antiprotons has been measured with error of nuclear Bohr magnetons, and is found to be equal and opposite to that of a proton.


title: BMP-1

text: The BMP-1 is a Soviet amphibious tracked infantry fighting vehicle. BMP stands for "Boyevaya Mashina Pyekhoty 1" (), meaning "infantry fighting vehicle, 1st serial model". The BMP-1 was the first mass-produced infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) of the Soviet Union. It was called the M-1967, BMP and BMP-76PB by NATO before its correct designation was known.


title: BMP-1

text: The Soviet military leadership saw any future wars as being conducted with nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. A new design, like the BMP, combining the properties of an armored personnel carrier (APC) and a light tank would allow infantry to operate from the relative safety of its armoured, radiation-shielded interior in contaminated areas and to fight alongside it in uncontaminated areas. It would increase infantry squad mobility, provide fire support to them, and also be able to fight alongside main battle tanks.


title: BMP-1

text: The BMP-1 was first tested in combat in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, where it was used by Egyptian and Syrian forces. Based on lessons learned from this conflict, and early experiences in the Soviet–Afghan War, a version with improved fighting qualities was developed, the BMP-2. It was accepted into service in August 1980.


title: BMP-1

text: In 1987, the BMP-3, a radically redesigned vehicle with a completely new weapon, entered service in limited numbers with the Soviet Army.


title: BMP-1

text: Currently, in 2022 the BMP-1 is also used by both the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the Russian armed forces in the current ongoing war in Ukraine due to the fact that the vehicle is much more widely available compared to the more modern BMP-3.


title: BMP-1

text: The Red Army Mechanized infantry tactics during the 1950s were similar to World War II methods in which APCs were used as "battle taxis". They would keep the infantry in close proximity to the battle-tanks during movement, but on enemy contact they would unload their infantry before retreating to safer areas. This was in contrast to the German doctrine of infantry fighting vehicles manifested in the Schützenpanzer Lang HS.30, where the vehicles were supposed to stay with the tanks and engage lighter targets, both to take a burden off the tanks and to support their infantry squads.


title: BMP-1

text: Existing APCs offered little or no protection from either nuclear or chemical weapons, as they were either open-topped or could not be sealed sufficiently. Furthermore, the infantry had to disembark to be able to use their weapons.


title: BMP-1

text: The requirement for the BMP, which was first drawn up in the late 1950s, stressed speed, good armament, and the ability for all squad members to fire from within the vehicle. The armament had to provide direct support for dismounted infantry in the attack and defense, and to be able to destroy comparable light armored vehicles. The vehicle needed to protect the crew from .50 cal machinegun fire and 20–23 mm caliber autocannons across the frontal arc, as well as from light shell fragments at distances between 500 m and 800 m.


title: BMP-1

text: Firepower consisted of the innovative combination of the 73 mm 2A28 Grom gun and a launcher for the 9M14 Malyutka (AT-3A Sagger A) anti-tank wire-guided missile (ATGM). The gun was intended to engage enemy armored vehicles and firing points at a range of up to . The missile launcher was intended to be used against targets that were to away.


title: BMP-1

text: Requirements were issued to the various design bureaus between 1959 and 1960. There was a question as to whether the BMP should be tracked or wheeled, so a number of experimental configurations were explored, including hybrid wheeled/tracked designs.


title: BMP-1

text: The tracked Ob'yekt 764 (codename Object 764) was chosen because its front-engine design provided a convenient and fast way of mounting and dismounting through two rear doors. The original prototype was built in 1964, followed by the improved Ob'yekt 765 in 1965, which was accepted by the Army in 1966, under a designation BMP-1. The 120th Guards Motor Rifle Division was the first formation in the Soviet Union to test prototypes of the new BMP ("objekt 765") infantry fighting vehicle in January–November 1965, under the command of Guards Major Vasiliy Samodelov. Small-scale production began in 1966.


title: BMP-1

text: A large number of variants of the BMP-1 were produced, with the most notable IFV variants being: BMP-2, MLI-84 and Boragh.


title: BMP-1

text: The BMP went into production with the Soviet Army in 1966. The first series (Ob'yekt 765 Sp1, "specification 1") was produced until 1969. It was replaced by the improved production model, the BMP-1 (the Ob'yekt 765 Sp2), which was produced from 1969 until 1973. This, in turn, was replaced by the Ob'yekt 765 Sp3, which was a modernized, 200 kg heavier version that was produced from 1973 to 1979. A number of improvements were made to the reliability of the chassis, engine and transmission during mass production.


title: BMP-1

text: The last version of the BMP-1 IFV (BMP-1P, Ob'yekt 765 Sp4), which was produced from 1979 to 1983, was armed with a more powerful ATGM launcher 9P135M-1 for the ATGM "Konkurs"/"Fagot". The main manufacturer of the BMP-1 and its different variants was the Kurgan Machine Building Works (Kurganskiy Mashinostroitelyniy Zavod). The PRP-3 artillery reconnaissance vehicles were produced by the Chelyabinsk Tractor Works (ChTZ). The PRP-4/PRP-4M artillery reconnaissance vehicles were produced by the Rubtsovsk Engineering Works (RMZ). Upgrades of the BMP-1 were performed by KMZ as well as by tank repair workshops of the Ministry of Defence during scheduled and major overhauls. More than 20,000 BMP-1"s" and vehicles based on it were built in the USSR.


title: BMP-1

text: BMP-1"s" were produced under license by Czechoslovakia (BVP-1), Romania (MLI-84) and India. Since 1986, the People's Republic of China has produced its own unlicensed copy called the Type 86 (WZ 501). The number of Type 86 IFVs and vehicles based upon it is around 3,000. It is still in service with the People's Liberation Army. From 1997, Iran produced its own modification of the BMP-1, the Boragh, which resembles the Chinese WZ 503.


title: BMP-1

text: In the mid-1970s, after analysis of the use of light AFVs during the Yom Kippur, Angolan and Vietnam wars, a modernization program was begun that resulted in the BMP-1P (Ob'yekt 765 Sp4). The main changes were the replacement of the largely ineffective 9M14M "Malyutka" ATGM with the more reliable, longer range and more powerful 9P135M or 9P135M-1 ATGM launcher. It was located on a special pintle mount on top of the turret roof, that could fire the SACLOS guided 9M113 and 9M113M "Konkurs-M" ATGMs, which increased armor penetration to and had an extended range of .


title: BMP-1

text: The 9P135M-1 launcher was capable of firing 9M111 and 9M111-2 "Fagot" ATGMs. The "Malyutka" loading hatch was usually welded shut and the mounting bracket was removed. The new missiles were somewhat difficult to use since the gunner had to stand in his open hatch, exposing himself to hostile fire. It is possible to detach the 9P135M(1) ATGM launcher from the turret and use it from the ground.


title: BMP-1

text: The BMP-1P was equipped with neutron weapon protection covering and a new fire-extinguishing system for protection against napalm. Later BMP-1Ps were fitted with an array of six 902V "Tucha" calibre smoke grenade launchers at the rear of the turret. Some were equipped with the track-width KMT-10 mine plow. The BMP-1P replaced the BMP-1 in production in 1979. Many BMP-1s were upgraded to the new standard during the 1980s.


title: BMP-1

text: The BMP-1PG model added a AGS-17 "Plamya" automatic grenade launcher on top of the turret on the left side, for which it carries 290 grenades. Some BMP-1s had the AGS-17 added during major repairs (Ob'yekt 765Sp8).


title: BMP-1

text: A non-amphibious BMP-1D (the so-called 'Afghan' variant), was built in 1982 for assault units in Afghanistan. It had 5 mm thick appliqué steel armor plates on the hull sides with holes for side firing ports as well as armor plate under the commander's and driver's seats for added protection against mines. It had large steel armored skirts fitted to the sides of the hull covering the suspension. Firing ports were added into the top hatches of the troop compartment and a stowage box was placed on the roof at the rear of the hull on some vehicles. The 9S428 ATGM launcher was often removed and replaced by an AGS-17 automatic grenade launcher.


title: BMP-1

text: Due to experience in Afghanistan, a new version with enhanced fighting capabilities, the BMP-2, was introduced in 1980. It had a new two-man turret armed with a 30 mm 2A42 multi-purpose autocannon and a 9P135M-1 ATGM launcher capable of firing SACLOS guided 9M113 "Konkurs" and 9M113M "Konkurs-M" as well as 9M111 and 9M111-2 "Fagot" ATGMs.


title: BMP-1

text: Later modernization plans included mounting the turret of the BMD-2 IFV on to BMP-1s, but the vehicle never left the design phase. Recent proposals for the modernization of BMP-1s include mounting new turrets armed with a 2A72 autocannon, approved in 2018, or a TKB-799 "Kliver" one-man weapons station with a computerized fire control system, armed with a missile pod (which can be armed with either four 9M133 "Kornet" (AT-14 Spriggan) or 9M133F "Kornet" ATGMs or 9K38 "Igla" (SA-18 Grouse) SAMs), a 30 mm 2A72 dual-purpose autocannon and a PKTM coaxial machine gun (BMP-1AM 'Basurmanin' and BMP-1M respectively).


title: BMP-1

text: The BMP-1AM Basurmanin is an upgraded version of BMP-1 developed by The Uralvagonzavod (UVZ) research-and-manufacturing corporation (a subsidiary of the Rostec state corporation). The BMP-1AM is BMP-1 with the original turret replaced by the turret from BTR-82A with a 2A72 30 mm autocannon, a Kalashnikov PKTM 7.62 mm medium machinegun, and 902V Tucha smoke grenade launchers. The turret will be fitted with the TKN-4GA combined day-night sighting system. The 2A72 cannon will be able to use air burst munitions. Approved in 2018, it is the most recent Russian BMP-1 upgrade. The Russian army plans to upgrade all of their BMP-1s and BMP-1Ps to BMP-1AM level.


title: BMP-1

text: The BMP-1 is a fully amphibious tracked vehicle, with a front-engined chassis developed especially for it, a welded steel hull with a sharp, sloping front with a conspicuously ridged surface, a centrally located, flat, truncated cone turret and a troop compartment at the rear.


title: BMP-1

text: The driver sits in the front on the left side of the hull. He has three TNPO-170 periscope vision-blocks to provide vision when his hatch is closed. The driver's center vision block can be replaced with a TVNO-2 active night binocular vision device for use in night and poor visibility conditions or with a TNPO-350B extended periscope when swimming with the trim vane erected. The BMP was the first Soviet armored vehicle to use a simple yoke steering system.


title: BMP-1

text: The commander's station is located behind the driver's station and is provided with a removable OU-3GA2 or OU-3GK infrared searchlight with an effective range of about . A dual mode (day/night) TKN-3B 5x/4.2x magnification binocular vision device is coupled to the infrared searchlight. Two periscope vision blocks are fitted with a heating and cleaning system. The commander's station is equipped with an R-123M radio set.


title: BMP-1

text: The BMP-1 has a conical turret equipped with a fume extraction system and an electric traverse drive with a manual backup system. The main gun has a dead-zone over the commander's hatch (between the 10:00 and 11:00 o'clock positions), where the gun must be elevated over the infra-red searchlight to avoid crushing it. When the gun is facing backwards, it prevents hatches on top of the troop compartment from opening. The low profile of the turret makes it a difficult target. The same turret is used in the BMD-1.


title: BMP-1

text: The gunner's station is located to the left of the main gun. The gunner has a dual mode (day/night) 1PN22M1 6x/6.7x magnification image intensifying monocular periscope sight, four day-use periscope vision blocks, and an OU-3GK removable infrared or white-light searchlight. The 1PN22M1 sight has a maximum range of at night, with the use of the infra-red searchlight. The sight is marked stadiametricly with the apparent size of a tall tank at various ranges.


title: BMP-1

text: The original sight was replaced with the 1PN22M2, which has an additional scale for the OG-15V HE-Frag rounds used by the Ob'yekt 765Sp3, produced from July 1974. The new sight has two day scales for the two projectiles – one from and the other from .


title: BMP-1

text: The main armament is the 73 mm 2A28 "Grom" low pressure smoothbore semi-automatic gun. It is fed from a 40-round magazine located around the turret ring. The cyclic rate of fire is 8 to 10 rounds per minute. The gun returns to an elevation of +3° 30' to reload after each shot if the autoloader is used. The gun can be reloaded by hand if necessary. Some units removed the autoloader altogether when new vehicles were delivered, but the mechanized ammunition conveyor magazine was kept. High-explosive ammunition, introduced in 1974, can only be loaded manually, from a conveyor.


title: BMP-1

text: The 2A28 'Grom' smoothbore gun fires the same PG-15V projectiles as the SPG-9 infantry light recoilless gun, but with a smaller propellant charge. The PG-15V HEAT warhead can penetrate of steel armor – more than enough to penetrate the frontal armor of NATO MBTs of the 1970s, such as the US M60A1, the British Chieftain or the German Leopard 1. The modernized PG-9 shell is able to penetrate up to of steel armor. Under battlefield conditions, it has a maximum effective range of .


title: BMP-1

text: OG-15V high explosive ammunition was made available from 1974. The warhead has twice the weight of explosives as the anti-armor PG-15V. It is intended for use against troops or soft targets.


title: BMP-1

text: A coaxial 7.62 mm PKT machine gun is mounted to the right of the main armament for which the BMP-1 carries 2,000 rounds.


title: BMP-1

text: The 2A28 'Grom' gun and PKT coaxial machine gun cannot be accurately fired while the vehicle is on the move over rough ground as the turret is unstabilised.


title: BMP-1

text: Mounted on the gun mantlet, the ATGM launcher is capable of firing the 9M14 "Malyutka", (NATO: AT-3A Sagger A), the 9M14M "Malyutka-M" (NATO: AT-3B Sagger B) and the 9M14P "Malyutka-P" (NATO: AT-3C Sagger C). All are intended to be used against enemy MBTs and other AFVs at distances from . These ATGMs can penetrate up to of steel armor (NATO standard at the time). The 9M14P missile can be used in manual mode only, like older missiles, without the advantage of semi-automatic guidance.


title: BMP-1

text: The BMP-1 carries four ATGMs with their launching rails as a standard (two inside the turret and two inside the hull). In theory, a fifth missile can be carried on the launcher. The missiles are loaded onto a rail launcher through a small rectangular hatch in a turret's roof behind the launcher. Each 9M14M weighs , a 9M14P is . These missiles can only be fired in daylight because of the lack of a night sight. A guidance device used in the BMP-1 has the code 9S428.


title: BMP-1

text: Besides possessing such advantages as interference immunity and simple control equipment, wire-guided ATGMs are also hampered by significant disadvantages such as a relatively low flight speed, response delay, the inability to load a new missile until the previous one has reached its target and a very long minimum range (). Successful operation of the ATGM while the vehicle is on the move requires a very skilled gunner.


title: BMP-1

text: Those BMP-1s still in Russian service that were not modernized to the BMP-1P standard, can now use 9M14-2 "Malyutka-2" (NATO: AT-3D Sagger D) ATGMs (developed in 1995), which have either a tandem shaped-charge or high-explosive thermobaric warhead.


title: BMP-1

text: The BMP-1 was a threat to NATO APCs, light AFVs, and even MBTs of its time, by use of its main gun or ATGM. Nevertheless, the strong anti-tank focus of its armament didn't provide sufficient firepower against enemy unarmored vehicles, infantry and light fortified positions, especially during mountain battles (mostly due to the low elevation angle of the main gun). The appearance of the more successful BMP-2 armed with the 30mm 2A42 dual-purpose autocannon solved this serious problem.


title: BMP-1

text: The troop compartment located at the rear of the vehicle can carry up to eight soldiers. There are four firing ports on each side of the vehicle and a single firing port in the left rear door. A combination fume extractor hose and cartridge deflector is provided to clip on to weapons at each station.


title: BMP-1

text: Soldiers sit on two padded benches along the center line of the vehicle and face the sides. Vehicle batteries, electric equipment and the main fuel tank are located between the benches, with tool stowage beneath. There are four large D-shaped hatches in the roof of the hull, which can be opened from the troop compartment. The airtight rear doors of the troop compartment contain fuel tanks.


title: BMP-1

text: Space inside the troop compartment is limited. There is little room for personal equipment, which leads to it being stowed outside while on operation, sometimes limiting rearward traverse of the turret. The seating is cramped, especially for troops in full battle dress.


title: BMP-1

text: In the BMP-1 and BMP-2, ammunition is stored near or even inside the compartment, which can lead to a catastrophic failure in case of a hull breach.


title: BMP-1

text: The 300 horsepower (224 kW) UTD-20 six-cylinder four-stroke diesel engine is located in the centre of the front hull, behind the transmission, with the cooling system to the right and radiator above. The engine drives a manual gearbox with five forward and one reverse gear. The steering system considerably reduces driver fatigue, especially when compared to the usual lever systems to control the tracks in the older tracked AFVs. The BMP is very fast and maneuverable, even if the long, pointed nose can give some problems when crossing large trenches. The fuel tanks have a maximum capacity of . The diesel engine is of a multifuel design and can use DL (summer) or DZ (winter). It can also use TS-1 kerosene.


title: BMP-1

text: The BMP-1 can climb high vertical obstacles, and cross a wide trench. It can be driven on 25° side slopes and can climb 35° slopes.


title: BMP-1

text: The drive sprockets are at the front with six road wheels, using torsion bar suspension. The BMP-1 has a ground pressure of 0.6 kg/cm² (8.5 psi) and is able to cross snow-covered and boggy terrain. It has the range, off-road speed and cross-country ability necessary to keep up with fast-moving MBTs.


title: BMP-1

text: The BMP-1 is amphibious, propelling itself in the water using its tracks, assisted by hydrodynamic fairings on the track upper side covers. The top swimming speed is . The shape of the hull and some features (hollow road wheels and road wheel arms with air chambers) aid flotation. The BMP-1 can overcome water barriers with a current of up to and waves up to high. More challenging conditions require engineer support.


title: BMP-1

text: Before entering the water, the trim vane at the front of the hull should be erected to prevent water from flooding over the bow. While in its travelling position, it serves as additional frontal armor. The rear doors of the troop compartment must be closed tightly before entering the water. Before entering the water, either a full crew of eight troopers or an equivalent ballast must be present in the rear of the vehicle, otherwise vehicle balance is upset and it could sink, as it's naturally front heavy.


title: BMP-1

text: The BMP-1 can cross water obstacles such as rivers and lakes but it is not intended for sea landing operations.


title: BMP-1

text: The vehicle's armor is welded rolled steel, varying in thickness between thick on the top of the hull and on the mantlet of the main gun. The original requirements called for protection against 23 mm armor-piercing rounds across the frontal arc fired from and for protection against 7.62 mm armor-piercing rounds across the side and rear arcs from .


title: BMP-1

text: The BMP-1's steeply sloped frontal armor can withstand artillery shell fragments, small arms fire and existing .50 caliber (12.7 mm) heavy machine gun AP and API rounds over 60° of the frontal arc from all distances. The very high angle of the hull frontal armor increases the probability of ricochets, and the trim vane in the traveling position adds little additional protection. On most examples, the front armor is immune to 20 millimeter Oerlikon KAD or HS820 auto-cannon fire from ranges greater than 100 meters, but armor quality varies quite significantly with the nationality of a factory.


title: BMP-1

text: The side, rear and top armor protect the BMP-1 from 7.62 mm small arms fire from most distances as well as smaller artillery shell fragments, but do not protect the vehicle against 12.7 mm heavy machine gun fire from close distances or larger artillery shell fragments. Ground tests demonstrated that rear doors with their fuel tanks filled with sand withstood hits from standard 12.7 mm rounds. In Afghanistan and Chechnya, armor-piercing 7.62 mm rounds fired from general-purpose machine guns at ranges of around 30–50 m sometimes penetrated the rear doors and hatches.


title: BMP-1

text: During the First Persian Gulf War, the armor protection of the BMP-1 proved vulnerable to the armor-piercing rounds of the US M2/M3 Bradley's M242 Bushmaster autocannon. During the intense fighting in Chechnya, no penetration of the BMP-1/BMD-1 turret front armor were noticed because the turret made for a small target and had relatively thick frontal armor compared to other parts of the vehicle.


title: BMP-1

text: The BMP-1 had significant shortcomings in its protection scheme, which only became obvious during the Soviet–Afghan War. It seats its driver and commander in a tandem layout, on the left side of the hull front, alongside the diesel engine. When an antitank mine hits the BMP-1s left track, the explosion usually destroyed one to three left side roadwheels, penetrated the bottom, and killed or seriously wounded both the driver and the commander, which caused painful losses of specialist personnel in the Soviet Army. Drivers laid sandbags on the bottom of their compartment in an effort to protect themselves against possible mine attack. The same kind of explosion under the right track was much less dramatic for the driver and the commander, who remained relatively safe.


title: BMP-1

text: If the vehicle hit a tilt-rod antitank mine, its steeply sloped lower front glacis plate allowed the mine's arming rod to tilt with little resistance until the mine was well under the chassis. When it eventually detonated, the blast was usually sufficient to kill or badly wound the driver and the commander. From 1982, the Soviet 40th Army in Afghanistan began to receive improved BMP-1Ds (the so-called "Afghan" variant), which, among other improvements, included an additional armored plate under the driver's and commander's stations. This situation was addressed in the later BMP-2 design, where the commander shares the two-man turret with the gunner. The driver's and engine compartments could be equipped with additional bottom armor for improved protection against landmines filled with up to of explosives.


title: BMP-1

text: There is a protection issue concerning the reloading of the 9M14 "Malyutka" and 9M14M "Malyutka-M" ATGMs in NBC conditions, because doing it through the small hatch from inside the vehicle would negate whatever protection the fighting compartment's NBC protection suite gave.


title: BMP-1

text: The compactness and low silhouette of the vehicle are generally advantages on a battlefield. Critical areas, such as the engine compartment, the ammunition storage area, fuel cells and the troop compartment, are located in a manner that became the standard for many IFVs and APCs. Penetration anywhere in these areas will often result in mobility and/or firepower damage and/or disabling of the personnel.


title: BMP-1

text: The BMP-1 and BMP-2 series vehicles share a major drawback with many Soviet tanks. Ammunition is stored near or even inside the fighting compartment, which makes them more vulnerable to a hit from an anti-tank round or a missile across the side arc. If that happens, the ammunition often explodes, killing everyone and completely destroying the vehicle. During the fighting in Afghanistan and Chechnya, hits by rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) penetrated the BMP-1's armor in 95% of cases. This often resulted in the vehicle burning until the ammunition exploded. Due to these limitations, Soviet/Russian soldiers customarily rode on the outside of the BMP-1, sitting on top of the hull while in combat zones.


title: BMP-1

text: The armor of BMP-1 IFVs is insufficient to deal with AP cannon rounds – sufficiently thick armor would increase the weight of the BMP-1 considerably and jeopardize its amphibious ability. Some military analysts support the idea of returning to the concept of open-topped APCs, as the armor of light AFVs cannot protect the crew from anti-tank weapons. Modern APCs are mostly used in local conflicts instead of hypothetical large-scale wars with NBC weapons.


title: BMP-1

text: A problem most often cited by western analysts is the design of the main fuel tank. Due to the low profile of the vehicle, the designers have had to place the fuel tank between the two rows of outward-facing seats, meaning that the infantrymen sit very close to the bulk of the vehicle's fuel storage. Extra fuel is carried in the hollow armored rear doors. Therefore, a hit by an armor-piercing incendiary round would set the fuel contained there on fire, especially if the fuel is kerosene instead of diesel. The burning fuel would move into the crew compartment, resulting in the death or injury of the infantrymen (if they are unable to leave the vehicle via the roof hatches), and a possible explosion.


title: BMP-1

text: However, the rear door tanks are almost always empty when the BMP goes into combat, as they are only meant to increase the road travel range of the vehicle. In intense war areas where the BMP sees action often, and it is relatively near its base of operations, instructions highly recommend detaching the rear door tanks from the fuel system, filling them with sand as additional protection for the troop compartment, and adding fuel to the internal main fuel tank from other sources when the need arises.


title: BMP-1

text: This was not practiced by some BMP-1s crews during a number of local conflicts, e.g., in Chechnya, which resulted in frequent attempts by the enemy to hit the rear doors of the BMP-1s. The inner fuel tank is more vulnerable than that of many modern IFVs – the thin side armor means that penetration is likely to occur to the inner fuel tank as well.


title: BMP-1

text: The BMP-1 has no air conditioning or air cooling system. Its crew members and passengers suffer heavily in hot climates as its air filtration system and exhaust-ventilation fans cannot provide any comfort at high temperatures. During the Yom Kippur War, crews kept some of the roof hatches open. This meant that they were vulnerable to machine gun fire from higher ground. Only a few examples of the BMP-1 were intended for export – mainly to countries with a hot climate (for example, the Slovak-Belorussian "Cobra-S"). They are equipped with an air conditioning system. The cooling system for the engine is improved, as is the additional forced air cooling system of the engine compartment and radiator. The exhaust system helps to eject gases together with hot air from the engine compartment through the grille located on the right side of the hull roof in front of the turret.


title: BMP-1

text: The BMP-1 can make its own smoke screen by injecting vaporized diesel fuel into the exhaust manifold using the TDA engine thermal smoke generating system. Later models have an array of 902V Tucha smoke grenade launchers which can form a screen wide, in front of the vehicle.


title: BMP-1

text: A number of BMP-1s were fitted with mountings for the KMT-10 plow-type mine-clearing system in the early 1980s. It is installed on the front of the hull in line with the tracks. The plow weighs and can be attached in 30 minutes. Emergency detaching takes around 10 minutes. The KMT-10 is intended for clearing anti-tank mines under different ground conditions.


title: BMP-1

text: It is pneumatically driven and takes four seconds to switch from the traveling position to the digging position. The mine-clearing plows are very narrow, with just two digging tines, each wide, (the same as each track), which limits them to clearing surface-laid mines, in particular scatterable anti-tank mines. A chain mounted between the plows can detonate tilt-rod mines. The maximum mine-clearing speed is .


title: BMP-1

text: When the NBC protection system is configured and operating, the crew and passengers are protected from chemical weapons, biological agents and nuclear fallout by an air filtration and overpressure system, which consists of the NBC filter element and the blower/dust separator.


title: BMP-1

text: BMP-1s were equipped with one RPG-7/RPG-7V shoulder-launched anti-tank rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) and five PG-7 rounds or one 9K32 Strela-2/9K38 Igla man-portable anti-aircraft missile launcher and two replacement missiles. It carries 1600 rounds for two PK general-purpose machine guns.


title: BMP-1

text: Currently, the major BMP-1 operators, each with over a thousand vehicles in active service, are Russia, India, Poland, and the People's Republic of China.


title: BMP-1

text: The BMP-1 entered service with the Soviet Army in 1966. The BMP-1 was first seen by Westerners during the 7 November 1967 military parade in Moscow. Its appearance created a stir in the West, where lightly armed APCs were still the norm for transportation and infantry support on the battlefield.


title: BMP-1

text: In the Soviet Army, BMP-1s were typically issued to motorized rifle divisions and the motorized rifle regiments of tank divisions, where they replaced the BTR-152, BTR-50P and some BTR-60P APCs.


title: BMP-1

text: Currently, BMP-1s and vehicles based upon it are used by the Russian Army and internal security troops of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD).


title: BMP-1

text: BMP-1s were widely used in Afghanistan by motorized rifle and tank units. They were also operated by some special forces. In 1982, as a result of combat experience, a version with applique armor was introduced, called BMP-1D (D='desantnaya'=paratroopers). That version did not have amphibious capability [not critical in the Afghan environment]. Many field modifications were made to their BMP-1s by various units.


title: BMP-1

text: The BMP-1 has seen wide use by all factions fighting in the Syrian Civil War due to large numbers being in stock.


title: BMP-1

text: Since 2017 the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham have been using captured BMP-1s as vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices in suicide attacks. The vehicle's advantages in this role are the large amount of explosives it can carry, the off-road capability afforded by tracks and the armour that both protects the driver from fire and amplifies the effect of the explosion.


title: BMP-1

text: Other BMP operators have included Poland, Egypt, Syria, the People's Republic of China, Afghanistan, India, Iraq, North Korea, East Germany, Greece, Slovakia, Sweden, Cambodia, and Vietnam.


title: Kroger

text: The Kroger Company, or simply Kroger, is an American retail company that operates (either directly or through its subsidiaries) supermarkets and multi-department stores throughout the United States.


title: Kroger

text: Founded by Bernard Kroger in 1883 in Cincinnati, Ohio, Kroger operates 2,720 grocery retail stores under its various banners and divisions in 35 states and the District of Columbia with store formats that include 134 multi-department stores, 2,277 combo stores, 188 marketplace stores, and 121 price-impact warehouse stores. Kroger operates 33 manufacturing plants, 1,629 supermarket fuel centers, 2,252 pharmacies, 225 The Little Clinic in-store medical clinics, and 129 jewelry stores (782 convenience stores were sold to EG Group in 2018). , Kroger's headquarters are located in downtown Cincinnati.


title: Kroger

text: The Kroger Company is the United States' largest supermarket operator by revenue and fifth-largest general retailer. The company is one of the largest American-owned private employers in the United States. Kroger is ranked #17 on the "Fortune" 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.


title: Kroger

text: About two-thirds of Kroger's employees are represented by collective bargaining agreements, with most being represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW).


title: Kroger

text: In 1883, 23-year-old Bernard Kroger, the fifth of ten children of German immigrants, invested his life savings of $372 (roughly $10,000 in 2020) to open a grocery store at 66 Pearl Street in downtown Cincinnati. The son of a merchant, he ran his business with a simple motto: "Be particular. Never sell anything you would not want yourself." He experimented with marketing products his company had produced, so his customers would not need to patronize separate stores and farms.


title: Kroger

text: In 1884, Kroger opened his second store. By 1902, the Kroger Grocery and Baking Company had been incorporated. By this time, the company had grown to forty stores and sold $1.75 million worth of merchandise each year. In addition, Kroger became the first grocery chain to have its own bakery.


title: Kroger

text: In 1916, Kroger company began self-service shopping. Before this, all articles were kept behind counters. Customers would ask for them, then clerks would deliver them to customers.


title: Kroger

text: In the 1930s, Kroger became the first grocery chain to monitor product quality and to test foods offered to customers, and also the first to have a store surrounded on all four sides by parking lots.


title: Kroger

text: Beginning in 1955, Kroger began acquiring supermarket chains, expanding into new markets. In May, Kroger entered the Houston, Texas, market by acquiring the Houston-based 26-store chain Henke & Pillot. In June, Kroger acquired the Krambo Food Stores, Inc. of Appleton, Wisconsin. In late July, it purchased Child's Food Stores, Inc. of Jacksonville, Texas.


title: Kroger

text: In January 1956, the company bought out Big Chain Stores, Inc., a chain of seven stores based in Shreveport, Louisiana, later combining it with the Childs group. All of these chains adopted the Kroger banner in 1966.


title: Kroger

text: During all the acquisitions, in September 1957, Kroger sold off its Wichita, Kansas, store division, then consisting of 16 stores, to J. S. Dillon and Sons Stores Company, then headed by Ray S. Dillon, son of the company founder.


title: Kroger

text: In October 1963, Kroger acquired the 56-store chain Market Basket, providing them with a foothold in the lucrative southern California market. (Prior to this time Kroger had no stores west of Kansas.)


title: Kroger

text: Kroger opened stores in Florida under the SupeRx and Florida Choice banners from the 1960s until 1988, when the chain decided to exit the state and sold all of its stores; Kash n' Karry bought the largest share.


title: Kroger

text: In the 1970s, Kroger became the first grocer in the United States to test an electronic scanner and the first to formalize consumer research.


title: Kroger

text: Although Kroger has long operated stores in the Huntsville-Decatur area of northern Alabama (as a southern extension of its Nashville, Tennessee, region), it has not operated in the state's largest market, Birmingham, since the early 1970s, when it exited as a result of intense competition from Winn-Dixie and local chains Bruno's Supermarkets and Western Supermarkets.


title: Kroger

text: Kroger built an ultra-modern dairy plant (Crossroad Farms Dairy) in Indianapolis in 1972, which was then considered the largest dairy plant in the world.


title: Kroger

text: Kroger exited the Chicago market in 1970 selling its distribution warehouse in Northlake, Il. and 24 stores to the Dominick's Finer Foods grocery chain. Kroger withdrew from the Minneapolis-St. Paul area in 1970, selling 16 stores.


title: Kroger

text: Kroger exited Milwaukee in 1972, selling a few stores to Jewel. Kroger would later return in 2015 upon its acquisition of Roundy's.


title: Kroger

text: Kroger entered the Charlotte market in 1977 and expanded rapidly throughout the 1980s when it bought some stores from BI-LO. However, most stores were in less desirable neighborhoods and did not fit in with Kroger's upscale image. Less than three months after BI-LO pulled out, that company decided to re-enter the Charlotte market, and in 1988, Kroger announced it was pulling out of the Charlotte market and put its stores up for sale. Ahold bought Kroger's remaining stores in the Charlotte area and converted them to BI-LO.


title: Kroger

text: Kroger had a number of stores in the Western Pennsylvania region, encompassing Pittsburgh and surrounding areas from 1928 until 1984 when the U.S. began experiencing a severe economic recession. The recession had two significant and related effects on Kroger's operations in the region. One of them was that the highly cyclical manufacturing-based economy of the region declined in greater proportion than the rest of the U.S., which undercut demand for the higher-end products and services offered by Kroger. The second effect of the economic recession was to worsen labor-management relations, causing a protracted labor strike in 1983 and 1984. During the strike, Kroger withdrew all of its stores from the Western Pennsylvania market, including some recently opened "superstores" and "greenhouses", selling these stores to Wetterau (now part of SuperValu), who promptly flipped the stores to independent owners while continuing to supply them under the FoodLand and Shop 'n Save brands. Kroger's exit ceded the market to lower-cost, locally owned rivals, most notably Giant Eagle and the SuperValu-supplied grocers. (Kroger purchased Eagle Grocery company, whose founders went on to create Giant Eagle.) Kroger still maintains a presence in the nearby Morgantown, West Virginia, Wheeling, West Virginia, and Weirton, West Virginia/Steubenville, Ohio, areas where Giant Eagle has a much smaller presence and the SuperValu-supplied stores are virtually nonexistent, though in all of these cases, Walmart remains a major competitor and Aldi is the only other supermarket with any market overlap.


title: Kroger

text: Kroger entered the competitive San Antonio, Texas, market in 1980 but pulled out in mid-1993. On June 15, 1993, the company announced the closure of its 15 area stores.


title: Kroger

text: The chain closed several stores around Flint, Michigan, in 1981, which were converted by local businessman Al Kessel to a new chain called Kessel Food Markets. Kroger bought most of these stores back in 1999 and began reverting them. Several other Michigan stores were sold to another Flint-based chain, Hamady Brothers, in 1980. The Hamady acquisition was short-lived.


title: Kroger

text: In 1982, Kroger sold the 65-store Market Basket chain it had operated for several years in southern California. The stores were reverted to the Boys Markets branding, after acquiring the chain. Boys Markets was acquired by the Yucaipa Companies in 1989. When Yucaipa acquired Ralphs, the Boys brand disappeared.


title: Kroger

text: In 1983, The Kroger Company acquired Dillon Companies grocery chain in Kansas along with its subsidiaries (King Soopers, City Market, Fry's and Gerbes) and the convenience store chain Kwik Shop. David Dillon, a fourth-generation descendant of J. S. Dillon, the founder of Dillon Companies, became the CEO of Kroger.


title: Kroger

text: In northeastern Ohio, Kroger had a plant in Solon, Ohio until the mid-1980s. When that plant shut down, Kroger closed its northeastern Ohio stores in the Cleveland, Akron, and Youngstown areas. Some of those former Kroger stores were taken over by stores like Acme Fresh Markets, Giant Eagle, and Heinens.


title: Kroger

text: Kroger opened and had about 50 stores in St. Louis until it left the market in 1986, saying that its stores were unprofitable. Most of its stores were bought by National, Schnucks, and Shop 'n Save. Most of the remaining Kroger stores in eastern Missouri and west-central Illinois became a western extension of the Central Division (headquartered in Indianapolis).


title: Kroger

text: Kroger also experienced a similar withdrawal from Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1989. Many of these stores were sold to the local grocery chain Red Food, which was in turn bought by BI-LO in 1994. Today, Chattanooga is the only metropolitan market in Tennessee in which Kroger does not operate with the nearest location being Dalton, Georgia with 2 stores (Walnut Avenue and Cleveland Highway).


title: Kroger

text: In the 1990s, Kroger acquired Great Scott (Detroit), Pay Less Food Markets, Owen's Market, JayC Food Stores, and Hilander Foods. Additionally, the Houston market was strengthened when Kroger bought several stores from AppleTree Markets, which were former Safeway stores in early 1994.


title: Kroger

text: In 1998, Kroger merged with the then fifth-largest grocery company Fred Meyer, along with its subsidiaries, Ralphs, QFC, and Smith's.


title: Kroger

text: Kroger also swapped all ten of its Greensboro, North Carolina-area stores in 1999 to Matthews, North Carolina-based Harris Teeter, for 11 of that company's stores in central and western Virginia.


title: Kroger

text: Long the dominant grocer in western Virginia, Kroger entered the Richmond, Virginia, market in 2000, where it competes against market leaders Martin's (including former Ukrop's stores) and Food Lion. Kroger entered the market by purchasing Hannaford stores that either already existed or were being built in Richmond. Hannaford purchases also included the competitive Hampton Roads market, where it now competes with Farm Fresh, Harris Teeter (which is owned by Kroger), and Food Lion. The Hannaford locations in these markets were purchased from Delhaize by Kroger as a condition of Delhaize's 2000 acquisition of the Hannaford chain, which had previously competed against Food Lion, also owned by Delhaize. Walmart Supercenters are also major competitors in both markets, and the chain briefly competed against Winn-Dixie, which has now exited Virginia.


title: Kroger

text: Albertsons exited the San Antonio and Houston markets in early 2002, selling many of the Houston stores to Kroger.


title: Kroger

text: In 2004, Kroger bought most of the old Thriftway stores in Cincinnati, Ohio, when Winn-Dixie left the area. These stores were reopened as Kroger stores.


title: Kroger

text: In 2008, Kroger began a partnership with Murray's Cheese of New York City. Murray's Cheese counters within Kroger stores sell a variety of artisanal cheese from all parts of the world.


title: Kroger

text: On July 9, 2013, Kroger announced its acquisition of (the 212 stores of Charlotte-based) Harris Teeter in a deal valued at $2.5 billion and that it will assume $100 million in the company's outstanding debt. Harris Teeter's stores are in eight Southern states, with a major portion of them in its headquarters state of North Carolina. Doing so, Kroger acquired Harris Teeter's click and collect program which allows online ordering of groceries. Some industry experts see this as a competitive move against online grocers such as AmazonFresh. The Harris Teeter acquisition marked Kroger's return to the Charlotte market after a 25-year absence. It also allowed Kroger to enter Asheville for the first time. Charlotte and Asheville had been the only large markets in North Carolina where Kroger had no presence.


title: Kroger

text: In 2013, Kroger announced that the spouses of the company's unionized workers would no longer be covered by the company's insurance plan. The company cited the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act as a prime reason for the move. The benefit cut affects roughly 11,000 workers in Indiana. The company announced in April 2013 that full-time employees would maintain their health insurance benefits.


title: Kroger

text: On March 3, 2015, Kroger announced it will enter Hawaii, having registered with the state as a new business in February 2015. The move had been in the planning stages, as it was planning to expand there in 2006 but withdrew after it had already submitted registration. Kroger, which is in the process of looking for locations to open its first store, will face competition from Honolulu-based rivals Foodland and Times; major retailers Safeway, Walmart, and Costco; Japanese-owned Don Quixote; and Department of Defense-owned DeCA Commissaries.


title: Kroger

text: On May 1, 2015, Kroger announced the acquisition of the seven-store Hiller's Market chain in Southeast Michigan, and that it would operate all but one of those stores under the Kroger banner.


title: Kroger

text: In June 2015, Kroger eliminated the Harris Teeter brand from the crowded Nashville, Tennessee market, where its growth had been stunted by aggressive competition since it entered with six stores in the early-2000s. Kroger has traditionally had a market-leading presence in Nashville, and initially promised to keep the five remaining Harris Teeter stores open when it acquired the chain, but later said the market "did not support Harris Teeter's future business plans." Two Harris Teeter stores were closed outright, and three closed temporarily while being converted to the Kroger brand (one of these would undergo a major remodeling and replace a neighboring Kroger store).


title: Kroger

text: On November 11, 2015, Kroger and Roundy's announced a definitive merger, bringing Roundy's chain's 166 primarily Wisconsin based chains under Kroger ownership. The merger is valued at $800 million, including debt. The acquisition, which brought Kroger back to Wisconsin after a 43-year absence, will retain the Roundy's, Pick 'n Save, Mariano's, Metro Market and Copps names, along with its Milwaukee operations. (Within a year-and-a-half, however, Kroger had rebranded all Copps locations to the Pick 'n Save banner.)


title: Kroger

text: In April 2016, Kroger announced that it had made a "meaningful investment" in the Boulder, Colorado-based Lucky's Market, an organic foods supermarket chain that operated 17 stores in 13 states throughout the Midwest and Southeast United States.


title: Kroger

text: In February 2017, Kroger withstood large community protests after announcing the closing of two smaller-sized Louisville-area stores.


title: Kroger

text: Despite high store volumes and high population densities, the Old Louisville (lease expiration) and Southland Terrace stores closed.


title: Kroger

text: On May 1, 2017, Kroger, along with the University of Kentucky and UK Athletics, sports and campus marketing partner JMI Sports, announced a 12-year, $1.85 million per year campus marketing agreement. Included in the agreement is the naming rights to Commonwealth Stadium, the university's football stadium, which will be renamed Kroger Field. This agreement makes the University of Kentucky the first school in the Southeastern Conference to enter into a corporate partnership for the naming rights to their football stadium.


title: Kroger

text: On May 10, 2017, Kroger opened its first convenience store in Blacklick, Ohio, labeled "Fresh Eats MKT". The new prototype stores will have about 12,000 square feet of space, and will be very similar to the Walmart Neighborhood Market project, as these stores only sell food. These stores have a Starbucks, and a Kroger Pharmacy. On June 1, 2017, Kroger opened their second Fresh Eats. Kroger is also going to convert some Turkey Hill stores into the concept store. The CFO, Mike Schlotman, has called these stores a "small test." Local reaction to this new concept has been positive. The concept was discontinued in March 2020.


title: Kroger

text: In February 2018, Kroger announced that it will be selling its 762 convenience stores to EG Group, a British service station operator, for $2.15 billion. They operate under the "Turkey Hill", "Loaf 'N Jug", "Kwik Shop", "Tom Thumb" and "Quik Stop" banners. Kroger will retain just over 20 convenience stores. Kroger's supermarket fuel centers are not included in the sale. The sale was closed on April 20, 2018.


title: Kroger

text: On April 10, 2018, Kroger announced plans to hire an estimated 11,000 new employees. An estimated 2,000 managerial positions will be filled by the new hires. With the addition of these new hires, the total number of people employed by the company is close to half a million.


title: Kroger

text: On May 17, 2018, Kroger announced a partnership with Ocado, a UK-based online supermarket. The partnership is designed to improve Kroger's ecommerce program, including online ordering, automated fulfillment, and home delivery via the construction of 20 new, automated fulfillment centers. , five locations have been identified for the new warehouses, and two are under construction. Kroger has taken advantage of its investment in online shopping capability to grow rapidly during the pandemic. In 2020, Kroger's online sales grew by 116%, to over $10B annually.


title: Kroger

text: On May 24, 2018, Kroger announced they were acquiring Home Chef for $200 million with an additional $500 million in incentives if certain targets are met by Home Chef.


title: Kroger

text: On June 13, 2018, Kroger Mid-Atlantic announced the Kroger branding will be leaving the Raleigh-Durham area by eliminating all 14 Kroger-branded stores, eight of which will transition to Harris Teeter (also owned by Kroger). One will become a Crunch Fitness and another will become a Food Lion. The fate for the remaining four stores is unclear.


title: Kroger

text: In October 2018, Kroger announced online wine delivery to 14 states in partnership with DRINKS. Customers can select assorted wines in 6-bottle or 12-bottle packs.


title: Kroger

text: On December 4, 2018, Kroger announced a deal to sell food inside drugstore Walgreens. Kroger Express will offer meal kits and other meal solutions.


title: Kroger

text: In the light of increased self-checkout usage via kiosk or smartphone app in 2019, Kroger is gradually shifting towards creating more self-checkout smartphone apps and lanes than cashier lanes. The company has been investing millions of dollars, in replacing many cashier stations with automation by 2023. As many other supermarkets (such as Walmart, Target, etc.) are also shifting towards automation, and displacing cashiers in the near future.


title: Kroger

text: In March 2019, Kroger announced it was expanding its service with robotics company, Nuro to Houston, Texas with Nuro's autonomous Priuses.


title: Kroger

text: In August 2019, Kroger began charging customers between $0.50 and $3.50 for receiving cash back while making purchases with debit cards. The new fees were first test marketed in March at Kansas area Dillons stores, a Kroger-owned supermarket chain, before the new fees were rolled out to other Kroger-owned supermarket banners in the rest of the nation.


title: Kroger

text: In September 2019, Kroger announced a partnership with the Plant Based Food Association (PFBA) to test a plant-based meat retail concept in 60 stores in Denver, and parts of Indiana and Illinois.


title: Kroger

text: In November 2019, Kroger unveiled an updated logo for their stores and company, with the '"Fresh For Everyone" tagline and the "Krojis". The company also announced an expansion of its online wine delivery program into Arizona. In partnership with DRINKS, the service is now available in 19 states plus Washington D.C.


title: Kroger

text: In December 2019, Kroger was named the second-largest grocer in the nation with $110 billion in 2016 sales. The same month, "USA Today" listed Kroger—and its brands—as the top supermarket (based on Google searches, Yelp data and 24/7 Tempo's research) in Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia.


title: Kroger

text: According to a "PBS NewsHour" February 13, 2021 broadcast, during the pandemic, Kroger provided their essential workers a "hazard pay"—that the company called a "hero pay"—in the form of US$2 dollars an hour raise from the end of March 2020, until mid-May, 2020, when the "hero pay" ended. In January 2021, the Long Beach City Council in California, passed an ordinance making it mandatory for some large grocery stores—like Kroger—to provide their essential workers hazard pay of US$4 dollars an hour "effective immediately for 120 days." The ordinance affected "companies with more than 300 workers nationwide and more than 15 employees per store." Seattle and Washington passed similar ordinances. In response, in early February, Kroger announced the "closure and permanent termination of the "entirety of the operations" of some of their stores [in April 2021]—which includes a Ralphs and a Food4Less in Long Beach—"for economic reasons including the economic cost mandated by the Long Beach ordinance requiring an increase in employee wages, four dollars an hour." The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), with members whose jobs have been terminated, "view the closures as a warning to other cities considering hazard pay mandates." Andrea Zinder, president of the UFCW Local 324 that represents employees at the two stores—Ralphs and a Food4Less—said that compared to the same time period in 2019 both stores saw an increase of about 30% in sales. In 2020, during the pandemic, Kroger's earnings increased by 87.7%. Kroger's quarterly revenues as reported by November 20, 2020, were US$29.72 billion, and the corporation's per-share earnings and dividends grew at a rapid rate in 2020. Its dividend increase was about 14% annually.


title: Kroger

text: Starting in early 2020, Berkshire Hathaway began buying shares of Kroger, and by August 2021 became a top ten shareholder.


title: Kroger

text: In 2021, the company was reported to have been breached by a third-party hack which compromised the pharmacy records of Kroger owned Fred Meyer and QFC stores' customers.


title: Kroger

text: On August 2, 2021, Kroger announced that it had elected Elaine Chao, formerly Secretary of Labor under President George W. Bush and Secretary of Transportation under President Donald Trump, to its board of directors. The news was met with backlash from Kroger customers on Twitter, with calls for a boycott trending nationally, due to her ties to the Trump administration and to her husband, Mitch McConnell.


title: Kroger

text: On September 23, 2021, a mass shooting occurred at a Kroger location in Collierville, Tennessee. One person was killed and 13 others were injured before the gunman, identified as 29-year-old Uk Thang, committed suicide by gunshot. Thang was working at the store as a third-party vendor. In the aftermath of the shooting, Kroger offered counseling services for its employees and closed down the store until November 10.


title: Kroger

text: In September 2021, Kroger tweaked its logo to add the "Fresh Cart" symbol. The symbol is an abstract shopping cart with the basket being citrus slices.


title: Kroger

text: In October 2021, Kroger announced an expansion into South Florida with its online delivery service, 'Kroger Delivery'. To do this, Kroger will build two new automated fulfilment centres assisted and facilitated by the UK-based technology company Ocado Group. Kroger Delivery is also set to launch in the Northeast of the US and expand its operations in California, to be followed by sites in Texas, Georgia, Maryland, Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona, and North Carolina. The company launched its online delivery services in Central Florida earlier in 2021.


title: Kroger

text: On April 5, 2022, Kroger launched Kroger Restaurant Supply in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, a new business distributing food and related supplies to restaurants, bakeries, and catering companies. For Kroger, this move into foodservice distribution represents an expansion beyond its core retail grocery operations.


title: Kroger

text: On October 14, 2022, Kroger announced a merger with Albertsons in a deal worth $24.6billion, combining both companies into one entity, but divesting some stores to secure regulatory approval, with the transaction expected to close in early 2024.


title: Kroger

text: For the fiscal year 2020, Kroger reported earnings of US$1.907 billion, with an annual revenue of US$122.286 billion, an increase of 0.4% over the previous fiscal cycle. Kroger's shares traded at over $32 per share, and its market capitalization was valued at US$25.9 billion in April 2020.


title: Kroger

text: Kroger reported Total CO2e emissions (Direct + Indirect) for the twelve months ending 31 December 2020 at 5,090 Kt (−659 /−11.5% y-o-y). Reported emissions have been declining since 2016.


title: Kroger

text: Kroger Marketplace is a chain of big-box stores. The brand was introduced in 2004 in the Columbus, Ohio, area, which lost the Big Bear and Big Bear Plus chains in Penn Traffic's Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The Kroger Marketplace format is based on the Fry's Marketplace stores that the Arizona division of Kroger is currently operating. There are currently a total of 188 marketplaces.


title: Kroger

text: Similar to rival chains Meijer, Sears, Kmart, Target, Walmart, and Albertsons, and modeled after Kroger-owned Fred Meyer, these stores contain multiple departments. In addition to the grocery department, they usually contain a Fred Meyer Jewelers, Starbucks, Donatos Pizza, and an in-store bank, as well as sections for toys, appliances, home furnishings and bed and bath, something that Big Bear once had in their stores in the Columbus area.


title: Kroger

text: In 2005, the company began renovating many "Kroger Food & Drug" stores in Ohio for an expanded and remodeled look, converting them to the "Kroger Marketplace" format. In February 2006, Kroger announced plans for two new Kroger Marketplace stores to open by the end of the summer in Cincinnati suburbs Lebanon and Liberty Township. The store in Liberty Township opened in July 2006. On October 5, 2006, a new Kroger Marketplace opened in Gahanna. With the Gahanna opening, the number of Kroger Marketplace stores is six, four in the Columbus area and two in the Cincinnati area. Two more stores were planned in 2007, one in Middletown (which opened in April 2007, after the old store was razed and made part of the current parking lot) and one in Englewood.


title: Kroger

text: In 2011, the Elder-Beerman in Centerville, Ohio was demolished, and a new marketplace has been built in its place. It has a fuel center and opened on December 8. This marketplace is the largest Kroger store ever built from ground up to date at 147,000 square feet.


title: Kroger

text: Two more stores opened in the Cincinnati area, in the Northern Kentucky suburbs of Hebron and Walton which were completed in November 2008. Three Kroger Marketplace stores in Kentucky opened in 2009, two in Lexington and one in Newport. Another Marketplace opened in Beavercreek, Ohio. A Mount Orab, Ohio, store opened in the spring of 2010. Kroger opened a new store in North Augusta, South Carolina. In 2015, a 145,000 square foot Marketplace was opened in the Cincinnati suburb of Oakley.


title: Kroger

text: The first Kroger Marketplace store in Texas opened on October 9, 2009, in the Waterside Marketplace in Richmond, Texas. The second Kroger Marketplace store in Rosenberg, Texas, opened on December 4, 2009. The third opened in Frisco, Texas, in early 2010. The fourth, in Willis, Texas, opened on August 11, 2011. Other Kroger Marketplace stores in Texas are in Little Elm, Texas; Fort Worth's Alliance Town Center; Mansfield; Wylie, Texas; and Baytown, Texas.


title: Kroger

text: The first Kroger Marketplace store in Tennessee opened in Farragut, Tennessee (a small suburb near Knoxville) at the end of 2008, and a second store in Thompson's Station, Tennessee, about south of Nashville, opened in early 2009. A third location opened in Gallatin, Tennessee, on March 11, 2010.


title: Kroger

text: The first Kroger Marketplace in Arkansas opened in August 2010 on Chenal Parkway in Little Rock, Arkansas. Locations also opened in 2012 in Conway, Arkansas and 2014 in Jonesboro, Arkansas.


title: Kroger

text: The first Kroger Marketplace in Virginia opened on Midlothian Turnpike in Richmond, Virginia, on the site of the former Cloverleaf Mall on December 6, 2012. Another Marketplace opened in Virginia Beach, Virginia, at the site of a former Super Kmart, on July 31, 2013. The third location opened in December 2013 in the Staples Mill shopping Center in Henrico County. A fourth location opened on October 15, 2014, in Portsmouth, Virginia, at the site of the former I.C. Norcom High School.


title: Kroger

text: The first Kroger Marketplace in Mississippi opened on September 16, 2016, in Hernando (a suburb of Memphis, Tennessee) to much fanfare. This store was formally a Kroger Food & Drug with twelve aisles, now rebuilt with sixty-four, in addition to having a Starbucks, ClickList, and expanded deli inside.


title: Kroger

text: The first Kroger Marketplace in Indiana opened on September 29, 2011, on Dupont Road on Fort Wayne's northwest side. This store is a rebuilt Kroger Food & Drug. A second Kroger Marketplace opened on October 4, 2012, from a rebuilt Scott's Food and Pharmacy in the Village at Coventry on the southwest side of Fort Wayne. These two stores are part of a $100 million expansion project in the Fort Wayne area. In October 2016, it was announced that a Kroger Marketplace will open in La Porte, Indiana within the NewPorte Landing development. Construction of the new 123,000 square foot store is expected to begin early in 2018.


title: Kroger

text: The first Kroger Marketplace in Michigan opened on June 14, 2013, at Sterns and Secor Roads in Lambertville (a small-sized suburb north of Toledo, Ohio). Formerly a conventional Kroger store, the square footage increased from 68,000 to 133,000 square feet. It carries toys, home essentials, apparel and shoes in addition to groceries. The state's second store opened in 2014 in Shelby Township on property that already contained a 2010-built Fuel Center, replacing a smaller Kroger store across Hayes Road in neighboring Macomb Township, which was soon converted into an Emagine Entertainment movie theater. Three further locations opened in 2016, one in White Lake on the site of what was once one of Kmart's "green" prototype stores and directly adjacent to the smaller Kroger store that this location replaced, a second Shelby Township location at 26 Mile Road and Van Dyke Avenue, and one at 12 Mile Road and Stephenson Highway in Royal Oak. A sixth location opened on Fort Street in Southgate on September 20, 2017. This store, which is a former Super Kmart, is the largest Kroger location in Michigan, with seventy aisles along with a small cafe section and dedicated ClickList parking spaces.


title: Kroger

text: Kroger operates its own fleet of trucks and trailers to distribute products to its various stores, in addition to contracts with various trucking companies. In June 2018, Kroger announced testing driverless cars for delivering groceries. For this, Kroger is partnering with autonomous car company Nuro.


title: Kroger

text: In addition to stocking a variety of regional brand products, The Kroger Company also employs one of the largest networks of private label manufacturing in the country. Thirty-three plants (either wholly owned or used with operating agreements) in seventeen states create about 40% of Kroger's private label products. Similar to most major supermarket retailers, Kroger uses a three-tiered private label marketing strategy. One private brand emphasizes no-frills products at the lowest possible price, another is intended to be comparable to leading national brands but a better value and the third is a premium (often organic) brand.


title: Kroger

text: Kroger offers a collection of its own branded products, referred to by the retailer as "Our Brands". The products are produced and sold in quality tiers, and account for over 30% of the retailer's unit sales.


title: Kroger

text: Banner Brand items are goods that bear the name of Kroger or its subsidiaries (i.e., Ralphs, King Soopers, etc.) or make reference to them (i.e., Big K), and are offered exclusively within Kroger-owned stores. These products are marketed to customers as budget-friendly, and account for over $13 billion in annual sales. Many of Kroger's health and beauty goods, one of the company's fastest-growing private label categories, are manufactured by third-party providers; these products include goods like ibuprofen and contact lens solution.


title: Kroger

text: Products marked "Private Selection" are offered to compare with gourmet brands or regional brands that may be considered more upscale than the standard Kroger brand products.


title: Kroger

text: "Simple Truth" is Kroger's flagship natural and organic brand, and has grown quickly since its launch in 2012. The brand's launch marked the first time Kroger had delved into making its own gluten-free products, including flour mixes, bread, etc. The Simple Truth brand became the first Kroger offering to be introduced in China, on Alibaba's Tmall platform. Simple Truth reached $2 billion in annual sales in 2018.


title: Kroger

text: In addition to its core brands, Kroger's manufacturing creates a variety department-specific brands. These are featured especially in Fred Meyer stores, where more than half the goods sold are non-food, or in the smaller Fred Meyer-based Marketplace stores. The brands listed below may be found in various Kroger-owned stores.


title: Kroger

text: Kroger previously owned and operated the SupeRx drug store chain. In 1985, Kroger outbid Rite Aid for the Hook's Drug Stores chain, based in Indianapolis, Indiana, and combined it with SupeRx to become Hook's-SupeRx. In 1994, Kroger decided to exit the stand-alone drugstore business and sold its Hook's and SupeRx stores to Revco, which later was sold to CVS.


title: Kroger

text: Today, Kroger operates 2,252 pharmacies, most of which are located inside its supermarkets. The Kroger Pharmacies continue as a profitable portion of the business and have been expanding to now include pharmacies in City Market, Dillons, Fred Meyer, Fry's, King Soopers, QFC, Ralphs, Harris Teeter, Smith's Food and Drug, and Kroger Supermarkets.


title: Kroger

text: Since 1998, Kroger has added fuel centers in the parking lots of its supermarkets. More recently, the company has begun opening standalone fuel centers, often near stores whose parking lots could not accommodate a fuel center. As of Q2 2022, Kroger operated 1,629 supermarket fuel centers.


title: Kroger

text: In 2006, Kroger introduced a new common logo for all of its convenience store chains that is now also used at the fuel centers of all of its supermarket chains—a rhombus with a white, stylized image of the continental United States in the center bordered by four colored areas: dark blue representing the Pacific Ocean, red representing Canada, green representing the Atlantic Ocean, and yellow representing the Gulf of Mexico.


title: Kroger

text: Kroger Personal Finance was introduced in 2007 to offer branded Visa cards, mortgages, home equity loans, pet, renter's and home insurance, identity theft protection, and wireless services. In 2017, MasterCard became the network for Kroger's newly branded 1-2-3 REWARDS credit card issued by U.S. Bank. In 2019, Kroger banned the use of Visa credit cards (but not debit cards) at two of its subsidiary chains: Foods Co. Supermarkets and Smiths, citing rising costs from premium cards.


title: Kroger

text: Kroger Wireless, formerly known as i-wireless, is a national private label wireless service provider sold in over 2,200 retail locations within the Kroger family of stores across 31 states. Kroger Wireless service functions over the nationwide Sprint network. Customers can choose from "Unlimited" rate plans including unlimited talk/text and with data allotments up to and including unlimited data. Kroger Wireless allows customers to purchase phones at select Kroger store locations, via their website, or by bringing their eligible Sprint device for activation.


title: Kroger

text: 84.51° is a wholly owned subsidiary of Kroger engaged in data science and consumer insights, created in April 2015, as a result of Kroger purchasing the remaining half of its then-joint venture Dunnhumby USA from Tesco.


title: Kroger

text: In 2008, Greenpeace started ranking America's major supermarket chains on their seafood sustainability practices because, according to Greenpeace U.S. CEO Phil Radford, "three quarters of global fish stocks are suffering from overfishing, and 90% of top marine predators are already gone." Criteria included the number of threatened fish species supermarkets sold, their seafood purchasing policies, and ocean legislation policies they supported. In 2013, Kroger was noted for carrying 17 out of 22 Red


title: Kroger

text: In 2014, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, a national gun control organization backed by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, began a campaign to pressure the Kroger chain to ban the open carry of firearms in all of its stores. The group decided to take action in response to demonstrations by open carry activists in Kroger stores in Ohio and Texas after conducting research that identified more than a dozen shootings on Kroger property since 2012. Kroger rebuffed their demand, stating, "If the local gun laws are to allow open carry, we'll certainly allow customers to do that based on what the local laws are. We don't believe it's up to us to legislate what the local gun control laws should be. It's up to the local legislators to decide to do that. So we follow local laws, we ask our customers to be respectful to the other people they are shopping with. And we really haven't had any issues inside of our stores as a result of that."


title: Kroger

text: Kroger was criticized in 2021 when, rather than pay a temporary bonus to workers during the pandemic mandated by the city of Long Beach, California, it closed its stores in that community instead.


title: Kroger

text: In July, 2021, a wrongful death lawsuit was filed against Kroger by the family of worker Evan Seyfried. Seyfried committed suicide after allegedly enduring abuse at the Kroger location in Milford, Ohio, where he had worked for 19 years. According to the lawsuit, Seyfried was bullied for wearing a mask in the early days of the pandemic and taunted for his political views. Also on the receiving end of alleged workplace sabotage, one of Seyfried’s co-workers called the company’s ethics helpline and reported she and Seyfried were being bullied. But no action was taken.


title: Kroger

text: In December 2021, Kroger Co. announced elimination of some COVID-19 benefits for unvaccinated employees. The company told employees that it will no longer provide two weeks of paid emergency leave for unvaccinated employees who contract COVID-19, unless local jurisdictions require otherwise. Kroger will also add a $50 monthly surcharge to company health plans for unvaccinated managers and other nonunion employees.


title: Kroger

text: A 2022 Economic Roundtable survey of 10,000 workers in Colorado, Southern California, Washington found that workers' wages have declined over the last several years while over the same period executive pay has increased. The survey found that over 75% of workers experience food insecurity, over 66% struggle to meet basic needs and 14% experience homelessness, while CEO Rodney McMullen made over $22 million in 2020, compared to $12 million for the year 2018. According to Peter Dreier, who participated in the project: "There are workers sleeping in RVs or couch surfing or living in parks somewhere. Americans go to their local supermarket every week and smile at the person cashing them out, not aware that the person they're talking to is going to sleep in a car after they clock out." About 2/3rds of Kroger employees are part-time workers, whose schedules often change making it difficult to take a second job.


title: Peninsular War

text: The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain, it is considered to overlap with the Spanish War of Independence. The war started when the French and Spanish armies invaded and occupied Portugal in 1807 by transiting through Spain, and it escalated in 1808 after Napoleonic France occupied Spain, which had been its ally. Napoleon Bonaparte forced the abdications of Ferdinand VII and his father Charles IV and then installed his brother Joseph Bonaparte on the Spanish throne and promulgated the Bayonne Constitution. Most Spaniards rejected French rule and fought a bloody war to oust them. The war on the peninsula lasted until the Sixth Coalition defeated Napoleon in 1814, and is regarded as one of the first wars of national liberation. It is also significant for the emergence of large-scale guerrilla warfare.


title: Peninsular War

text: The war started in Spain with the Dos de Mayo Uprising on 2 May 1808 and ended on 17 April 1814 with the restoration of Ferdinand VII to the monarchy. The French occupation destroyed the Spanish administration, which fragmented into quarrelling provincial "juntas". The episode remains as the bloodiest event in Spain's modern history, doubling in relative terms the Spanish Civil War.