That was what I read. The Albertson’s became a Safeway. IIRC they were owned by the same company. Alberson’s was just a higher end Safeway. IIRC what I read was it was not a Safeway until the mid 80s.
I’ve lived in the region since the mid-1960s. There were no Albertsons in this area at that time. In Montgomery County, most folks I knew thought Giant was better than Safeway (although the reverse was true out with us working class folks in PG).
In the late 70s/ early 80s, Giant and Safeway had something of a duopoly. Between them, they had about 85% of the regional market.
We used to have A&P, but they eventually went out of business. At the lower end, we started to get folks like Shopper’s, Food Lion, Basics (I think they may have been a subsidiary of Giant). Into the 90s and 00s, we started to get Wegmans, Harris Teeter, etc.
But the 80s belonged to Safeway and Giant.
No, it was a Safeway as far back as 1972, because that’s where my Mom shopped for groceries.
There goes the neighborhood!