A supermarket chain located in the Midwest U.S., particularly in the Chicagoland area, where it can seem like one of their stores is always in sight.
Jewel began in 1899 as the Jewel Tea Company, selling coffee and tea from the back of horse-drawn wagons. The company gradually expanded its product line and moved into brick and mortar stores.
The chain eventually fell under the ownership of American Stores, which also owned Osco drugstores. As a result of the partnership, the larger Jewel stores with a drugstore section were given the name Jewel-Osco. Now that most of their older stores have been renovated and enlarged, most if not all Jewel stores actually have the hyphenated name.
American Stores was merged into Albertson's in 1999, but the Jewel-Osco name remains on the stores, and the "Preferred Card" loyalty card program was not eliminated in favor of Albertson's Bonus Buy concept.
In the early-to-mid 1990s, Jewel's advertising jingle was "Take a new look at an old friend -- Jewel," which would be a great slogan for a record company to use if the aforementioned singer ever puts out a radically different type of album.