Santa Clara University

About the L.J. Skaggs Chair

The L.J. Skaggs Chair was established in 1987 by the Oakland-based L.J. Skaggs and Mary C. Skaggs Foundation to support research and teaching in retail studies , and the creation of a recognized national center focused on the retail industry.

A member of an influential family of retailing innovators—whose businesses included the origins of Safeway and Osco Drugs—L.J. Skaggs was the founder of the PayLess Drug Store chain (now Rite-Aid). Skaggs was "concerned that the American consumer be served by well-trained, well-qualified retailers" said his widow, Mary C. Skaggs, at the time of the chair's creation.