The purchase has been approved by the boards of all the companies involved. If shareholders and regulators also approve, Supervalu sales will expand from $19.5 billion in 2005 to a projected $44 billion for fiscal 2006.

That growth will be manageable because Supervalu only bought into markets where Albertsons was number one or two in market share, said Jeff Noddle, Supervalu chairman and CEO. "That growth infrastructure is in place," he said.

Supervalu's new stores will retain their old brand names and will be managed regionally. "We believe that local people know their local customers," Noddle said. "People in Chicago are going to make the decisions for the people in Chicago."

He said the company's predictions indicate the combined operations will generate enough cash flow to steadily pay down the new debt, although he expected Supervalu's credit rating to be downgraded in the short term.

"We are going to do the same things going forward that we did in the last five years to de-leverage the company," he said. "We enter this very confident, and I think we have a fairly good reputation for managing these things."

Supervalu spokeswoman Yolanda Scharton said the purchase will expand the company beyond its current base in the East, Southeast and Midwest. "With all this, it's all states, coast-to-coast and border-to-border," she said.

The company currently employs about 57,000 people. The Albertsons properties in the deal have about 144,000 workers. She said it was too soon to say how many of them would remain with the combined companies, but added, "we believe the vast majority of these employees will remain with us."

Already the largest drug store chain in the nation, CVS said it will operate 6,100 stores across 42 states and the District of Columbia after the deal closes, which is expected this summer.

Dave Rickard, chief financial officer of CVS, said about 350 of those stores were in prime locations in California, which would have taken decades to acquire piecemeal. As it stands, the company will have access to an area that is growing fast, aging and relatively wealthy and at what it considered a good price. "It's just a terrific demographic for us," he said.

Rickard said the company will gain about 27,000 employees on top of its existing 180,000. Rickard said he expected CVS would retain most of them.