Albertsons Chattanooga Area Complete Store List (1998-2000)

 

This is an auxiliary post of the full Albertsons Mid-South Division (4700 Series) Complete Store List. For more information on that, and to view the table in its entirety, please click this link.

The image shown below is an excerpt from the full Albertsons 4700 Series table featuring exclusively the Chattanooga area Albertsons stores that the company operated between 1998 and 2000. Albertsons entered the Chattanooga metropolitan area (as well as that of Nashville) in August 1998 with the purchase of 15 stores from supermarket operator Bruno's. In the Chattanooga area, this included four FoodMax stores: two in Chattanooga proper, and two in surrounding suburbs (including one in Georgia, which would wind up being Albertsons's only store ever to operate in that state). Albertsons converted each of the stores to their own nameplate, resetting and remodeling them. But if Albertsons was hoping to use the Bruno's purchase as a catalyst to opening even more new stores in the market, they would quickly find themselves disappointed. Albertsons never built a ground-up store of their own in the Chattanooga area during their tenure there.

Bruno's agreed to sell the 15 stores to Albertsons in conjunction with their 1998 bankruptcy filing. Unfortunately, as it turned out, Albertsons wasn't doing all that much better themselves at that point in time. In what can perhaps be seen as a prelude to 2001's closure of some 165 underperforming stores, Albertsons announced the summer prior that they would be exiting the Chattanooga market, closing all four area stores. After August 3rd, 2000, Albertsons in Chattanooga was no more, and the former stores were left to seek new operators. Not much later, Albertsons in 2002 shuttered the remainder of their Mid-South division.

Again, below is a screenshot of the full Albertsons Mid-South Division table compiled by Albertsons Florida Blog and myself, edited to include only the Chattanooga area stores. Information on each store includes its store number, its address, and a detailed history of the location. Click the image to enlarge, and be sure to view the full table and its accompanying blog post at the link provided at the top of this post.

If you are on the desktop version of the MSRB, you may wish to open the image in a new tab instead in order to enlarge it.

To view the Memphis (Seessel's) excerpt of the full table, please click here. To view the Nashville excerpt of the full table, please click here. To view the full table over at the Albertsons Florida Blog, please click here.

If you have any information you'd like to share on the history of these stores, please feel free to do so in the comments below or by email at midsouthretailblog [at] gmail [dot] com!

Have fun exploring the retail world wherever you are!

Retail Retell

Albertsons Nashville Area Complete Store List (1998-2002)

 

This is an auxiliary post of the full Albertsons Mid-South Division (4700 Series) Complete Store List. For more information on that, and to view the table in its entirety, please click this link.

The image shown below is an excerpt from the full Albertsons 4700 Series table featuring exclusively the Nashville area Albertsons stores that the company operated between 1998 and 2002. Albertsons entered the Nashville metropolitan area (as well as that of Chattanooga) in August 1998 with the purchase of 15 stores from supermarket operator Bruno's (several of which were operated as FoodMax stores rather than Bruno's, and one of which was still under construction at the time). Albertsons converted each of the existing stores to their own nameplate, resetting and remodeling them. But if Albertsons was hoping to use the Bruno's purchase as a catalyst to opening even more new stores in the market, they would quickly find themselves disappointed. Besides seeing out the completion of that one partially-constructed store, Albertsons went on to build only one new store in the Nashville area during their tenure there.

Bruno's agreed to sell the 15 stores to Albertsons in conjunction with their 1998 bankruptcy filing. Unfortunately, as it turned out, Albertsons wasn't doing all that much better themselves at that point in time. In 2001, under new leadership, Albertsons quickly shed 165 underperforming stores. Not much later, the exodus hit the Mid-South. Albertsons announced in April 2002 that they would soon close down their entire Mid-South division, including all of the Nashville stores. By June of that same year, Albertsons in Nashville was no more, and the former stores were left to seek new operators. Eight of the stores wound up being sold to rival supermarket chain Publix, marking their entrance into the Nashville area.

Again, below is a screenshot of the full Albertsons Mid-South Division table compiled by Albertsons Florida Blog and myself, edited to include only the Nashville area stores. Information on each store includes its store number, its address, and a detailed history of the location. Click the image to enlarge, and be sure to view the full table and its accompanying blog post at the link provided at the top of this post.

If you are on the desktop version of the MSRB, you may wish to open the image in a new tab instead in order to enlarge it.

To view the Memphis (Seessel's) excerpt of the full table, please click here. To view the Chattanooga excerpt of the full table, please click here. To view the full table over at the Albertsons Florida Blog, please click here.

If you have any information you'd like to share on the history of these stores, please feel free to do so in the comments below or by email at midsouthretailblog [at] gmail [dot] com!

Have fun exploring the retail world wherever you are!

Retail Retell

Seessel's by Albertsons Complete Store List (1998-2002)

This is an auxiliary post of the full Albertsons Mid-South Division (4700 Series) Complete Store List. For more information on that, and to view the table in its entirety, please click this link.

The image shown below is an excerpt from the full Albertsons 4700 Series table featuring exclusively the Seessel's by Albertsons stores that the company operated between 1998 and 2002. Seessel's was a family-owned, locally-run Memphis grocery chain that was in operation as early as 1858. In the modern era, its oldest building dated to 1965, located along Union Avenue in Midtown Memphis. It continued to grow in both number of stores and popularity among Memphians and Mid-Southerners until the mid-1990s, when the chain left the hands of its family and was sold to supermarket operator Bruno's. Soon after, Albertsons bought the ten-store Seessel's chain from Bruno's in 1998, and subsequently used it as a catalyst to enter the Memphis area grocery market. All told, Albertsons invested heavily in resetting and remodeling the existing Seessel's stores, but also pruned some out by closing them (they also closed Seessel's beloved central bakery and commissary just one year after the purchase), and opened many more new stores in the area which were essentially carbon copies of regular Albertsons stores of the time, just with the Seessel's nameplate on them instead. In other words, what made Seessel's special was arguably removed under Albertsons's ownership.

Even larger than the problem of the changes Seessel's was experiencing were the problems plaguing parent company Albertsons themselves. In 2001, under new leadership, Albertsons quickly shed 165 underperforming stores. Not much later, the exodus hit the Mid-South. Albertsons announced in April 2002 that they would soon close down their entire Mid-South division, including all of the Seessel's stores. By June of that same year, Seessel's was no more, and a majority of the stores were operating as newly-minted Schnucks locations.

At least as far as this blog is concerned, Memphis and its metropolitan area represent the heart of the Mid-South, so regardless of the fact that Albertsons also included Nashville and Chattanooga in their Mid-South division, their Memphis-area stores are my primary focus. Not to mention that I've also been dedicated to Seessel's research: for a much more detailed history on their history from the late 1990s to present-day, please check out my essay, The Aftermath of Seessel's. Hence, I'm happy that AFB's 4700 Series table, by default, also acts as a complete listing of Seessel's stores during the era of Albertsons ownership, from 1998 to 2002.

Interestingly, the Seessel's portion of the division provided Albertsons with both their longest- and shortest-lasting Mid-South stores. The aforementioned Union Avenue store, for example, was among the first in the division: Albertsons assumed operations of Seessel's in January 1998, and as such, the eight stores of the initial ten that made it through to the end of Albertsons's reign survived all four years of the short-lived division. In contrast, the Whitehaven store, which Albertsons built new and opened in February 2002, lasted not even four months under their ownership.

Again, below is a screenshot of the full Albertsons Mid-South Division table compiled by Albertsons Florida Blog and myself, edited to include only the Seessel's stores. Information on each store includes its store number under Albertsons, its address, and a detailed history of the location. Click the image to enlarge, and be sure to view the full table and its accompanying blog post at the link provided at the top of this post.

If you are on the desktop version of the MSRB, you may wish to open the image in a new tab instead in order to enlarge it.

To view the Nashville excerpt of the full table, please click here. To view the Chattanooga excerpt of the full table, please click here. To view the full table over at the Albertsons Florida Blog, please click here.

If you have any information you'd like to share on the history of these stores, please feel free to do so in the comments below or by email at midsouthretailblog [at] gmail [dot] com!

Have fun exploring the retail world wherever you are!

Retail Retell

Albertsons Mid-South Division Stores (4700 Series - Complete List)

 

 

The month of August is now here, and with it comes my final post of the summer to the Mid-South Retail Blog. Why is that special? Well, normally, it's not: I strive to post quality content all throughout the year, even though I do end up getting more things posted in total during the summer months than the other seasons. But this post in particular is one I think you'll all agree is well worth the excitement!

In case you missed it, at the start of the summer I posted a complete list of Albertsons stores ever to operate in the state of Mississippi, compiled by my good friend Albertsons Florida Blog. (You may visit that post at this link.) At the time, I promised that AFB had another great contribution waiting to be posted. Well, today's the day, folks! Courtesy of Albertsons Florida Blog, I am very happy to present to you the complete listing of Albertsons stores ever to operate in the entire Mid-South. Albertsons's definition of the Mid-South, as you'll see, is slightly different than the Mid-South Retail Blog's own (as seen in our logo); it encompasses the metropolitan areas of Nashville and Chattanooga, TN, for example, and not just that of Memphis. But Mid-South is what Albertsons called its division of stores in this region regardless, with all store numbers in the 4700s (hence the title of this post and the table mentioning the "4700 series"), so Mid-South it will remain.

Although we both worked together on it, as with the Albertsons in MS table, this table is mainly AFB's grand work; to be sure, he is the one who researched all of the stores, their store numbers, and their locations, and compiled them in this table. I am happy to say that I provided the detailed store history/info for all of the Memphis-area Seessel's stores therein, but once again, that column for the rest of the stores in the table was filled by AFB. Anyway, yes, you read that right: this table includes an extremely detailed history/info description for every single store! Anything you could possibly want to know about Albertsons's operations of these stores (and, in many cases, even more info about what has happened to them post-Albertsons) is in this table!

First, for those of you who are unfamiliar on the matter or simply would like a quick summary to refresh your memory, here is a brief history of Albertsons's operations in the Mid-South, taken from the chain's own 75th anniversary special publication:

"In the mid- to late '90s, Albertsons history is a mix of accomplishments and challenges. ... On the accomplishment side, in January 1998 Albertsons purchased Seessel Holdings Inc., the Memphis, Tenn.-based subsidiary of Bruno's Inc., operating 10 stores. Albertsons also purchased Seessel's central bakery and commissary that supplied the stores. Chairman and CEO Gary Michael called the deal 'a significant market entry opportunity for Albertsons....This transaction accelerates our entry into that marketplace by several years.' He added that the acquisition provided a foundation for Albertsons to grow in Memphis and surrounding areas. ...

"In July [1998], Albertsons agreed to acquire 14 operating stores and one under construction from Bruno's Inc. in connection with Bruno's bankruptcy filing. The stores were in Nashville and Chattanooga, Tenn., where Albertsons did not have stores. ...

"In January 2001, Albertsons eliminated its regional structure, moving to a divisional model, with 19 divisions. ... In April of 2001, Lawrence R. Johnston joined Albertsons as chairman and CEO. ... He oversaw a restructuring that during which 165 stores were closed in just a little more than a year. ... Soon after, [in 2002] Albertsons completely exited the New England market, as well as the Memphis and Nashville, Tenn., and Houston and San Antonio, Texas, areas. Capital raised from the sales was used to upgrade existing stores."

In essence, then, Albertsons regards their entire tenure in the Mid-South - which was no small operation, mind you; it encompassed a total of 38 stores throughout five states, one bakery/commissary, and several additional stores which were planned but never built - as worthy of only a few paragraphs in their entire corporate history. The 2000 closure of the Chattanooga-area stores doesn't even garner a mention, while the 2002 closure of the remainder of the 4700 division is spun into a positive as providing "capital [for the] upgrade [of] existing stores," without so much as blinking an eye at the devastation their departure caused the former employees and shoppers they left behind.

In other words, it's about time that Albertsons's Mid-South stores got some more attention. And Albertsons Florida Blog and I are proud to give them just that.

I've copied this next paragraph pretty much verbatim from the Albertsons in MS post because its message stands here as well: It is AFB's and my hope that this table will serve as a valuable, accurate, and composite resource for anyone interested in Albertsons's history in the Mid-South, whether they are former employees of the stores or just fans of retail. If you have any additional information, memories, or other comments regarding these stores that you'd like to share, please feel free to leave them in the designated area below this post! Or, alternatively (especially if you have photos or longer stories of your own that you'd like to share), you can always email me at midsouthretailblog [at] gmail [dot] com with those, as well as how you would like to be credited, and I will happily post them here on the blog. (You could even write your own contributor post, if you wish!)

So, here it is: please click this link to access the full Albertsons Mid-South Division Store List! As with last time, AFB and I have packed so much information into the table that it wouldn't fit properly on my blog template, haha, so he was kind enough to host it over at his blog (which you ought to check out while you're there, if you haven't already!). If, for whatever reason, that link doesn't work for you, and/or you'd rather view the table in image format, I have split the table into screenshots by division for your browsing pleasure. You may check out the separate screenshots (and posts, where applicable) for the Memphis-area Seessel's by Albertsons stores here; the Nashville-area Albertsons stores here; the Chattanooga-area Albertsons stores here; and the remaining three "outlier" Mid-South stores below.

Click image to enlarge. Note that the Cape Girardeau store was the only Albertsons-branded store ever to operate in the state of Missouri. (Albertsons's other operations in that state were under the Smitty's by Albertsons banner, another acquired chain.) Additionally, the Hot Springs store was one of only two Albertsons stores ever to operate in Arkansas, and the Tupelo store was one of only ten Albertsons stores ever to operate in Mississippi. In both of those states, they were each the only Mid-South (4700) division stores.

In initially sharing this project with me, Albertsons Florida Blog also provided some additional information about the division which did not wind up in the table itself, including a breakdown of Albertsons's numbering system for its Mid-South stores which you may find helpful. All of that is printed below.

"The Mid-South division was run out of Memphis (from Seessel's headquarters), and later opened a branch divisional office in Nashville. Most of the Mid-South division was built up through acquisitions (28 out of the 38 stores were acquired from others), which is a bit unusual for an Albertsons branded division. Anyway, here's a breakdown of the 4700 series:

4700 – Never existed (Albertsons never used the XX00 store numbers for some reason)

4701-4710 – The original batch of 10 Seessel’s stores when Albertsons acquired the chain in 1998

4711-4716 – Added/Replacement stores for Seessel’s during Albertsons’ ownership (with the exception of 4714, Tupelo)

4717-4719 – The three Memphis Jitney Jungle stores Albertsons purchased in 2000

4720-4723 – The Chattanooga area stores (all purchased from Bruno’s in 1998)

4724-4734 – The Nashville area stores. These were all former Bruno’s stores Albertsons purchased in 1998.

4735-4739 – Added/Replacement stores built by Albertsons around Memphis and Nashville

4740 – The Cape Girardeau, MO store

4741-4753 – Never used, as far as I know. This probably would have been for more stores throughout the division had it not been dissolved in 2002.

4754 – The Hot Springs, AR store."

To build off of what AFB wrote, I'll say that having the majority of the Mid-South Albertsons portfolio made up of acquired stores may well have accelerated the entire division's demise, unfortunately. And I agree with him in that "it's quite sad what happened to them" all, especially the Seessel's stores, since "Albertsons really invested a lot of money into [these stores]...only to give up on them after a few short years." My post from last summer, The Aftermath of Seessel's, details more about how Albertsons's sale of those stores was just one in a string of many unfortunate events to plague the once-beloved locally-owned Memphis grocer. Please feel free to visit that post at this link if you're interested in reading more about that topic.

Additionally, if you're interested in learning more about Albertsons in general, let me remind you that Albertsons Florida Blog is no stranger to compiling in-depth tables like this! As I noted in that Albertsons in MS post, he has a similar table to this Mid-South one covering the Florida Division stores that you can check out here. Also, blogger Psuedo3D's page here has even more information on several other Albertsons divisions.

I'm sure most of you stopped reading after I gave you the link to the table, lol, so I might as well wrap up this post now. Again, many, many thanks are in order to my friend Albertsons Florida Blog for creating, allowing me to edit and otherwise help in the production of, gifting to the Mid-South Retail Blog, and hosting on your own blog, this awesome table. It's an honor! From originally hoping to one day have simply a complete listing of all of the Seessel's stores (which, by the way, this table doubles as, at least from the years 1998 to 2002!), I've been met with so much more, and it was a great surprise at that. And for you, the readers: as I've said already, I sincerely hope that, whether you're a regular visitor of this blog or this table brought you here (and if it did, let me know, I'll be glad to hear it!), you'll enjoy the table's contents! It's my absolute pleasure to be able to share it with each and every one of you. :)

Okay, that's enough waxing poetic from me, haha! Be sure to check out the MSRB's newest sidebar tab (on the site's desktop version), titled "Tables," from here on out for quick access to this and all of the other tables I've had the privilege of posting (several more are to follow in the coming months, so stay tuned!). And as always, have fun exploring the retail world wherever you are!

Retail Retell