Albertsons in MS: Brandon/Flowood - a photo on Flickriver

WEEK 30 – Albertsons in Mississippi

Concurrently with its acquisition and expansion of Memphis-based grocery chain Seessel's (whose history you can read more about at my blog post here), Albertsons probed elsewhere into the region's grocery markets, establishing a Mid-South division featuring many stores in such diverse locations as Hot Springs, AR, and Cape Girardeau, MO. Based on my research, Albertsons during this time constructed a total of seven supermarkets in the state of Mississippi under its namesake banner, and operated an additional three (one of which they built from the ground-up) as “Seessel's by Albertsons.”

The Mid-South division met its end in 2002, following scattered singular store closures, with the well-documented complete market exit from the Memphis and Nashville, TN, metropolitan areas. The fates of the rest of the Mid-South Albertsons stores, however, is not as widely recorded. This series is meant to shed some light on Albertsons' brief operations in MS. The store pictured above is the former Albertsons in Gulfport, MS, now operating as Belk. Below is my compiled history of the Brandon/Flowood, MS, Albertsons.

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Albertsons entered Mississippi in 1997 – the company's twentieth state. At the time, Albertsons said “[i]t plans to open its first two stores in Jackson, Miss., in late January, with two more due to open by midyear, 'but we don't see Mississippi as a major growth market at this point'” (ain't that the truth!). Only three stores wound up opening in the Jackson metro area in 1997; I am unsure of the exact order in which they opened, though.

The Brandon or Flowood (I've seen both town names used), MS, Albertsons opened in 1997 at 143 Albertsons Drive (!). While I was unable to find exact square footage, it is likely between 50 and 60,000 square feet; the store is still standing today (as are all ten MS locations). Albertsons sold all of its Jackson area stores to Brookshire's in 2002; when Brookshire's left the state in 2010, this store was sold to Kroger, which opened March 23, 2010. When this store was Albertsons, it reportedly had the company's 1996 décor package, which is likely Blue and Green Awnings. Kroger operated with the same décor for a while (closing for only one day before reopening), but has since remodeled.

The exterior designs of both this and the Ridgeland, MS, store are identical; I'm not sure if the design comes from Albertsons or Brookshire's. I don't believe Kroger altered the exterior, but, per Google Maps, they did remove the old Albertsons pylon signs in favor of their own. This store, unlike Ridgeland, does have a fuel center, but it was installed by Brookshire's or Kroger. All four stores Albertsons sold to Brookshire's had video rental sections and pharmacies.

Update, May 2017: Thanks to info from Albertsons Florida Blog, I can confirm that the Mississippi Albertsons stores were not all part of one division (as I had first thought) but rather three. More information regarding that, and also a summary of all ten Mississippi Albertsons stores, can be found at a reference table that AFB kindly put together for my blog, the post for which you can see here (or you may visit the table directly here).

(c) 2016 Retail Retell
These places are public so these photos are too, but just as I tell where they came from, I'd appreciate if you'd say who :)

Taken on: June 24, 2016

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Sets appears in: • Albertsons in MS: An Investigation • Elsewhere around the Mid-South more » • Kroger « less

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