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Where and what was this chain? I have an Albertsons business card from 2000 with their logo.

Seessel's was a Memphis based chain, acquired by Bruno's in the mid 90's and sold to Albertson's around 1999. Albertson's sold the chain to St. Louis based Schnuck's in 2005.

Seessel's was the upscale supermarket operator in Memphis but by the time the sale to Schnuck's came, the Seesel's name was no longer associated with an upmarket operation and Schnuck's applied their own banner to the chain.

Seessel's along with FedEx and Backyard Burgers was a major sponsor and contributor to the Memphis Zoo. and other community projects such as St. Jude Hospital.

krogerclerk wrote:Seessel's was a Memphis based chain, acquired by Bruno's in the mid 90's and sold to Albertson's around 1999. Albertson's sold the chain to St. Louis based Schnuck's in 2005.

Seessel's was the upscale supermarket operator in Memphis but by the time the sale to Schnuck's came, the Seesel's name was no longer associated with an upmarket operation and Schnuck's applied their own banner to the chain.

Seessel's along with FedEx and Backyard Burgers was a major sponsor and contributor to the Memphis Zoo. and other community projects such as St. Jude Hospital.

Could it have been sold to Schnuck's in 2002? I heard Albertsons exited the Houston, San Antonio, Memphis, and Nashville markets in 2002.

What do you mean Seessel's was no longer upmarket? I thought Albertsons would have upgraded the chain with upscale stores, Starbucks, etc. like their stores in Houston had around 1999-2000.

I double checked and 2002 was the correct date, it seems the Nashville Albertson's were sold to Publix at the same time though.

As far as being upmarket, the Seessel's were no longer perceived as being upmarket by the customers as Kroger had upgraded its stores that competed directly with Seessel's during the years of Bruno's ownership. I'm not aware of Albertson's adding Starbucks to any of the Seessel's, they never did with their Nashville and Chattanooga stores. As far as perception of being upmarket, the years of ownership under cash strapped Bruno's and a heavily leveraged Albertson's had allowed fresh food quality to slip and service levels were cut. Albertson's did replace a couple of locations about a year before selling the stores to Schnuck's. Megamarket, a warehouse operation of Jitney Jungle closed its Memphis stores, and at least two locations re-opened as Seessel's.

When Albertsons Inc acquired Seessel's (10 locations in Tennessee), they quietly renamed it "Seessel's By Albertsons" and it was part of the Southeast region. The SuperOne and Bruno's outlets that was part of the purchase of Seessel Holdings Inc were rebranded as Albertsons or Albertsons-Osco. The "Seessel's by Albertsons" banner was essentially a Seessel's store with the typical supermarket departments. Seessel's Pharmacy was rolled in with the Osco/Savon in-store pharmacy unit of the Albertsons Drug Stores Division.

The "Seessel's by Albertsons" logo showed up on documents used by the front end managers and the plastic bag recycling container at the main entrance at all stores.

At my location in Walnut CA (former Lucky), back in the early 2000's, the produce department somehow got a hold of a few of those "Seessel's by Albertsons" white price signs from the Printing & Supply facility in Boise.

luckysaver