pseudo3d wrote:Albertsons operated in Springfield, MO briefly. It pulled out in early 2002 as part of the closure of the Mid-South Division. It looks like it only had one store, at 218 South Glenstone Avenue, which has now been converted to a bank.
Had to be more than that, for sure, anyway, been looking more into Smitty's...seems like briefly it was "Smitty's by Albertsons" (advertised in papers with "by Albertsons" just in Helvetica) before officially becoming Albertsons...it might have been a marketing thing like the LLC Albertsons were "Albertsons Market" in all but the outside.
The Smitty's-MO stores by the 1990s seemed to have gotten rid of the more esoteric items that would've been difficult for Albertsons to handle, like lawn and garden (despite the fact that during this time Albertsons was building garden centers), clothing, electronics, automotive, etc. but did include full-service restaurants ("Smitty's Restaurant") that actually hired cooks and servers (what they served, I don't know). In October 1996, Smitty's No. 10 opened in Joplin (this was probably the last Smitty's built, or so I thought), and according to the newspaper, "Smitty's Supermarkets Inc. has opened Smitty's No. 10 at 20th Street and Maiden Lane in Joplin. The new 75,000-square-foot facility includes a Smitty's restaurant with meeting room, postal station, pharmacy, bakery and Pasta Express". (Pasta Express seems to have been a local chain that still seems to be in existence, a 1997 article indicates that they closed two stores inside Smitty's in Joplin) Also note that the Smitty's-MO stores were large but not too large for Albertsons (not 100k+ superstores here).
I don't know what Albertsons did with the Smitty's Restaurants spaces, probably converted them to camera centers or video rentals (if the store didn't have them). Nor do I know what they served. I found another 1994 article (by the way, I'm using Newspapers.com and the OCR text) that refers to the restaurants.
The (*) includes known restaurants.
(*)218 S. Glenstone Avenue (mentioned last page, extensively renovated and expanded into offices for Great Southern Bank)
(*)1570 West Battlefield Road (extensively renovated facade-wise, abandoned for years but now Mercy Home Health and Hospice, and a social security office)
(*)3260 East Battlefield Road (now another Price Cutter, the gas station "Kum & Go" does not look like a recycled Albertsons Express)
(*)400 S. Massey Blvd. (Price Cutter)
(*)4228 S. National (now Bistro Market by Price Cutter, which sounds a
lot like a knockoff of "Market Bistro by Price Chopper" in the Northeast though without the niceties)
(*)1850 S. Maiden (aforementioned Joplin store, now Price Cutter)
300 Ichord Avenue (in Waynesvillle, also a Price Cutter)
Price Cutter bought most of the Albertsons stores out. Ironically, the Price Cutter store now called Smitty's, at 601 S. Jefferson in Lebanon, is one I can't find anything on being Smitty's originally.
Other things to note:
- A 2002 article [
http://www.semissourian.com/story/64900.html] mentions Cape Girardeau, MO being a different division than the Springfield stores seems to be correct. It seems like the Springfield stores were
not in the Mid-South division at all but rather Great Plains, run and supplied out of Tulsa.
- Albertsons bought 10 stores of Smitty's in 1998 but in 2002 only had nine, so one must have closed somewhere down the line. The store closed in 2002 was in Republic, MO.
- The Republic, MO store (a strange store with a not-very-deep parking lot, located at 878 US Highway 60 W) was under construction in 1997 so at some point one of the Smitty's stores was sold or closed and the number was not replaced. Seems like it was built for construction that never materialized. It is now a church today.
- There's one more Joplin store that was open as an Albertsons when they sold out to Price Cutter.
- Price Cutter supposedly did operate all stores at PC in 2002, so the ones that closed happened later.
- The list above reflects the Smitty's stores I could find, not the Albertsons stores as they were sold to Price Cutter.