Albertsons grocery store quits Cape

Business Today

Albertsons Inc. has left the very competitive Cape Girardeau grocery market 13 months after opening its doors. The company plans to sell its $3 million building.

Albertsons, the country's second-largest grocery chain behind Kroger Co., closed its Cape Girardeau store March 21, leaving about 80 employees out of work.

The 57,560-square-foot brick building is located at the corner of Kingshighway and Independence.

"The store never received the level of acceptance from the community to justify the expense," said Walt Rubel, director of government relations and community affairs for Albertsons. "The store just wasn't profitable."

Last July, the Idaho-based chain announced it would close 165 underperforming grocery and drug stores in 25 states in an effort to reduce overhead and consolidate to restore profitability.

Rubel said Albertsons decided to pull out of the mid-South market. Five other stores soon will be closed -- one in Springfield, Mo., two in Memphis, Tenn., and stores in Collierville, Tenn., and Hot Springs, Ark.

Employees of the Cape Girardeau store were notified one week before the store closed. The gas station/convenience store in front of Albertsons has also closed.

Some employees could ask to be transferred to other Albertsons stores, but Rubel said most employees generally don't do that.

That the $3 million store only opened 13 months ago was not a factor in its closing, according to company spokesman Jeannette Duwe.

"It was a difficult decision," said Duwe. "When we open a store, we expect it to be successful. In this case, it did not serve the business to keep one store open just because it was new. "We do hate to leave a market that we were so new to."

Duwe said Cape Girardeau is a very competitive market, and "certainly all the competition did weigh into the decision."

According to Rubel, Albertsons is aggressively working to sell the building and 7.38 acres of land.

Tom Kelsey, president of Lorimont Place Ltd., brokered the deal when Albertsons bought the property in 1999.

"That store changed the whole complexion of that part of town," Kelsey said. "It got rid of those old junky buildings and made it look nice. There's no doubt from a broker's perspective, it will be a prime location for another retailer. That's definitely its highest and best use."