Schnucks to close

Riverdale Road store

St. Louis-based Schnuck Markets Inc. will close its 5270 Riverdale Road store at 6 p.m. March 15. Its convenience store and fuel center on Riverdale will continue to operate.

Schnucks acquired the former Seessels supermarkets in April as part of an agreement with Albertsons Inc. that included stores in Tennessee and Mississippi.

The Riverdale store opened in 2001. It is the newest of Schnucks Mid-South properties and its largest at 68,000 square feet.

When we bought the property, we had doubts about Riverdales economic viability and assigned zero value to (the store), said Craig D. Schnuck, chairman and chief executive officer. All of our experience told us there was very little chance of making Riverdale profitable. After eight months, we concluded the area simply could not generate enough sales to sustain a grocery store of this size.

About 70 associates will be reassigned.

Plans to build three new stores in the Mid-South are going ahead.

Community center

grand opening set

Government and community dignitaries will mark the grand opening of the Hickory Hill Community Center, 3910 Ridgeway Road, at 11 a.m. today.

The 55,000-square-foot facility in Hickory Hill Park includes an indoor pool, art and dance studios and a computer lab.

Calvary Lenten series opens

with former Memphis pastor

Calvary Episcopal Churchs 80th Lenten Noonday Preaching Series kicks off next week, and its counterpart the Waffle Shop marks its 75th anniversary this year of feeding the men, women and children who take part in the lunchtime tradition.

Volunteers from churches nationwide come to the church throughout the series which runs from Wednesday through April 11 to cook, serve and host in the Waffle Shop.

Services take place weekdays from 12:05 p.m. to 12:40 p.m. at the church, 102 N. Second St. Lunch is available daily from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the Waffle Shop downstairs.

Speakers in the series include former Christ United Methodist Church pastor, the Rev. Maxie Dunnam, now president of Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Ky., Thursday and March 7; the Rev. Dr. William Willimon, Christian ministry professor at Duke University in Durham, N.C., March 10-11; and the Rev. Dr. Daniel P. Matthews, rector of Trinity Church in New York City, March 12-14.

Weather forces move

of Chamber breakfast

The Memphis Regional Chamber of Commerces February business breakfast forum scheduled for Thursday at the Adams Mark, 939 Ridge Lake Blvd., was moved to 7:30 a.m. March 6.

Riviana completes

ACH Food purchase

Houston-based Riviana Foods Inc. has closed the acquisition of rice specialty business ACH Food Cos. Inc. for a reported $24 million.

Memphis-based ACH is headquartered at 7171 Goodlett Farms Parkway. It employs 1,300.

ACH manufactures and sells a variety of rice products for the U.S. food manufacturing, retail and service industry. It offers varieties of quick-cooking rice to food processors and the retail grocery market in North America, rice and dry beans to U.S. grocery retailers, and brown rice for export. The companys brands include China Doll and Fiesta.

Riviana is one of the nations largest makers of rice products, including products marketed under the names Success and Mahatma. Riviana operates a rice packaging plant in Memphis that employs 135 people. With the acquisition, Riviana added manufacturing facilities in Brinkley, Ark., and Mobile, Ala.