When I shop at my neighborhood Albertsons, I wonder: What’s to become of this store and its sister stores?

The store is a pleasure to shop: clean and well-designed, with cheerful employees and an excellent selection of high-quality groceries. But as most every budget-minded shopper knows, Albertsons is more expensive than WinCo and Walmart. Many people treat Albertsons like a neighborhood convenience store: They buy a few things but fill their shopping carts elsewhere.

That was a concern six years ago, when Supervalu and a consortium led by private-equity powerhouse Cerberus Capital Management each bought about half of the 1,200 Albertsons stores. That deal ended Boise’s Albertsons Inc. as an independent company. Supervalu got all the Idaho stores and kept them open, though it closed stores elsewhere. Cerberus, through its Albertson’s LLC unit, closed most of its stores, selling many for their real-estate value (its consortium partners are all real estate investors).

Cerberus made the consortium partners a lot of money. Supervalu lost money. So Cerberus and its partners will soon take Supervalu’s remaining Albertsons off the Minnesota company’s hands for much less than Supervalu paid for them. While Cerberus isn’t saying, one likely result will be more closures.

I suspect my neighborhood Albertsons will survive. It’s a busy store. But yours?

dstaats@idahostatesman.com. Twitter: @IDS_DavidStaats