May 7--First Tennessee will close 11 of its Memphis-area branches housed in grocery stores by July.

The Midtown branch in Piggly Wiggly on Madison will remain open.

Also, the branches in Schnucks groceries in Lakeland and Horn Lake, Miss., will stay open, at least until year's end.

Things have changed since First Tennessee started housing branches in grocery stores more than 10 years ago, said Charles Burkett, president of banking for First Tennessee.

At the time, the grocery branches offered customers more convenience because they stayed open more hours.

"Since then, we made decisions to be convenient in all our financial centers. Hours were extended in all centers," Burkett said.

Now, all First Tennessee financial centers stay open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays.

Before, the regular branches were open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday-Thursday and 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday. They were closed Saturday.

"We're open longer now in our full-service financial centers than we have been in our store facilities," Burkett said.

First Tennessee also found that customers at its grocery locations were not using the array of services there, such as investment products and consumer loans.

"We found most individual customers used them for teller transactions primarily," Burkett said.

Another factor in closing the grocery branches is the proximity of full-service First Tennessee branches.

About 60 employees will be affected, but Burkett said, "We anticipate all those employees will find positions at other locations."

First Tennessee is negotiating with Schnucks to keep the Lakeland and Horn Lake in-store branches open beyond year's end. The bank doesn't have other financial centers near those locations.

The other two major banks in Memphis don't appear to be following suit.

In-store branches remain a key piece of SunTrust's retail mix "in providing our clients with the most convenient service available," said spokesman Hugh Suhr.

Regions Bank has acquired a number of in-store branches through mergers and acquisitions, spokesman Evelyn Mitchell said.

"There is currently no corporate initiative to close or consolidate these locations," she said.

Regions has only one in-store branch in the area, in Hernando.

-- Tom Bailey Jr.: 529-2388

First Tennessee grocery banks closing

Summer/Appling Kroger

7615 Highway 70, Bartlett

Hacks Cross Kroger

7942 Winchester, Memphis

Balmoral Schnucks,

6100 Quince, Memphis

Forest Hill-Irene Schnucks,

3150 Village Shops Drive, Germantown

Southaven Schnucks,

945 Goodman Road E., Southaven

Cordova Schnucks,

1150 N. Germantown Road, Cordova

Poplar/Mendenhall Schnucks

799 Truse, Memphis

Germantown Schnucks,

7735 Farmington, Germantown

Collierville Schnucks,

275 N. Byhalia, Collierville

Whitehaven Schnucks,

1212 E. Shelby Drive, Memphis

Kirby-Whitten Schnucks,

2942 Kirby Whitten, Bartlett

-----

To see more of The Commercial Appeal or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.commercialappeal.com.

Copyright (c) 2009, The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

A service of YellowBrix, Inc.