The future of the grocery store chain Bashas’ and its store in Sedona is still in limbo, and it likely will not be decided until next month at the earliest.

While one grocery chain maintains it is in the negotiation stages to purchase Bashas’, executives of Bashas’ disagree. Both chains admit Boise, Idaho-based Albertsons Food and Drug Center offered to purchase Bashas’ stores, including the one that has been in Sedona for decades.

Bashas’ spokesman Robert Johnson said Albertsons officials sent Bashas’ Chairman Eddie Basha a letter in February with an offer to buy the company for $260 million to $290 million.

Johnson said the offer was not cash on hand, and added Bashas’ quickly rejected the offer.

Complicating the process is that Chandler-based Bashas’ has filed for bankruptcy organization, and Johnson said what happens will be decided by the court.

If the Bashas’ chain were to sell to another company, creditors would likely receive the money owed to them sooner.

Albertsons spokeswoman Christine Wilcox, speaking from Boise, called the offer generous, but added the Bashas’ family has yet to respond to the offer.

She declined to comment on what the merger would mean to the smaller Bashas’ stores, like the one in Sedona, if Albertsons did acquire the chain.

“It’s far too soon to speculate,” she said. “We simply want the opportunity to see what the two businesses will look like.”

Wilcox said Bashas’ acknowledged it had received Albertsons’ proposal and its plans if the merger were to happen.

Johnson, though, said Albertsons knows Bashas’ stance on the offer, which was not solicited or asked for in any way.

“The gist is the CEO [of Albertsons] sent an offer to us in February, and we read it and declined it,” he said.

He said the letter detailing the offer later surfaced somehow and was publicized in media outlets after the offer had been rejected.

He acknowledged the company did review Albertsons’ offer.

Johnson said Bashas’ is now concentrating on its Tuesday, April 6, bankruptcy reorganization date before Bankruptcy Judge James Marlar.

“We submitted a plan with us paying off our creditors within five years,” he said.

He added Bashas’ has been around for 78 years, and plans on continuing the business for many more years.