Village Foods

Village Foods back in the AppleTree days. (Picture from Holcombe of Hidalgo, used with permission
NOTE: Village Foods is now closed. This post will be updated soon to reflect that. Please stand by...
This post was originally based on "Village Foods" from Brazos Buildings & Businesses

Safeway #1193
Address: 1760 Briarcrest Drive
Bryan, TX
Opened: 1988?
Became AppleTree: 1989
Became Village Foods: 2008

One of the last and biggest stores Safeway ever built in the Houston division, this store actually never closed, just swapped names numerous times with merchandising differences, eventually becoming a locally run store with just one location, this one.

It also never renovated (just received updates). Becoming an AppleTree in 1989 (so it never really served long as a Safeway) and replacing a 1970s-era Safeway catty-corner across to the store, unlike the great AppleTree burn-out in 1993, the store was one of six saved and remained open a number of years afterward, even into 2008 when it was finally sold to the landlord and re-merchandised to include more natural and organic products.

It's actually not some sort of Whole Foods knock-off, which it wasn't, and actually scared off a few loyal customers who (wrongly) believed the prices had shot up. The store retained much of the original AppleTree décor (as seen in some of the pictures) but would ultimately take most of them down (some AppleTree remnants remain in the store, but you'll have to look for them). What's neat about it is its decor, which is largely from the late 1980s (and a far cry from the drab exposed HVAC of other stores). These are photos I took in 2011, and even those have changed (the green trim, a product of the AppleTree takeover is now tan, plus more neon has been removed, and that "Reading Center" is now a painted "Village Wine & Beer Garden"). Originally, there were photos of the products sold in the departments, but these were replaced with Texas A&M-themed graphics later on after the conversion. Pictures of the pre-Village Foods AppleTree are found on Flickr (the top row, for some reason the photos are not all in the person's Photostream and the tags don't work).





You will, of course, notice that there's the AppleTree logo still intact (and that neat cake, but that's besides the point) and even a scratched-up cart that still bears the name.

Here's a few other pictures taken in and around Village Foods in summer of 2013, showcasing neat old quirks like the original Dr Pepper fixtures from the late 1980s and a few of the variety meats that Village Foods sells that are hard to find elsewhere (in particular, oxtails). I've spent a lot of time at this particular store recently, and I can tell you which songs I've heard on the in-store muzak more than once (for those curious, I've heard a few ELO songs, including "Don't Bring Me Down", but others include "My Sharona" by The Knack, "One Way or Another" by Blondie, or "Power of Love" by Huey Lewis and the News). Some are classics, some not, and some are pretty awful (cover versions of Beatles songs come to mind).

An explanation for the last one--it was a peeled-off sticker from a fixture they were reusing to sell candy, which saw its primary use in the 1990s (notice dated logos—click to zoom in). Despite the slow disappearance of the store's heritage, it is entirely worth seeing.

By the way, do visit the photostream as linked above, there's more pictures from the classic AppleTree days.