One of the reasons I stopped updating the blog for a while was a brief stint with Kroger that lasted about two weeks (what exactly my job was or why I left will continue to be a mystery to you) but I strived to look for new things to add nonetheless. So, what better way would be to find an old Albertsons that had been converted to a 700-series Kroger in Houston?
I had my doubts when I pulled in, partially because the Pharmacy sign was a Kroger font and not an Albertsons font like a few other converted stores were. In fact, it had blue Albertsons Food & Pharmacy signs until fall of 2014, based on Google Maps Street View.
Well, it kind of had an Albertsons-like layout, but what got me excited was the fact that I first found the "Baby" flooring where some bottled waters were. Yes, this was indeed a full "Theme Park"/"Grocery Palace" Albertsons that Kroger left partially intact! No more giant bottles of soda, or spinning Meal Center signs, but it was definitely built as such with the full package, like the full Beverage Boulevard flooring. It was a welcome change to the usual modern-day Kroger stores I see, which often just have polished concrete floors. There was even a Garden Center that Albertsons had built, but Kroger had never opened or maintained it. There seemed to be some garden-related stuff leftover, though. Given that a few of today's Kroger Marketplace stores do in fact have outdoor garden centers, I can't see why this Kroger can't revive it, at least seasonally.
Because of the relatively recent changes in the Food & Drug signs, it's entirely possible that the store was remodeled in the last few years.
It's a shame that Albertsons closed (well, sold to Kroger in 2002 at least) because it was a beautiful store (less than two years--it opened in 2000), which unfortunately couldn't save it, because by the time it opened, the American Stores acquisition was taking a toll on the combined company. The other interesting thing about this store was that it replaced one of the very first Albertsons stores in Houston, at Jones and Bridgedown. Maybe it was to get away from its competitors (just one mile south on Jones, there was a Randalls and a Kroger, the former of which is now an H-E-B), maybe the FM 1960 location was the better location, maybe because they were already losing money and hoped that a big fancy location would stem the losses. I'm not sure, but it was definitely a deluxe store, with a full fuel center (the Albertsons Express had a convenience store) and the garden center, which was not standard in most of its markets (as far as I know, only Texas, Louisiana, and Arizona stores had it).
Editor's Note: A number of off-topic posts have been moved to another thread. Please do not comment on this post unless it is about this store or post.
Does this store still have the Starbucks it inherited from Albertsons? (I believe as of 2002 when Albertsons bailed on Houston, Kroger didn't have Starbucks in its own original stores yet, but eventually would)
ReplyDeleteA number of Starbucks definitely survived the sale from Albertsons to Kroger.
I didn't see Starbucks signage outside the store, as both Kroger and Albertsons did, I know that when you entered you saw a wall with the carts, and to the immediate left was the deli, with the bakery in the back.
ReplyDeleteThing is, I don't know when Albertsons started putting in Starbucks. The College Station location put theirs in during a 2002 remodel, and the oldest Acme store with a Starbucks was Milltown (opened in March 2001). Conversely, there was a Kroger that opened in my town in late 2000 (a Signature store) that had a Starbucks. It's *possible* that they opened it with a Starbucks and Kroger stripped it out with most of the remaining Theme Park décor, but I doubt it.
Albertsons kept building in the Houston division up until the very end (for example, that one weird store near the railroad appears to have opened as an Albertsons, if briefly), so the shorter-lived stores could've had it. I suppose I could've asked an employee that's worked there for a while (when I worked at Village Foods, a few of the managers dated back to Safeway), but I didn't think of it at the time.
I'm pretty sure it wasn't until 2000 that the first Starbucks in an Albertsons opened. Strangely, the Albertsons on Fondren (and I forget what other cross street) in Houston that now is a Food Town opened in 2000, but didn't have a Starbucks until a few months after the Albertsons opened. So Starbucks may have opened there in 2001.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the southernmost Albertsons in The Woodlands opened in 1996, and didn't have a Starbucks, but the Randalls there (opened by Safeway in 2002 to replace the 80's Randalls down the street) has had a Starbucks since it opened. One of the Randalls in Katy is also a former early Albertsons, and interestingly, had no exterior remodel upon first becoming Randalls (the building was under ten years old, so didn't need it) but eventually got a new exterior when the Safeway lifestyle remodel happened.
I'm not sure but I think the Albertsons/Randalls in The Woodlands may still have the Albertsons exterior and early 2000s Safeway decor inside (as of late 2011 it still had these old features), and very well may be the next Randalls to close. It's halfway between two H-E-B stores (one small that replaced a demolished Safeway/AppleTree?/Pantry Foods, but the other very large and luxurious), and a Walmart Supercenter is very nearby that replaced an early 90's Walmart behind the old Randalls, which itself replaced an early 80's Walmart across from the Safeway/H-E-B.
And I personally am surprised that Kroger (with a store next to the first Woodlands Walmart) was the second grocer on Sawdust to open after Safeway in the early 80's, but never reinvested in that neighborhood except for renaming the store Kroger Signature around 2000 (but the store didn't actually get remodeled or updated in any way...) and eventually closed the store around 2011. Gosh, Kroger is the largest grocer in Greater Houston, but wasted at least FOUR opportunities to relocate the Sawdust store. First they could have taken the 1984 Walmart once it moved in 1991, then the Kmart across the street once it closed in 1994, then the Albertsons once it closed in 2002 (no sh1t...), and finally the 1991 Walmart when it moved in 2008.
And except for the (dying?) Randalls, all three of the empty Walmart/Kmart buildings in town ended up as pretty lousy tenants... Big Lots (the first Walmart), Woodforest National Bank offices (the second Walmart), and the combination of Hobby Lobby and Dollar Tree (the one short-lived Kmart)...
Is there any reason why Kroger uses the logo seen on this store for their Texas stores and not the typical Kroger logo? I've been wondering about that for a while. This is also my first time seeing an Albertsons garden center as well. Did they actually keep plants in there or was it just to keep bags of soil and mulch, like the Florida stores just used to place along the fronts of the stores?
ReplyDeleteKroger has used that lettering since at least 2000, with the opening of the Signature store, and later when they remodeled my local College Station Kroger. Kroger also uses a more bolder, narrower font (see "Bryan Kroger Boonville" or "Montrose Kroger Houston") which has appeared more recently.
DeleteInterestingly, I seem to remember that the Conroe Albertsons-turned-Kroger did have the regular Kroger logo for a while before being replaced a few years later.
As for your other question, given the size of the garden center I would imagine there were plants (you can see the tattered canopy above) but I wasn't there when it was operational.
I don't think it would hurt Kroger either to reopen the garden center, especially if they already operate them at other stores. They should try it for a season as an experiment to see if people like it. Everything is there for them, they just need to restock it really.
DeleteNot entirely, it looks like they sealed off the main entrances! There were offices roughly where the entrance should've been.
DeleteOh wow, I didn't even notice that! I just thought they might have been out of view from the camera.
DeleteI was taking the picture through the gate (that's what the black thing is to the right) but I didn't notice the sealed wall until I looked at it again.
DeleteI'm pretty sure it wasn't until 2000 that the first Starbucks in an Albertsons opened. Strangely, the Albertsons on Fondren (and I forget what other cross street) in Houston that now is a Food Town opened in 2000, but didn't have a Starbucks until a few months after the Albertsons opened. So Starbucks may have opened there in 2001.
ReplyDeleteAgain, it *may* have had a Starbucks that Kroger *didn't* keep for some reason, but I don't even remember seeing a circle where there even could've been a Starbucks. A June 1999 article I pulled up had in the Dallas/Fort Worth area Albertsons expanding its "Albertsons Coffee Shops" with pastries, but they first signed a deal with Starbucks in November 1999 with 100 stores coming. I suppose someone may eventually come forward to confirm or deny any Starbucks at this old Albertsons.
Also, the southernmost Albertsons in The Woodlands opened in 1996, and didn't have a Starbucks, but the Randalls there (opened by Safeway in 2002 to replace the 80's Randalls down the street) has had a Starbucks since it opened.
Is that the Albertsons that became the drivers license office? Not sure when Safeway started adopting Starbucks for the first time, but it looks like there are articles about Dominick's having it in the early 1990s, so maybe they picked up the idea from them...?
I'm not sure but I think the Albertsons/Randalls in The Woodlands may still have the Albertsons exterior and early 2000s Safeway decor inside (as of late 2011 it still had these old features), and very well may be the next Randalls to close. It's halfway between two H-E-B stores (one small that replaced a demolished Safeway/AppleTree?/Pantry Foods, but the other very large and luxurious), and a Walmart Supercenter is very nearby that replaced an early 90's Walmart behind the old Randalls, which itself replaced an early 80's Walmart across from the Safeway/H-E-B.
The store at the corner of Sawdust and I-45 was never an AppleTree, it closed in 1987 and was reopened in or before 1992. Safeway may have already gotten to it, I believe I read that the only original Randalls interior remaining was the Voss Flagship, which was closed and demolished (and I also believe one of 2 that was closed after the 2005 bloodbath).
And I personally am surprised that Kroger (with a store next to the first Woodlands Walmart) was the second grocer on Sawdust to open after Safeway in the early 80's, but never reinvested in that neighborhood except for renaming the store Kroger Signature around 2000 (but the store didn't actually get remodeled or updated in any way...) and eventually closed the store around 2011. Gosh, Kroger is the largest grocer in Greater Houston, but wasted at least FOUR opportunities to relocate the Sawdust store. First they could have taken the 1984 Walmart once it moved in 1991, then the Kmart across the street once it closed in 1994, then the Albertsons once it closed in 2002 (no sh1t...), and finally the 1991 Walmart when it moved in 2008.
I've been told that Kroger was leap-frogged by H-E-B in Houston sometime last year and if that's not true, they are running neck to neck. Relocating the Kroger to an old Wal-Mart (or Kmart!) seems like it should've been easy, but none of those are set up like a grocery store and would've required extensive modification. Why they didn't take the old Albertsons, I don't know.
And except for the (dying?) Randalls, all three of the empty Walmart/Kmart buildings in town ended up as pretty lousy tenants... Big Lots (the first Walmart), Woodforest National Bank offices (the second Walmart), and the combination of Hobby Lobby and Dollar Tree (the one short-lived Kmart)...
In June, Randalls will switch to local management and buying, which will at least stem the bleeding and not kill it like Genuardi's or Dominick's.
The Albertsons in the far north Woodlands (Research Forest Drive) did end up a Kroger. The Albertsons now a driver's license center is in Spring (not considered The Woodlands), opened in 2000, and had Starbucks, Bank of America, and an Albertsons Express gas station which now is a Valero. But the southern Woodlands Albertsons was at 2250 Buckthorne Place and now is the Randalls that waited long for a Lifestyle remodeling (if it ever got one at all).
ReplyDeleteWow, November 1999 was a month that Albertsons made two major, major blunders. They chose to not only gobble up American Stores (and five years later, really took a death blow by buying Shaw's/Star Markets in New England, which had previously been British-owned), but also added Starbucks to the stores, which was the biggest step "upscale" that Albertsons made in vain. Their attempt to go upscale is seen as a major step in Albertsons demise as an independent company, and near-total demise as a chain.
Adding Starbucks wasn't a bad thing, after Kroger did it and much of their chain still remains middle-ground, but the American Stores acquisition (which they obviously couldn't afford) and the subsequent raising of prices did do them in. This was compounded by SuperValu buying most of the stores (which they obviously couldn't afford) either.
ReplyDeleteAlbertsons in Houston had problems: it was going up against an established market with really nothing special to claim (the Dallas-Fort Worth division had slipped in in the mid-1980s with the promise of lower prices than anybody, which didn't last in the long run but established a foothold that continued after everything else perished) and then tried to create success by rapidly expanding across the landscape (about 40 in under 7 years), opening in some rather questionable locations along the way. This is similar to Albertsons in the rest of Texas (and others) in the 1990s that sowed the seeds for its destruction.
I apologize if this offends anyone, but I think of Kroger as one of the crappiest supermarket chains on Earth. And the people of Omaha, Nebraska seem to agree on this. Kroger (which I don't believe was there prior) bought the Baker's supermarkets in the area around 2000, and lots of people have complained Kroger ruined the chain - sound familiar? (Safeway and the regional chains it bought come to mind.)
ReplyDeleteWegmans, ShopRite, Publix, and Ahold all have a chance to chase Kroger out of Houston (I picture them someday retreating to more rural Texas, and staying around in North Carolina, Virginia, and Ohio where competition is slim) and then to capitalize on its demise in the region.
None of those chains are going to chase Kroger out of Houston anytime soon, especially since they all are miles away. Having exited Kroger, they are definitely a mixed bag. For the record, they usually have good sales and good prices, and their private label line finally is getting better and more attractive-looking.
ReplyDeleteTheir stores are incredibly variable, I had the privilege at working at one of the nicer Kroger stores, but meats and produce do greatly vary. Meats tend to be better but produce tends to be worse. I say tends to be, since these stores are so different.
The Kroger card is kinda pointless since most everyone uses a credit card these days for consumer information, yet they still tend to cling to it.
They do seem to not as well be tuned in to the local demographics as H-E-B is, but then again, H-E-B will really shaft some demographics if they don't like it. Safeway's demographic control was even worse because everything was done from their SoCal offices.
Baked goods like donuts are pretty bad at Kroger. Sorry. Twice did it for me.
Finally, there's nothing really "special" about Kroger stores that's cool even for smaller stores. H-E-B has a line of exclusive products (salsas, Whataburger products) which is good.
Albertsons for years I viewed with an even lower look at Kroger, with Albertsons stores just being more expensive. Today, I think that even though Albertsons Safeway is going to be far less organized than Kroger, they seem to at least be "getting it" by getting rid of their shoppers cards and letting the divisions be more autonomous than they used to, namely (and specifically) the United Supermarkets chain. The way that the supermarkets are in Texas, interestingly, Kroger doesn't come out on top. It was driven out of San Antonio and Austin years ago, and today only is in Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston and parts surrounding (it commands a good market share in both). Albertsons Safeway, between them, have no stores in San Antonio, have a small market share in Houston (but nothing beyond Houston), a distant second place in Austin, and top share in Dallas. They dominate the points north (via United). H-E-B dominates San Antonio and Austin, clawed its way to the top in Houston, but scarce pretty much north of Waco.
If the four eastern chains were in Houston, Publix and Wegmans might have a chance because they have a following. ShopRite and Ahold not so much.
I honestly am surprised Safeway and not Kroger was the chain to pull out of Texas in the 80's. After all, Texas is a lot closer to current Safeway (as in the Safeway name, not Randalls) territory than it is to any other state with Kroger, except for Louisiana (which I think only has five or so Kroger stores today, at least one of which is supplied by the Houston division). Baton Rouge but not New Orleans once had a big Kroger presence, but I believe Kroger withdrew from Baton Rouge in the early 80's at the same time as they withdrew from Pittsburgh (and were then completely gone from Pennsylvania) due to long-term battles with grocery unions.
ReplyDeleteOops, I just remembered that Arkansas also has a small number of Kroger stores, mostly in Little Rock (at least two of which used to be Skaggs Alpha Beta stores, owned by American Stores, AKA Acme Markets Inc.)
ReplyDeleteThat's untrue, because first off, I was never able to confirm or deny that Acme Markets as it exists today (it's been in the same spot since the 1980s) was the "original" American Stores Company that was bought by Skaggs, because Skaggs Alpha Beta was owned by Skaggs Drug Centers, which bought the original American Stores in 1979. By the time Albertsons bought ASC, it had headquarters in Salt Lake City.
DeleteI don't know the circumstances of why Kroger pulled out of Baton Rouge and never returned, but I do know that at one time they pulled out of Detroit or threatened to, and even at one time threatened to pull out of Houston (but this was before they cemented a good spot by buying AppleTree and Albertsons).
I apologize for saying anything inaccurate. The whole Skaggs/American Stores history is a bit confusing to me, and you may know more about it. But I do know two facts for sure: "Alpha Beta" (not necessarily Skaggs Alpha Beta) was indeed a division of American Stores, which ironically changed its corporate name to "Acme Markets Inc" in 1961, even though it had just earlier bought Alpha Beta. But the name in 1974 would revert to American Stores.
ReplyDeleteThe Flickr user "otherstream" is actually David Gwynn, the creator of the excellent website/message board called Groceteria. Check out his Flickr photos of a Skaggs Alpha Beta in Little Rock when it was new in 1988. It looks very similar inside to Acme stores from the same period, but with a green color scheme instead of Acme red (though the lettering on signs is also very different). My iPad gives me trouble when linking to other sites, but I suggest you compare the Skaggs Alpha Beta photos to the photos on Acme Style of the Clifton Heights, PA Acme (even though it didn't open until 1995, it borrows a lot of features from the Skaggs Alpha Beta from 1988).
Also, I saw Flickr photos years ago of the interior of an Albertsons (either in New Mexico or Arizona, I forget which) that I forget the exact history of, but I believe it was a Jewel-Osco originally (yes, they were found far, far from Chicago at one time) that may have been sold to Albertsons years BEFORE the 1999-2000 Albertsons-American Stores fiasco. Regardless of its exact history, it as of maybe 2005 had lighting identical to a late 80's/early 90's Acme, combined with early 2000s Albertsons decor. I easily would have mistaken the store if I saw photos without a description for a current Acme.
Kroger also attempted the Washington DC area in the late 50's/early 60's, but closed that division not long after, I think in maybe 1967.
Kind of a complicated answer, so I'm going to break it down.
Delete- I'm not sure when Acme Markets Inc. officially incorporated, but they've been in the spot where they are since the mid-1980s, I think.
- I'm not well-versed in Alpha Beta, but "Skaggs Alpha Beta" was a name used for the combination stores and the former Skaggs Albertsons stores in Texas, Oklahoma, etc. that Albertsons didn't keep (they split the stores)
- Jewel-Osco was established as a division in Florida in the late 1980s, but it didn't last too long before it was divested (see Albertsons Florida Blog)
- Right around 1991, American Stores renamed the southern Skaggs Alpha Beta stores to Jewel-Osco, before selling them all to Albertsons in 1992.
- Alpha Beta was sold to Yucaipa Cos. in 1991, which I'm guessing lost any Skaggs names and simply reverted to Alpha Beta. By the mid-1990s, they were rebranded as Ralphs (a Kroger brand)
- Jewel-Osco never opened any regular supermarkets outside of Chicagoland prior to being bought by American Stores. They did have a discount grocery chain, "Jewel-T", which operated as far south as Texas and was sold off by American Stores after buying Jewel Cos, much like the White Hen Pantry convenience store chain. (A mention of Jewel-T and the transition to Save-a-Lot can be seen on my other excellent blog, Brazos Buildings & Businesses)
- Jewel-Osco Southwest Inc. was maintained by American Stores and continued to be in New Mexico well into the 1990s but in 1998 was converted to Lucky (or Lucky/Sav-on) shortly before the merger (and those became Albertsons in 1999). The funny thing was during the FTC-ordered divestments in the west coast (sound familiar?) Raleys was offered the divested stores in New Mexico and Las Vegas. Guess who took the Raleys stores after they pulled out of New Mexico in 2007?
source: Supermarket News, Newsbank
Thanks! Also is the Louisiana store you speak of the one in Sulphur?
ReplyDeleteAirline Hwy and Highland in Baton Rouge actually...though the most recent aerial shows some stuff there again (whether storage or actually active, don't know)
Delete