Just a picture to tide you over until I get more posts out. The current plan I have is to unveil another a dead Albertsons, a living Randalls, a dead Albertsons (though said supermarket lives as another), and an old Safeway post I had lying around.
The bottom of the canister mentioned it retailed for $1.89.
Thanks for posting this because its 1985 expiration date reminded me of a mystery I am trying to solve. There used to be a Safeway in Chester, Maryland that opened in 1985 and relocated in 2007. After several years of vacancy, Big Lots opened in the old Safeway spot. Here's my mystery: this Safeway looked very similar (but not identical) to the former Safeway/AppleTree (now a Kroger that calls itself "Kroger of the Villages" for reasons that escape me) at 9325 Katy Freeway in Houston. I thought I had read that this Houston store was heavily remodeled in the early 90's by AppleTree (despite AppleTree being a massive failure and lasting less than five years) but now I'm not so sure since this Maryland store looked so similar and was always a Safeway. Do you know the whole history of the "Kroger of the Villages" store?
ReplyDeleteAlso, have the ex-Albertsons/Kroger stores in Willis and in Houston at Antoine and Tidwell found new tenants yet? If not, I wish the Willis store would become a Food Fair (as did the former Albertsons in New Caney not too far away) but Kroger might have a lease restriction preventing that. I do really think the Food Fair would attract shoppers who either want to support a local chain or just don't want to deal with the huge size and crowds of the Kroger Marketplace across the street. It seems to me that Kroger Marketplace is Kroger's answer to Wegmans (even though Virginia is the only state where Kroger and Wegmans overlap, and they still don't really overlap much if at all). Wegmans does plan to enter North Carolina (which also has a big Kroger presence).
Also, Food Town could easily move their store in the ex-Safeway at Fondren and Tidwell to the Albertsons/Kroger site at Antoine and Tidwell. It would totally be a step up for them. The Safeway/Food Town center is a real dump (but so is the neighborhood) though the neighborhood seems to get nicer around the Albertsons/Kroger site.
The one downside to that shopping center though is that the railroad tracks pass right in front of the store, and when trains pass through, traffic both coming and going from the center gets choked. I don't know how often the trains actually go by though. I would guess it's not too terribly often, but freight trains usually don't follow set schedules, period.
I forget... did the gas station on that corner (which takes up the small sliver of land between the railroad tracks and the intersection) start out as Albertsons Express? I can't tell from map views what gas brand is there today. If it indeed WAS an Albertsons Express, it seems VERY strange that they built it where the railroad tracks totally cut it off from the supermarket.
If that center were in Pennsylvania, I actually would think it would be a property that could JUSTIFY having two Wine & Spirits stores on it (the anomaly with the Acme in Newtown Square really makes no sense at all) because it could have one opening into the supermarket and one where the gas station is (imagine for a moment that gas station not being there). The traffic stoppage caused by passing trains would warrant two Wine & Spirits stores despite their proximity.
Also, did the building across the street (not sure if it's anything today) used to be an H-E-B Pantry Foods? It kind of looks like one. If so, it's kind of strange that H-E-B didn't use the old Safeway instead of building new, and strange too that they didn't move to the ex-Albertsons when it became available. There was an original H-E-B Pantry Foods in Cypress across from an ex-Safeway/AppleTree (this one also is Food Town today)... and a few miles away was an Albertsons identical to the one on Kempwood that became an H-E-B, but this Albertsons never was a supermarket again (it now is split into office-type businesses). It's painful to me that a Kroger Signature is now the closest supermarket even though the Albertsons seemingly had the much better location of the two.
The AppleTree at what is now "Kroger of the Villages" did include a unique decor set, and I do have a picture of what the store looked like on the inside, which I'll show at a later date.
ReplyDeleteThe Antoine store was a horrible location. I hope to cover it in the near future, and why Kroger couldn't even survive...
Wow... my parents have this exact same thing at home, all the way up in the northwest corner of the US!
ReplyDelete