tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4775099773838772282024-03-21T21:11:57.452-05:00Safeway and Albertsons in TexasSafeway, Randalls, Albertsons, and the RestPseudo3Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17848368606946150471noreply@blogger.comBlogger40125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477509977383877228.post-63624054482528514132017-03-26T17:23:00.001-05:002017-03-26T17:23:52.199-05:00The World of Albertsons<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">No more excuses--since this blog's relaunch I admit I've been a bit lethargic. I didn't even break that the distribution center and the offices for the Houston Division would be closing, which is disappointing but had to be done (the Dallas division is a bit far off for those Louisiana stores, though) although it does keep the Houston stores. While I'm afraid that this blog will go silent again, I encourage everyone to visit my other endeavor, <a href="http://www.carbon-izer.com/">Carbon-izer.com</a> and <a href="http://www.carbon-izer.com/retail/albertsons/albs-index.html">The World of Albertsons</a>.<br />
</div>Pseudo3Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17848368606946150471noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477509977383877228.post-22379520619598901072017-02-26T15:30:00.000-06:002017-02-26T15:30:15.481-06:00[FROM THE ARCHIVES] Albertsons and Cinnabon<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Rather than a store post today, let's take a look at one of the few food partnerships Albertsons did before the ubiquitous Starbucks. This article from <i>Supermarket News</i>, titled "Albertson's unit opens its doors to in-store Cinnabon" appeared in the August 26, 1996 issue.<br />
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<blockquote>AUSTIN, Texas - The first Albertson's to house Cinnabon retail outlet coincided with the opening of a 65,000-square-foot food and drug store here at the end of last month.<br />
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Dubbed "The Village Market," the new Albertson's is the first chain unit to lease space within the store to other businesses, according to a statement.<br />
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Located in the front of the store near the entrance, according to Cinnabon spokeswoman Sharon Roberts, the facility offers its trademark cinnamon rolls, as well as coffee, orange juice, lemonade and an iced chocolate mocha drink called Mochalatta Chill.<br />
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Only time will tell how Cinnabon's arrival will affect Albertson's in-store bakery, said a spokeswoman at the store's Boise, Idaho, headquarters.<br />
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"It's a very good question, and right now Albertson's is searching for answers since it's a new experiment, and it's only been a few weeks in operation," she said. "We are looking at this closely."<br />
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A Cinnabon development executive said it is currently looking at several other Albertson's sites.<br />
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"We're definitely nurturing the relationship with Albertson's, but nothing has been confirmed yet," the executive said. "It could be that we'll be in more Albertson's stores in Texas or in other places. We just wanted to open [the Austin store] and see how it goes, and so far it's just been terrific."<br />
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The article doesn't say which store it was, and since Albertsons pulled out of Austin a decade ago, this store has definitely closed. Still, it does look at one of the ways Albertsons was doing in the 1990s. I presume the Cinnabon rolls were the same as ones offered at many (all?) Schlotzsky's shops these days, shipped in frozen. I know Albertsons had a Krispy Kreme program as well in the early 2000s but it wasn't done in-house, they were simply sold from nearby Krispy Kreme restaurants, which sounds like cheating at best.<br />
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</div>Pseudo3Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17848368606946150471noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477509977383877228.post-78361523184539582172017-02-12T17:55:00.000-06:002017-03-26T17:07:49.260-05:00Randalls #1066 - Houston, TX<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAZoZzrh8aJ2NBORFKWHwR7Wh4F9IZeg5nUNdt_hPXhLxPBcinE9O5PKbBXdLKFoOvRzqo8PMYTpD4se2Qk0sYIrPRsAQvaRNTIlTR_ZmAAltWI_pwZx5LehiAXRaHHYRIQMShMOI-lXuF/s1600/IMG_2603.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAZoZzrh8aJ2NBORFKWHwR7Wh4F9IZeg5nUNdt_hPXhLxPBcinE9O5PKbBXdLKFoOvRzqo8PMYTpD4se2Qk0sYIrPRsAQvaRNTIlTR_ZmAAltWI_pwZx5LehiAXRaHHYRIQMShMOI-lXuF/s400/IMG_2603.JPG" width="400" height="300" /></a></div><center>12850 Memorial Drive • Houston, TX</center><br />
A Randalls today won't bring tears to eyes like seeing the deterioration of Sears stores (at least mine, the Willowbrook Sears actually looks decent), but was once supposed to be the best isn't going to impress many people these days.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8CzNRDFARd4b8eQbgpffHZCaBOYI4LT5kx_URQY6JcHU0yTetEAnEKEdXMbah-Oz1NMFEookZUbZhvUQVhUNo-DTEqrQYPxeZhA2pJz0KNBZMl9H1iQRO2TXt8lk-mIRBKaVFz2JvptIH/s1600/IMG_2604.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8CzNRDFARd4b8eQbgpffHZCaBOYI4LT5kx_URQY6JcHU0yTetEAnEKEdXMbah-Oz1NMFEookZUbZhvUQVhUNo-DTEqrQYPxeZhA2pJz0KNBZMl9H1iQRO2TXt8lk-mIRBKaVFz2JvptIH/s400/IMG_2604.JPG" width="400" height="300" /></a></div><center><small>A two-level shopping center!</center></small><br />
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Opened in late 1996 as a 60,000 square feet store, this store put the screws to a tiny Lewis & Coker (the last store in the chain, it once operated the Kmart Foods stores from College Station to Galveston) less than a mile east and was equipped to be a Randalls Flagship store. Sadly, while the Randalls remains popular and busy today, no "Flagship" features remain of this store. Flagship stores from what I heard all had an upper level added (we'll talk about that more when I cover the Bellaire store) to house a restaurant. I don't know if Randalls here has an upper level, if it did, it's definitely inaccessible (the shopping center itself does, I would be surprised if the store here <i>didn't</i>). Despite a Walgreens right next to it, the Randalls <i>does</i> has a pharmacy. It has also been upgraded to the Lifestyle layout, though some remnants remain of its past. By the time it opened in 1996, Randalls' financial situation was in need of help, their net store count (openings to closings ratio) had flatlined, and Kroger's new Signature stores were starting to dig into the market share.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH8jvUzhNeAGIbzlMt5_v4nIW2OvT_KP_be5xqioJt8Pji94gTJYrAMLEW90fw89202Oabnfcn7JA4rh_G95hGxBW5DVDBSduu37kYiXR985tS3E6Yi0mm-2whik8AYJzbCyOZkfJkMvjw/s1600/IMG_2605.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH8jvUzhNeAGIbzlMt5_v4nIW2OvT_KP_be5xqioJt8Pji94gTJYrAMLEW90fw89202Oabnfcn7JA4rh_G95hGxBW5DVDBSduu37kYiXR985tS3E6Yi0mm-2whik8AYJzbCyOZkfJkMvjw/s400/IMG_2605.JPG" width="400" height="300" /></a></div><center><small>It's a bit washed out, but the sign mentions sushi.</center></small><br />
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Originally, the floor featured some sort of brick-like tile around the perishables, which Safeway later covered with their tile. I'm pretty sure that the store only remodeled once or twice (the latter being Lifestyle, of course), despite its age. These pictures were taken just soon before the chain's 20th anniversary (taken in January/February 2016).<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR7vIgo4DAf08HP4Lc8qt_KWRUN1ifBoFZLP2ZJi4SRmBZdTM-ghtkEbIycaXghFAUBshmiq5WN7eSrVCpMzmfYPVXF_WfMTph54yGg4_fMnLba4_VPa6BDkT8icmG1N7JjIvAO0qDEVBf/s1600/IMG_2680.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR7vIgo4DAf08HP4Lc8qt_KWRUN1ifBoFZLP2ZJi4SRmBZdTM-ghtkEbIycaXghFAUBshmiq5WN7eSrVCpMzmfYPVXF_WfMTph54yGg4_fMnLba4_VPa6BDkT8icmG1N7JjIvAO0qDEVBf/s400/IMG_2680.JPG" width="400" height="300" /></a></div><br />
The bakery has a refrigerated case, which allowed to carry things like <a href="http://breadpuddingandbeer.wordpress.com/2014/06/06/not-as-good-as-it-looks-bread-pudding-with-raisins-safeway/">bread pudding</a>, and even though it wasn't great (I can't expect world-class stuff here), it was nice because most supermarkets I've been to don't <i>carry</i> bread pudding, and Safeway (Randalls) does. Can you match that, H-E-B and Kroger?<br />
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Despite being right off the highway, access is quite rough. The location is near the CityCentre development, which was built on the site of <a href="http://www.deadmalls.com/malls/town_and_country_mall_tx.html">Town & Country Mall</a>. If you're not accessing it from Memorial Drive proper, have fun getting to it from the Sam Houston Tollway or Katy Freeway.<br />
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From the north, you'll have to exit more than a mile and a half up, go through two stoplights before turning left at a third, then going straight through a fourth (and before the Katy Freeway rebuild in the late 2000s, that would be "go through FOUR stoplights before turning left at a fifth").<br />
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From the south, you'll have to go through two stoplights after exiting before turning right at a third if you don't want to exit and then fight several lanes over (any time of the day) to turn right.<br />
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From the west, that's two miles on the highway frontage roads and five stoplights, and from the east, ALSO five stoplights. So much for highway access, right? With Memorial City Mall accessible from one exit from all four directions, it's no wonder why Memorial City Mall is successful and Town & Country Mall died off.<br />
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But since Town & Country Village actually was successful even when the mall was not (in fact it came back to life right around the time the mall was starting to die), that's all right, and since it did NOT die when Safeway began to destroy the chain, though doubtless it harmed its volume.<br />
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What can I say for T&C's Randalls now? It's a nice Randalls, but not a terribly distinct one. It has a sushi bar, it has a pharmacy (despite Walgreens next door), it has everything else you'd expect from a store that was under Safeway's control.<br />
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I've been trying to find information on Randalls Town & Country opening through the Houston Chronicle archives but I've come up short. I'm not even sure if I can say what they were doing at three Randalls stores were doing as of early 1996, making real homemade water-boiled bagels (the bagels nowadays are just shipped in frozen and baked), so I'm not exactly sure what the amenities what this store were like when it opened twenty years ago.<br />
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The Lewis & Coker to the east of the store was sold to Rice Epicurean, which operated it until 2013 when it was sold to The Fresh Market (which closed down within 3 years). <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEeYI0qX8640mhML1IToHAs0jVg6h26wfHm9QhTPWLJoF_7dcwfxLbNn7v6ucBYBdWpIlQX6D5WCuJahrk3bPazWoMC6ATdcBq2vO_GG-eyKfqY8-JQ2vaSEdjmPVb2K7DJIYQ8_F-Otnv/s1600/IMG_2606.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEeYI0qX8640mhML1IToHAs0jVg6h26wfHm9QhTPWLJoF_7dcwfxLbNn7v6ucBYBdWpIlQX6D5WCuJahrk3bPazWoMC6ATdcBq2vO_GG-eyKfqY8-JQ2vaSEdjmPVb2K7DJIYQ8_F-Otnv/s400/IMG_2606.JPG" width="400" height="300" /></a></div><center><small>This Campbell's soup kiosk was here on my first trip in back sometime in late 2015, but it was gone on later visits. I'm tempted to say it was just a promotional thing. Note the in-house soup kiosk behind it.</center></small><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSx_ncrieJMMAcioy3sjy33np6Lk6ORSFrsNIvOVTwcDg2JVIoNCmr-H8iv1D3h_bpkam47LmpD44s60lOVPZCBu7b90vq7t1FhB5_YA1W67H80Qw08rg5h21VqtYy6Gmpw9AKBbV7s53G/s1600/IMG_2607.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSx_ncrieJMMAcioy3sjy33np6Lk6ORSFrsNIvOVTwcDg2JVIoNCmr-H8iv1D3h_bpkam47LmpD44s60lOVPZCBu7b90vq7t1FhB5_YA1W67H80Qw08rg5h21VqtYy6Gmpw9AKBbV7s53G/s400/IMG_2607.JPG" width="400" height="300" /></a></div><center><small>The in-store tortilla chips, which all the area Randalls carry. Sometime in 2016, H-E-B introduced its own in-store tortilla chips, which is kind of cool that Randalls had something BEFORE them. When was the last time that happened!</center></small><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOFuLkYQoDzL8YyXSUsSP0VkrvzPgNHCQCDj54AUeaf6iMYBXbetgK_727GfFCnZWVR3P_01heaoJxuufaqjFDlyjefKzZgUXoYu5cFAKMk-3nRJPPkfowX_PnqkdICsp75ea9z1jpJNhO/s1600/IMG_2608.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOFuLkYQoDzL8YyXSUsSP0VkrvzPgNHCQCDj54AUeaf6iMYBXbetgK_727GfFCnZWVR3P_01heaoJxuufaqjFDlyjefKzZgUXoYu5cFAKMk-3nRJPPkfowX_PnqkdICsp75ea9z1jpJNhO/s400/IMG_2608.JPG" width="400" height="300" /></a></div><center><small>I want to say that this is Beer & Wine sign is a holdover from the original décor though a little research shows that this might be Safeway's after all.</center></small><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQI-_VeAWRLv0bW3Oa0LW22P3etVdYVW-p4XU5OVEYw1LTr0FwaUnaSiB0Gi6iMSmi9erSf_mc0IXnpnXpaBIu13v2FZbXNj_zCMmKjxS6m5xo_jHQ5mPLDH-Jc3-j9tLbgIP_TgXB0pJn/s1600/IMG_2609.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQI-_VeAWRLv0bW3Oa0LW22P3etVdYVW-p4XU5OVEYw1LTr0FwaUnaSiB0Gi6iMSmi9erSf_mc0IXnpnXpaBIu13v2FZbXNj_zCMmKjxS6m5xo_jHQ5mPLDH-Jc3-j9tLbgIP_TgXB0pJn/s400/IMG_2609.JPG" width="400" height="300" /></a></div><center><small>Inside the more dimly-lit "wine cellar" area. The camera messes up the light a bit, but it's not as "intimate" as I'd like or even offer a lot of high-end vintages.</center></small><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbJgGZyn-xlL6EyL54AykWyJfWuBCZ1iBK3a_75SKkOydrY1Sy7Dr7uGXm_rvCJ4tk-UclNoYQCghzgJ9BxF2FcQGhlafLIku6CJ6PkPgqsn96prPQg_ttw5E4cPG7KJiavVFzMSk62L3I/s1600/IMG_2612.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbJgGZyn-xlL6EyL54AykWyJfWuBCZ1iBK3a_75SKkOydrY1Sy7Dr7uGXm_rvCJ4tk-UclNoYQCghzgJ9BxF2FcQGhlafLIku6CJ6PkPgqsn96prPQg_ttw5E4cPG7KJiavVFzMSk62L3I/s400/IMG_2612.JPG" width="400" height="300" /></a></div><small><center>Pretty sure that signage is an Albertsons carryover.</center></small><br />
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While The Fresh Market is no more, the Randalls has two major competitors in the area, the <a href="http://safewayalbertsonstexas.blogspot.com/2014/10/echo-lane-shopping-center-houston.html">small Kroger of the Villages</a>, which I hope to repair the page with new information soon, and also the massive H-E-B Bunker Hill, a 100,000+ square foot H-E-B with high volume and an in-store restaurant. Of course, being H-E-B, it misses a lot of the things and just feels like the same relatively bare-bones H-E-B in a nicer coat (I would like to cover that H-E-B at a later time). With some remodels rumored in the Randalls division, it would be nice to see the Randalls Flagship restored to its former position with some unique décor and different options (let's start with actually cooking dishes again). Randalls' long-time California counterpart, Pavilions, recently had a store with one-of-a-kind decor and new options, and <a href="http://www.retailwatchers.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1337&start=10#p11650">it looks terrific</a>. I would like to see Randalls to experiment further with larger and more stores, and generally restore itself from the damage caused by Safeway, but that's unlikely. Remember, if Albertsons didn't come along, then this would've closed by the end of 2014, certainly.<br />
</div>Pseudo3Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17848368606946150471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477509977383877228.post-7621940779456375762017-01-29T15:21:00.001-06:002017-02-12T17:31:05.928-06:00Market Street #556 - Plano, TX<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy71YJzXjyMXutfy-WRHHm0AC5Cm4iyZ8cURV1P5cFmm3Cs4xD2oNHGod0UUpLeh6rftamiavIVwQ3wmKy9CHH-xZZuAf_ccf88XXVwp3dzLtMntPFHjnMqbSzEdQ82ouG1RRX-Wl4a02X/s1600/IMG_2975.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy71YJzXjyMXutfy-WRHHm0AC5Cm4iyZ8cURV1P5cFmm3Cs4xD2oNHGod0UUpLeh6rftamiavIVwQ3wmKy9CHH-xZZuAf_ccf88XXVwp3dzLtMntPFHjnMqbSzEdQ82ouG1RRX-Wl4a02X/s400/IMG_2975.JPG" width="400" height="300" /></a></div><center><small>Market Street in twilight</center></small><br />
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<center>1929 Preston Road • Plano, TX</center><br />
I'm still trying to get back into this whole Albertsons blogging thing (the two year anniversary of the merger is coming up and not much has happened, sadly) so we'll be switching gears. Maybe I should get into the habit of it being on not just AFB's off weeks but weeks where the recycling goes out the next day.<br />
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Our first United Supermarkets store on this blog (Albertsons Florida Blog has it so easy, all they do is cover old Albertsons, the Albertsons-turned-Safeway stores, and <a href="http://albertsonsfloridablog.blogspot.com/2015/05/safeways-florida-experiment-save-and.html">Save and Pack</a>, while we cover Randalls/Tom Thumb, Safeway, Albertsons, AND United), this store is part of the United Division out of Lubbock and despite some streamlining, is still blissfully largely free from the mediocrity that plagues Albertsons and Safeway, it is not independent from it. On one hand, it frees up space that might've been slower-moving product but on the flipside loses competitive advantage and distinctiveness.<br />
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Sadly, no Market Street stores appear to have been built post-Safeway acquisition (at least the DFW area anyway), and they seem more focused on building the Tom Thumb name with a few urban stores ranging from "modest but not very large" to "very small" (former Fresh Market stores), though it does fit Tom Thumb's range anyway.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEOjbREupO0DxWBhvUvaRU0ddKQZY103u3YUnEyyM_Sd0IvjK3ucK8vJaQkjz_hkoVC1Rxt3xa2v0IC_R3OgFfx-yC8edGmAO1p3jkwq-TfVI5ic7qaoWWcsJrDdrf4vGlhTy2Sj78OeL7/s1600/IMG_2976.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEOjbREupO0DxWBhvUvaRU0ddKQZY103u3YUnEyyM_Sd0IvjK3ucK8vJaQkjz_hkoVC1Rxt3xa2v0IC_R3OgFfx-yC8edGmAO1p3jkwq-TfVI5ic7qaoWWcsJrDdrf4vGlhTy2Sj78OeL7/s400/IMG_2976.JPG" width="400" height="300" /></a></div><center><small>Always cool to see multiple logos in the cart collection.</small></center><br />
This really is what Tom Thumb and Randalls are <i>supposed</i> to be like (well, Randalls was moving toward the whole "Wegmans of Texas" thing and I'm confident that in a better timeline, they'd be 100,000+ square feet now). Anyway, I was in town for the State Fair (never been before), and I actually originally wrote most of this (it's been edited to better fit the context for this website) as part of a longer document on what exactly I did there (that document was strictly for my own records and my friends--sorry, it will never be released on the Internet).<br />
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After the somewhat haphazard Dallas roads (like Houston's roads, they tend to have the "never seen a concerted effort in repaving the road in a few decades" appearance), I finally reached the Market Street supermarket. I was intrigued by it as it was owned by United Supermarkets, which was owned by Albertsons, which between its ownership of stores was hit or miss (to put it lightly), and Market Street was definitely a hit.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFCJftkD88I8x3YxA4YhZlBBW1eCk9VQQ8t4vqqEzPYiwhKFbkQH5W4r4NUvUgH3lZ5Xy45diswzqQV9puPszcGd8fFQP8koD5Kvr0U4xPpxy4uzwwsiZYeTnY8NfgyY5FYxamA6II9G_3/s1600/IMG_2979.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFCJftkD88I8x3YxA4YhZlBBW1eCk9VQQ8t4vqqEzPYiwhKFbkQH5W4r4NUvUgH3lZ5Xy45diswzqQV9puPszcGd8fFQP8koD5Kvr0U4xPpxy4uzwwsiZYeTnY8NfgyY5FYxamA6II9G_3/s400/IMG_2979.JPG" width="400" height="300" /></a></div><center><small>Do you like pumpkin spice flavored everything? If so, Market Street is the place for you!</center></small><br />
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It was clearly related to Albertsons and Randalls, but more like their better, more educated cousin. It was well staffed even for a Saturday evening (a common complaint for ALB/SWY stores is a lack of staffing). It didn't feel like a terribly large store, though it was really was one of the larger stores in the chain at <a href="http://www.phillipsedison.com/CMSSiteUtils/Import/PECO_Data/documents/Plano_Market_Street_Plano_TX_Site_Plan.pdf">70,000 leasable square feet</a>. I was happy to see that it was different enough from its contemporaries to make it worth visiting. I passed by two Tom Thumbs to see it, which was refreshing as in at least that part of Dallas, Tom Thumb had a far better hold on Dallas than Randalls does in Houston.<br />
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What it was not was particularly well-visible. Originally, it was a Wal-Mart with a Chick-fil-a and later a Black Eyed Pea in front of the store, but in 2006 it closed, replaced by an <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/stories/2006/03/20/daily21.html">"upscale" Wal-Mart Supercenter prototype</a>. By 2007, it was demolished, and by 2008, Market Street and new stores in the parking lot were under construction. The smaller footprint of Market Street puts it farther back than the old Wal-Mart it replaced. I measured in Google Earth...from the outermost southbound lane of Preston Road to the front entrance of the store, it's almost a quarter mile, though part of this is due to right of way in case they want to build an overpass over West Park Boulevard.<br />
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Like most modern grocery stores, the perishables are clustered to one side of the store, and even though it was a Saturday evening, the sushi bar and the bakery both had samples, and the wine department too. I'm sorry I don't have any pictures of this part, because I wanted to see it in real life (plus not attract attention).<br />
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I grabbed a cart and perused the aisles. For one thing, it downplays the now-common Signature brand, which was a rebranded version of Safeway brand foods (which Albertsons officially rolled out with great fanfare earlier this year). The entire soda department didn't have a store brand in sight, and I was able to pass an entire aisle of soft drinks and others before I finally saw some Signature-branded cranberry grape juice. The other big difference that separated this store from the "mainstream" stores was that the HBA section was huge. It didn't have much in the way of general merchandise, but it had a large supply of hair colorings and even things like beard trimmers and hair dryers.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMWwNAxmM-ekMKI5llt1tlo_aGYjOBSapkfKZ5TNvabYZs7JN7kRAunw-vQ5eoA9_pM-Ic7iodbAPKoRQLsoES9iFhXUJXI-MbxrodaQIq6s4ZdGnZpsiZSOh0ivaIjssBv91wsOTp0Vsc/s1600/IMG_2977.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMWwNAxmM-ekMKI5llt1tlo_aGYjOBSapkfKZ5TNvabYZs7JN7kRAunw-vQ5eoA9_pM-Ic7iodbAPKoRQLsoES9iFhXUJXI-MbxrodaQIq6s4ZdGnZpsiZSOh0ivaIjssBv91wsOTp0Vsc/s400/IMG_2977.JPG" width="400" height="300" /></a></div><center><small>Between the "Healthy Living" and the big HBA section, this part of the store is huge. Most stores lump some dollar-store quality merchandise near their HBA section, but not Market Street!</center></small><br />
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Unfortunately, I had found out through <a href="http://retailwatchers.com/">RetailWatchers</a> that they had recently gone through and excised a lot of the more upscale center-store items that skewed toward the Whole Foods style product mix, but it still felt good like a grocery store was supposed to be, much like a nicer H-E-B sans the warehouse atmosphere and general chaos.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSQ-u7qSj4w75q8hzc4cbSYnBind2yccCcXW-TtXfWDMQLMgd3DPwAF2sjqWj2qeI2yf3ZQ-I7_Hc8M0lnYQWbobP54AzRTeCPCrbWxSo-AzsItZGCx7liFZsL4F6kNqqHqeHvqNSbkDRQ/s1600/IMG_2978.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSQ-u7qSj4w75q8hzc4cbSYnBind2yccCcXW-TtXfWDMQLMgd3DPwAF2sjqWj2qeI2yf3ZQ-I7_Hc8M0lnYQWbobP54AzRTeCPCrbWxSo-AzsItZGCx7liFZsL4F6kNqqHqeHvqNSbkDRQ/s400/IMG_2978.JPG" width="400" height="300" /></a></div><center><small>A fire escape plan/floor plan in plain view.</center></small><br />
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The store also featured the Market Street "Dish" department which was supposed to stock gifts and dinnerware but instead had a strange assortment of Christmas stuff, all of which gave off a weird smell (like how Hobby Lobby smells). <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHK0U02n-SYiGXUVwTrW8lljwRvRMz7_ICJGADuazHYTeY7btoT0KPvUtlxuuoMGUZ-a_EZjJfCfhGHI_ofxuVPXHg5fQyyRTbE2iEXZ_JbYATMS0p33j35KaoYQOBHS5JQtze06JdGq27/s1600/IMG_2980.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHK0U02n-SYiGXUVwTrW8lljwRvRMz7_ICJGADuazHYTeY7btoT0KPvUtlxuuoMGUZ-a_EZjJfCfhGHI_ofxuVPXHg5fQyyRTbE2iEXZ_JbYATMS0p33j35KaoYQOBHS5JQtze06JdGq27/s400/IMG_2980.JPG" width="400" height="300" /></a></div><center><small>Keep in mind that when I took this picture, it wasn't even Halloween yet.</small></center><br />
I ended up buying an expensive bottle of cucumber and mint infused water, something that I would normally never buy, but ended up doing so since I was both thirsty and wanted some vegetables (again, I had gone to the state fair, there was nothing I ate that wasn't mostly saturated fat and/or sugar).<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP4w5qtsC3qJLDhWqbSJYRGqj_j8cQ2M3HMJ_fTBOWrsgTl8K4DhRXgpQ3rgkyceJkR1PHWVPOX8LPFcUhucwGL9FEvq2L_NBvN3c9waQx6XJ4w3HIywpGwVImsprrTuXN7kBgHsN8-j-g/s1600/IMG_2981.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP4w5qtsC3qJLDhWqbSJYRGqj_j8cQ2M3HMJ_fTBOWrsgTl8K4DhRXgpQ3rgkyceJkR1PHWVPOX8LPFcUhucwGL9FEvq2L_NBvN3c9waQx6XJ4w3HIywpGwVImsprrTuXN7kBgHsN8-j-g/s400/IMG_2981.JPG" width="300" height="400" /></a></div><center><small>Turns out other Safeway/Albertsons stores stock this too nowadays.</center></small><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_iN4IHbLxVAAJLOPa0cScEouy6GoMybXMq9Uw5FQSzv_emFTCIth0tbyP8niYziUJKAeQ1fDcitRZL4osM-kFM1F1x0CdSriIUQzlp0TIJjZ0U9Jg5cdmBeAuUVP5Jz7Q7UEQ2mtO82Hr/s1600/IMG_2974.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_iN4IHbLxVAAJLOPa0cScEouy6GoMybXMq9Uw5FQSzv_emFTCIth0tbyP8niYziUJKAeQ1fDcitRZL4osM-kFM1F1x0CdSriIUQzlp0TIJjZ0U9Jg5cdmBeAuUVP5Jz7Q7UEQ2mtO82Hr/s400/IMG_2974.JPG" width="400" height="300" /></a></div><center><small>One more view showing the corner entrance</small></center><br />
So that was Market Street...a refreshing look into one of Albertsons/Safeway's finest banners. The two year anniversary of their merger is coming up tomorrow, and what has happened is a disappointment so far (though not a disaster, by any means!)<br />
Pseudo3Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17848368606946150471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477509977383877228.post-40730161419180917352017-01-15T20:39:00.002-06:002017-01-15T20:43:08.278-06:00Former Albertsons #2773 - Pearland, TX <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXTx9Hyo5OiOZKhIjvFvZ1VXBaj5US5z4iymxiOgEoxP9M5ILrAkE5MRR2ThCsqdpfnPOmGgLc_EQddEoFNig4GaRbLZHjNw9ODxHg0a6sU_hzWfDVsgyeX9d4K407IG2LrtVSW2jWhf_M/s1600/2016-12-05+18_23_14-Bing+Maps+-+Directions%252C+trip+planning%252C+traffic+cameras+%2526+more.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXTx9Hyo5OiOZKhIjvFvZ1VXBaj5US5z4iymxiOgEoxP9M5ILrAkE5MRR2ThCsqdpfnPOmGgLc_EQddEoFNig4GaRbLZHjNw9ODxHg0a6sU_hzWfDVsgyeX9d4K407IG2LrtVSW2jWhf_M/s400/2016-12-05+18_23_14-Bing+Maps+-+Directions%252C+trip+planning%252C+traffic+cameras+%2526+more.png" width="400" height="221" /></a></div><center>7121 West Broadway Street • Pearland, TX</center><br />
A large part of WHY I never ended up posting again was some computer-related issues and some burnout issues, but I'm back, and I'm trying to get stuff in my backlog sent out. The other very large part of why this blog did not become what I wanted it to become is my goal was to get a job in a different city than the one I grew up and went to school in, and that never happened, leading to a mish-mash of whatever I could get. I probably said something like this before, but yes, that is why this blog never worked the way I wanted. I really should post the other stores soon.<br />
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Like <a href="http://safewayalbertsonstexas.blogspot.com/2016/07/former-albertsons-2773-houston-tx.html">2773</a>, this store suffered from a bad location but at first glance, it was supposed to be in a very good location. Exciting things were happening in Pearland, Texas in the early 2000s as a wave of new development was building west of "Old Pearland" closer to 288. There was a Home Depot, a new Kroger, a huge new shopping center, and all manner of new homes. Albertsons must have thought it picked up a pretty sweet spot at Reid and Broadway to build a store and <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/Food+Town+%7C+Broadway/@29.5600814,-95.3330532,638m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x864093c73f91b31b:0x77110b91b431a980!8m2!3d29.561094!4d-95.330135">ride the wave of the future in an expanding suburb</a>. After all a Kroger was to the west, and in addition to being the closest supermarket to Old Pearland, it should be better in the future, right? After all, Reid was going to expand north and maybe even connect with the Beltway (presumably to South Wayside Drive, which still is far from connecting to the rest of the 'hood). Wrong. Today, the center with Food Town seems to be in the middle of nowhere with an overdeveloped shopping center on a stub road to the north and to the south, a side road with some of the same rural homes on it that were there since the 1960s.<br />
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Pleasantly, the store still retains much of what other sites call "Blue & Green Awnings". It was one of the first store decor packages to use warehouse ceilings. The pharmacy is in the front part of the store, on the far left if you were looking at it from the front. You can see that there was once a much larger collection of health & beauty aids (at least I think that sign's from Albertsons, although the image got cut off), and that has been dramatically downscaled (unfortunately, this seems to have happened in "real" Albertsons stores as well). You can also see they kept the circular check-out stands, too.<br />
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Other than that, I got nothing. It was one of four Albertsons Houston stores sold to Grocers Supply Co., which leased them to Food Town. Once again, my camera kind of screws up lighting and contrast making the ceiling look really dark. Don't worry, I'll be upgrading my iPhone soon...<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7lomGrpRPjbHPIn3Y8_VyuDW2SslT7c1hcVvA3YX7Ln_HE14Md98HT0LuUP_q0bDYkDpXX0MyqzNcp_dL3wOFG3VzhpTjnsQUX0zlfB4rb5kp7w9WCoumGAVOC-7hxDMyLW0tk-JZ9Og6/s1600/IMG_3021.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7lomGrpRPjbHPIn3Y8_VyuDW2SslT7c1hcVvA3YX7Ln_HE14Md98HT0LuUP_q0bDYkDpXX0MyqzNcp_dL3wOFG3VzhpTjnsQUX0zlfB4rb5kp7w9WCoumGAVOC-7hxDMyLW0tk-JZ9Og6/s400/IMG_3021.JPG" width="300" height="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhejJHyA_cqg_Oew8KO_OqzZ-kvmpySUc5IbTjSbMfR1cJlTbXQeyOurdLi1r7sQQomOqrQ716uaQNK9yi2KJuutn92GW_0ODpNZv_KPnQcy9khOb1ex6nDXGfF0TEArm6ftJ0e_6a8QRz_/s1600/IMG_3022.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhejJHyA_cqg_Oew8KO_OqzZ-kvmpySUc5IbTjSbMfR1cJlTbXQeyOurdLi1r7sQQomOqrQ716uaQNK9yi2KJuutn92GW_0ODpNZv_KPnQcy9khOb1ex6nDXGfF0TEArm6ftJ0e_6a8QRz_/s400/IMG_3022.JPG" width="400" height="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdhaI-gn1BPgVg-aVCzqawHP-asaM1b9dtdDGmmBynQHVFwA-ubUZPFvj6rESTxCtymHW4_SAmqWwkYb1ZQMjDtv9t3W8WzL4IvKBE8cZIyf4bxxZqceMj8e8iExva8cyjK_LNarjFzLa7/s1600/IMG_3023.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdhaI-gn1BPgVg-aVCzqawHP-asaM1b9dtdDGmmBynQHVFwA-ubUZPFvj6rESTxCtymHW4_SAmqWwkYb1ZQMjDtv9t3W8WzL4IvKBE8cZIyf4bxxZqceMj8e8iExva8cyjK_LNarjFzLa7/s400/IMG_3023.JPG" width="400" height="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8LIsZszwLRSxquiPFyNDp8Tb11fPI5i-j0REaCYPMgZBqM0aFlssce34IbEInRkACq_94WlqdDNl5yJ8rmpRkChCG0ONIiu0XiUHJ50W52l6E9iFk3gC8Yhd1-Bt7uamLmfjaC298O092/s1600/IMG_3024.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8LIsZszwLRSxquiPFyNDp8Tb11fPI5i-j0REaCYPMgZBqM0aFlssce34IbEInRkACq_94WlqdDNl5yJ8rmpRkChCG0ONIiu0XiUHJ50W52l6E9iFk3gC8Yhd1-Bt7uamLmfjaC298O092/s400/IMG_3024.JPG" width="400" height="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGQvVRy7mUEcLzA3qT8_ZvpA_5nhyphenhyphenyzg1SHuXcne5X-1KPsH8NhTfkyqosXbAVvlxGIQ-H3UogvJO3hzKTe6AljkO6uKOyKFRnqf7Ij5ndlZwkpZuZ4QDPLe4wIuVneJPA7oNke0bhWfnB/s1600/IMG_3025.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGQvVRy7mUEcLzA3qT8_ZvpA_5nhyphenhyphenyzg1SHuXcne5X-1KPsH8NhTfkyqosXbAVvlxGIQ-H3UogvJO3hzKTe6AljkO6uKOyKFRnqf7Ij5ndlZwkpZuZ4QDPLe4wIuVneJPA7oNke0bhWfnB/s400/IMG_3025.JPG" width="400" height="300" /></a></div></div><br />
With that said, the question remains--will I get back to posting semi-regularly? Hopefully! Today happens to be the day that it's AFB's off week (which was my intention), and contrary to popular belief, I do have some partially finished posts that I am eager to show off. I'll try to get it at the Sunday two weeks from now.<br />
Pseudo3Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17848368606946150471noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477509977383877228.post-3440461497535721252016-09-04T15:01:00.000-05:002016-11-06T19:10:05.783-06:00Former Randalls #1013 - Houston, TX<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihDasK7SpaJIA8C5XEHqXsBINq9yIXSOSf7_i5VkOUaT7JI_4P45_MdMVbXWEhTGZFfG84QBKPSdrITpWATzeYqBblSG3ryY-UOftWYJhM9zzALkdw-70dRIH9bq1waCvnQTM7CYagz5jf/s1600/Randalls_Flagship.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihDasK7SpaJIA8C5XEHqXsBINq9yIXSOSf7_i5VkOUaT7JI_4P45_MdMVbXWEhTGZFfG84QBKPSdrITpWATzeYqBblSG3ryY-UOftWYJhM9zzALkdw-70dRIH9bq1waCvnQTM7CYagz5jf/s400/Randalls_Flagship.png" width="400" height="215" /></a></div><center>1407 Voss Road • Houston, TX</center><br />
Built in 1973 (according to HCAD), this store has a somewhat long and storied history, but not always as a Randalls. This was built as one of the earlier Handy Andy stores in Houston. Based out of San Antonio, the grocer was a far cry from the dying small-town grocery store purchased by <a href="http://www.mysanantonio.com/business/article/Handy-Andy-s-6-area-stores-change-hands-4030796.php">Arlan's Market in late 2012</a>.<br />
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Back in the early 1970s, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=yi0EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA156&lpg=PA156&dq=texas+monthly+%22handy+andy%22&source=bl&ots=bXh9U0L_4O&sig=F3MgwABC7YsaBH_2rGTspJINmwg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiDuOO68fXOAhUCPCYKHU5RBScQ6AEIQDAF#v=onepage&q=texas%20monthly%20%22handy%20andy%22&f=false">Handy Andy ruled the San Antonio grocery market, with gourmet foods, including European meats and cheeses</a> and far more modern than H-E-B was (given the grocery market in San Antonio today, this may considered ultimately a tragedy), and tragedy it was as even though Handy Andy grew in the Houston market to upwards of nine stores (not just four as previously found), H-E-B engaged in a vicious price war that destroyed Handy Andy.<br />
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In 1979, Handy Andy pulled out of Houston and its stores closed, despite being fairly modern with cookware departments and full-service deli departments <a href="http://www.houstonarchitecture.com/haif/topic/35451-handy-andy-in-houston/#comment-539395">at a time when many did not</a>. Handy Andy would file for bankruptcy in 1981 and its stores never again a serious threat.<br />
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In 1980, Randall's purchase four stores of the chain (considered the best), including this one (it became store #13, becoming 1013 only after the Safeway purchase). In 1985, Randalls decided to renovate and expand the store into a new concept, the Randalls Flagship, expanding the lower level of the store by 15,000 square feet to a total of 45,000 square feet (the store also included an upper level to make <a href="http://www.hcad.org/records/details.asp?crypt=%94%9A%B0%94%BFg%85%8D%84%7Blf%8El%87tXtYW%9E%99%A2%D3%89%95%C2e%7CU%8A%7D%86%C0%AB%A8%AD%86%5E&bld=1&tab=2">56,000 square feet</a>). The new store, which debuted in November 1985, featured fresh-made pasta, a French bakery, an expanded seafood and meat counter, a salad bar, and a 24-hour full-service restaurant called The Flagship serving items like eggs Benedict and grilled snapper. The merchandise mix featured most of what could be found in a traditional supermarket (including air conditioning filters) but it also included a wide range of magazines including <i>The Robb Report</i> and computer magazines (almost certainly <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byte_(magazine)#Growth_and_change">Byte</a></i>), televisions, orchids, expensive perfumes, and live rainbow trout.<br />
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Of course, nothing lasts forever, and while the store did last another quarter century, the store went down with the chain as Safeway took over the chain and slowly altered the chain so it resembled just another Safeway. By mid-2013, there weren't a whole lot of nice things to say about <a href="http://swamplot.com/will-the-voss-rd-randalls-close/2013-05-13/">the dying store</a>. It was not remodeled and what was once renowned for being the best grocery store in Houston area was to be demolished, with rumors of the chain's demise swirling and getting stronger.<br />
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Today, a Whole Foods Market stands in the spot, and in many ways, represents the store that Randalls could've been. You can have an awesome sandwich made for not a whole lot more than what Subway would charge (but made with superior ingredients), drink a glass of wine after work, and peruse the bright and airy stores for WFM-approved foodstuffs (no Diet Coke or Oreos).<br />
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My references for most of this article will be posted soon (possibly as a bonus), but in the meantime feel free to comment on this.<br />
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Pseudo3Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17848368606946150471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477509977383877228.post-53650498235351224202016-08-21T20:55:00.000-05:002016-08-21T20:55:09.939-05:00Former Albertsons #4021 - Victoria, TX<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4YafS5XL06qNSR_iUuIeY4K7wWHJrO5RSGewZXuFpG5_sr4ODRg7tt-FkUun9_LqXk1bLemslfpxGr78v_Hpb2m4EoP0vTBO9xHCMRulyPTDADA_ZBPvcwFI0eIukl_UgDwXde0jMqoz1/s1600/IMG_2883.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4YafS5XL06qNSR_iUuIeY4K7wWHJrO5RSGewZXuFpG5_sr4ODRg7tt-FkUun9_LqXk1bLemslfpxGr78v_Hpb2m4EoP0vTBO9xHCMRulyPTDADA_ZBPvcwFI0eIukl_UgDwXde0jMqoz1/s400/IMG_2883.JPG" width="400" height="300" /></a></div><center>1309 East Red River Street • Victoria, TX</center><br />
We've done so many old Albertsons stores in Houston, how about something different for a change?<br />
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About a month or so ago I went to Victoria (for a job interview, which I didn't get to much disappointment) and while I was there, I sought out their only dead Albertsons. Victoria is an hour or so southwest of Houston (directly off of 59) and it was part of the San Antonio division (not the Houston division), which had stores from Austin to the Mexican border.<br />
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The Victoria store closed as part of a 2002 bloodbath that ended the Houston division, the San Antonio division, and generally Albertsons' shot at becoming a coast-to-coast retailer with the Albertsons flag flying from SoCal to Florida, from Seattle to Philadelphia, although if you wanted to be pedantic, it closed later that year. This <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/stories/2002/04/01/daily12.html">article</a> notes that Kerrville, Victoria, and New Braunfels were the lone (non-Austin) San Antonio remnants that weren't closed with the 20 in San Antonio and the stores in South Texas, and that did hold true—the New Braunfels and Kerrville stores were sold to H-E-B in 2011 with a College Station store.<br />
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I am not sure if Albertsons in Victoria opened as a Skaggs Albertsons or not <a href="http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=861&dat=20021002&id=6BdZAAAAIBAJ&sjid=eEYNAAAAIBAJ&pg=4818,153269&hl=en">when it opened in 1977</a>, the same year as the partnership dissolved, but if it did it was a very short time and if it didn't, it sure maintains the exact same model. Stopping in around noon it was not the best part of town but the old Albertsons looked well-maintained for a building shuttered over a decade ago, but upon further examination, the building had been gutted for offices, which was strange because there was no signage on the building at all (not even a number) regarding that. I'm glad no one was there, otherwise it would've raised some questions why I was on the property taking pictures. Note the side entrance (reduced for office use) that was common to Skaggs Albertsons model stores. I have no idea what they were used for specifically. The Florida ones used it for liquor if I recall correctly, and like Texas, distilled spirits are not sold in stores. Unlike Florida, I have determined that publicly traded companies couldn't have liquor stores (explaining why Albertsons had no liquor stores at its peak). Maybe it was for the HBC side.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjff-BhScQyDURLgxDwSIIwUBU6a6YJExXkfLJE0BRS4srfXrKV6fgoSOLSjXT-Kq6v21ccIq0bf9Uc-i4M2vEA2rhSHhClFA9SdlJ66xwFeqSYfTzlZSggK4czm8hJm4fok2cwn6XNc070/s1600/IMG_2882.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjff-BhScQyDURLgxDwSIIwUBU6a6YJExXkfLJE0BRS4srfXrKV6fgoSOLSjXT-Kq6v21ccIq0bf9Uc-i4M2vEA2rhSHhClFA9SdlJ66xwFeqSYfTzlZSggK4czm8hJm4fok2cwn6XNc070/s400/IMG_2882.JPG" width="400" height="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqjwpqPPDYnPws3CBkflJs9czfxcYFsTb5AXHS8XTzRXw2fK0PK5vZ9aguR_jaNidRyUaegJoBT4-pV3KfBQ4BVlJkS-94AX8wRAUpJVxuvlb5N59xyV7437i54yXJNqOOlV7dWIGeAPdO/s1600/IMG_2884.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqjwpqPPDYnPws3CBkflJs9czfxcYFsTb5AXHS8XTzRXw2fK0PK5vZ9aguR_jaNidRyUaegJoBT4-pV3KfBQ4BVlJkS-94AX8wRAUpJVxuvlb5N59xyV7437i54yXJNqOOlV7dWIGeAPdO/s400/IMG_2884.JPG" width="400" height="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1mIGa8eB0p2_C5AMwvm7E0iTQGQy1qXTqBDl6Dns22IJabzGUs3iqzuDZCpEgtW1Cgm4nkahL62zfD6joI0_35wiC7sJkZMnzNkPJeLtmyyV9M0KbZOnhzoYJ2DfyNuBJHE4HSnom_zUV/s1600/IMG_2885.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1mIGa8eB0p2_C5AMwvm7E0iTQGQy1qXTqBDl6Dns22IJabzGUs3iqzuDZCpEgtW1Cgm4nkahL62zfD6joI0_35wiC7sJkZMnzNkPJeLtmyyV9M0KbZOnhzoYJ2DfyNuBJHE4HSnom_zUV/s400/IMG_2885.JPG" width="400" height="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPPqQOaY38aV4bWskjSPXYo0kwTpnr-PbN_rWDSjjPuNP3prIY6G1eBJ42u3DC0JBIPyuDz_Msg5NOg-K3GrYK2pL9awIqjpBUJVtmFt-FhybZiTOijiwEkTgHd_hvVKzEqXc_6d2zoAnz/s1600/IMG_2886.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPPqQOaY38aV4bWskjSPXYo0kwTpnr-PbN_rWDSjjPuNP3prIY6G1eBJ42u3DC0JBIPyuDz_Msg5NOg-K3GrYK2pL9awIqjpBUJVtmFt-FhybZiTOijiwEkTgHd_hvVKzEqXc_6d2zoAnz/s400/IMG_2886.JPG" width="400" height="300" /></a></div><br />
One more thing for you: Victoria also has a relatively untouched (exterior-wise) Kroger Family Center! This closed in 1986 but spent the next 7 years as three different brands (see my post on <a href="http://www.groceteria.com/board/viewtopic.php?f=14&p=20278&sid=73c209217b2054329c0e91230b8b9720#p20278">Groceteria</a>).<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHrrOqh98y_ADzqeJD9asScvYElJkbT1d9x0oey7LnCItUNWRV0bfckCb5e1sBbPNviS-rV6wQtCGnMmX8MWSdv3W0d0vijIIE6LTZFma522ueCEfKcjiCvH2wpfePOxbq5dA9c9VCJiEu/s1600/IMG_2881.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHrrOqh98y_ADzqeJD9asScvYElJkbT1d9x0oey7LnCItUNWRV0bfckCb5e1sBbPNviS-rV6wQtCGnMmX8MWSdv3W0d0vijIIE6LTZFma522ueCEfKcjiCvH2wpfePOxbq5dA9c9VCJiEu/s400/IMG_2881.JPG" width="400" height="300" /></a></div>Pseudo3Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17848368606946150471noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477509977383877228.post-16605447296397076542016-08-08T08:01:00.001-05:002016-08-08T08:01:44.479-05:00Former Albertsons #2766 - Houston, TX<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlRMaD9DVZEqRBucFU1abjyniS1gWpmqtMaM-s5XRt1vSj_Trw28FN9jwRB44-a9uJr51ClK9WUxpLKtMmHdTFLc4A_iCIP2YDRFFH1PixXHIXBus2V_PAe7j5xE3Ep9jKskYTqy38izVO/s1600/IMG_2871.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlRMaD9DVZEqRBucFU1abjyniS1gWpmqtMaM-s5XRt1vSj_Trw28FN9jwRB44-a9uJr51ClK9WUxpLKtMmHdTFLc4A_iCIP2YDRFFH1PixXHIXBus2V_PAe7j5xE3Ep9jKskYTqy38izVO/s400/IMG_2871.JPG" width="400" height="300" /></a></div><br />
<center>9125 West Sam Houston Parkway North • Houston, TX</center><br />
Apologies for not getting this out on Sunday, but I'd like to share with you another former Houston Albertsons. One of the more popular posts on Albertsons Florida Blog (which is this blog's main inspiration) is <a href="http://albertsonsfloridablog.blogspot.com/2014/06/former-albertsons-4466-port-st-lucie-fl.html">their look at #4466</a>, the Port St. Lucie Albertsons, which closed in 2012 despite a recently renewed lease and supposed profitability (it's possible that it did well right before the recession, where the PSL area was hit heavily with foreclosures). Well, PSL did have a twin store (more like a multiple birth), 2766. Unlike 4466, which was mauled for a Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market, 2766 closed a decade prior and is now a Kroger, which kept the store intact. <br />
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Despite being updated with the same Kroger décor I've seen everywhere else (don't know the name), it still holds remarkably true to the 4466 layout. It has the same ceiling style and bore enough of a resemblance that I was able to look at the map with my phone and more or less follow it through. I could probably look at the pictures in AFB and visualize the "Theme Park" décor being in this store. The Starbucks was in the same place, the deli and meats were in the same place, and while the center store probably saw a rearrangement at some point, there were a few notable changes in the front. The old camera center had been converted to offices with the pet supply area converted to HBA, with the pharmacy next to it (it also added a walk-up pharmacy), and a bank space as well (this may have been part of the original layout), as well as a few other changes. The area around the florist was downsized (didn't see evidence of the former laundromat), as the customer service desk was moved either next to the restrooms or in front of the "Albertsons Reading Center" area. Assuming this store opened in 2000, it spent just about two years as an Albertsons before being sold to Kroger.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqtupgZjSxgZHc-vmlebIBjKBr6dv3KlqxYgxHirjcKGf1ww-53HN12et3nQPrisNSzHmdyQPlspwb9wFdm0ZXN4rzKZ6KupuQIoNYzlGH2w503Y2cdRbruHW0P9-9KA1KG3NImMUPftLs/s1600/IMG_2873.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqtupgZjSxgZHc-vmlebIBjKBr6dv3KlqxYgxHirjcKGf1ww-53HN12et3nQPrisNSzHmdyQPlspwb9wFdm0ZXN4rzKZ6KupuQIoNYzlGH2w503Y2cdRbruHW0P9-9KA1KG3NImMUPftLs/s400/IMG_2873.JPG" width="400" height="300" /></a></div><br />
This part of town is very Kroger-concentrated due to their Albertsons purchases. Just two miles west on West Road is another Kroger (a Kroger Signature built around the turn of the millennium), and at that point, it's where you can find four Kroger stores within a three mile radius, two of which were former Albertsons (the other, of course, is <a href="https://safewayalbertsonstexas.blogspot.com/2015/04/lets-go-krogering-at-former-houston.html">2790</a>). This store replaced another Kroger store (at least functionally, I'm pretty sure there were a few years when both were open) 2 miles south (a former AppleTree) which had managed to co-exist with another Kroger store (closed around 2009) located a mile and a half southeast from that (also 290). Incredible!<br />
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I didn't get a lot of pictures of the store, unfortunately, but the former Albertsons Express is still in business as Kroger's "Kwik Shop", which is run by their convenience store division (a full Kroger-run and Kroger-branded convenience store was opened in College Station in 2016, and that made industry headlines).<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXyLq4_-jkf8HNtYDdlw6eHcnz1VgWvhB5mfrJ_aYPDwor3JxuFe8gPmIg_Vo2ByDQe1qZU-tLk4wZCh8JLaMXAkbalP2ho0yGoJhdpaOM8-knM8yDmFNZEO7tZ8__4Li84fA419YEgVPI/s1600/IMG_2874.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXyLq4_-jkf8HNtYDdlw6eHcnz1VgWvhB5mfrJ_aYPDwor3JxuFe8gPmIg_Vo2ByDQe1qZU-tLk4wZCh8JLaMXAkbalP2ho0yGoJhdpaOM8-knM8yDmFNZEO7tZ8__4Li84fA419YEgVPI/s400/IMG_2874.JPG" width="400" height="300" /></a></div>Pseudo3Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17848368606946150471noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477509977383877228.post-678109372618557112016-07-24T11:57:00.002-05:002016-07-25T09:39:11.869-05:00Former Albertsons #2773 - Houston, TX<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy-NoOa7j8KhFfnqDwUToO-t901N1tRRmdXQ9OrS5vFZpMmgTcUzzgAzo7QhSu7vKOvpx9PX8nC1wXhYe4cx7GQnsoDz7WSl7DRjmStqtReSyBeHFkynxgActuxx4ZWsYDPz8jRiHUyFnv/s1600/Screen+shot+2016-07-24+at+11.43.04+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy-NoOa7j8KhFfnqDwUToO-t901N1tRRmdXQ9OrS5vFZpMmgTcUzzgAzo7QhSu7vKOvpx9PX8nC1wXhYe4cx7GQnsoDz7WSl7DRjmStqtReSyBeHFkynxgActuxx4ZWsYDPz8jRiHUyFnv/s400/Screen+shot+2016-07-24+at+11.43.04+AM.png" width="400" height="281" /></a></div><center><small>Once again, we're forced to use Bing. I tried to get a good picture of this store except a combination of dangerous traffic patterns and the whole thing being fenced in have forced me to do differently.</center></small><br />
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<center>1770 East T.C. Jester Pkwy.• Houston, TX</center><br />
While <a href="http://acmestyleblog.blogspot.com/">Acme Style</a> and <a href="http://albertsonsfloridablog.blogspot.com/">Albertsons Florida Blog</a> are off for vacation, I have returned. Why did we go offline in the first place? Well, only a few know the real answer.<br />
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In any case, we're back and back with stuff I had been working on prior to the hiatus. As part of a site "renovation", a few posts were culled until I can revive them somehow (a few other posts still remain to be reworked), and once again, we're working off of the dead Houston division, though rest assured—a new post on a San Antonio division store (South Texas) is coming soon, as well as another Bonus Store coming soon. The Houston division was one of the very first markets Albertsons pulled out of post-ASC and for good reason. There were, of course, a number of problems.<br />
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• Competition, for starters. From the time Albertsons entered to when they left, the Houston market was highly fragmented. In addition to Whole Foods (which had a few locations), supercenters (Wal-Mart Supercenter, Auchan, Super Kmart, although the latter two disappeared shortly after the departure of Albertsons), and independents hanging around (even AppleTree, the Safeway Houston division spin-off, still hung around with a few stores until 1997), there were the big guys. Randalls, of course, was #1 until 1999, and by 2002 they were losing a lot of ground under Safeway but still very much a threat. Kroger was building new "Signature" stores and unseated Randalls for #1, and they would keep that seat solidly (thanks to the acquisition of many Albertsons stores) until around 2013 when H-E-B caught up (today they bounce between #1 and #2), Rice Epicurean (a long-standing traditional Houston grocer that reinvented itself as a more upmarket store, though today it's down to a single location), and of course, the ever-growing threat of H-E-B, which by the time Albertsons left was beginning to upgrade its small "H-E-B Pantry" fleet into full-line full-featured stores.<br />
• The expansion was part of a major store-build push in the 1990s that included the Southern United States as their main target. Albertsons was reaching a point where they almost (or perhaps did) have stores stretching across the I-10 corridor from California to Florida. To cap off their expansion, they bought American Stores, though that came at a heavy cost, namely rebranding Lucky to Albertsons (the Lucky stores would compose a third of the Albertsons store base in early 2000), which didn't go over so well.<br />
• An inherently flawed plan that involved forcing their way into a crowded market where they would spend enormous resources for a market share.<br />
• The weak economy (September 11th, Enron scandal, soft 2001 economy in general), though Albertsons denied this when they pulled out.<br />
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Above all, another major problem was building full-size stores in unproven locations. H-E-B Pantry did that to some extent but it was okay since their stores had little to no service departments and could shutter stores at little cost to the company. The closest analogue to H-E-B Pantry stores today would be Aldi, which had not entered the market at the time, and even that's not a great comparison, since Aldi doesn't sell a lot of name brands nor has a "real" supermarket elsewhere.<br />
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Make no bones about it, the Westheimer and Voss location as previously covered really was a good location...high traffic count, high population, and great access but failed due to the whole market situation and never became another supermarket again because everyone else had their own stores.<br />
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The East T.C. Jester store, not so much. This specimen and a few other stores in the area are especially perplexing, as things like this just seemed to suggest a "just throw them anywhere" attitude involving the Houston division, and that's not just speculative thinking...I've been told by someone who worked as a merchandiser for Frito-Lay that traffic count was not one of the things Albertsons looked at (some managers also had this particularly bizarre-like obsession with paperwork at the exact same time and signed by the right people, hearing him describe it brought to mind the film <i>Brazil</i>). This isn't a good thing if you're building large stores with full-service bakery, seafood, and deli departments.<br />
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The most immediate problem of this store (which originally had a larger parking lot, removed for a water retention pond) is that its access is very limited. Today, it only has one customer entrance in and out, but while the original design did include a few more entrances, it still had substantial access problems. There were a few other access portals on the side streets for trucks, but the surrounding roads are narrow and those don't do any favors for loading docks. I once spent several minutes stopped at one of the nearby roads for a truck to wriggle itself into a company that delivered flowers to florists.<br />
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I've spent a bit of time around this intersection and trying to navigate the area, and even getting into the former Albertsons driveway from the north was a pretty difficult experience. The building is certainly visible, but when you're trying to navigate the four way stops and then trying to make another left turn, it's easy to miss.<br />
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Compounding this access difficulty is the absence of traffic counts. I've been told that the road was extended circa 1999 as part of the deal of Albertsons coming. So you've got a dubious location to begin with, which is never good. The other things that tend to screw over individual locations are competition and demographics.<br />
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First, let's look at the immediate competition when this store was still alive.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghyphenhyphenhDqOzMg5oAYusMxvDnwOijTRw001QnieuDJSHQoTkWfEm1RILbWAi1LdHCpxBbBcNMbshv3RF_27VDZmb2ODCxzIA9a6QiIPYXK-0R-kwuPxUoS2TCY2BeWhnlHtPrOIopP20Pw9u2K/s1600/Screen+shot+2016-01-15+at+9.28.55+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghyphenhyphenhDqOzMg5oAYusMxvDnwOijTRw001QnieuDJSHQoTkWfEm1RILbWAi1LdHCpxBbBcNMbshv3RF_27VDZmb2ODCxzIA9a6QiIPYXK-0R-kwuPxUoS2TCY2BeWhnlHtPrOIopP20Pw9u2K/s400/Screen+shot+2016-01-15+at+9.28.55+PM.png" /></a></div><br />
Like the <a href="http://safewayalbertsonstexas.blogspot.com/2014/10/albertsons-bryan-uc.html">Bryan Albertsons</a>, being the big dog in terms of being nice and big doesn't guarantee you success. Neither Foodarama (formerly an AppleTree/Safeway) or H-E-B (former Pantry, which we had covered <a href="http://safewayalbertsonstexas.blogspot.com/2015/02/bonus-store-littlest-h-e-b.html">here</a>) are big stores but both draw a reasonable crowd for what they had. Generally, they were less expensive than Albertsons at this point, as well. To the southeast was (and is) a large Kroger, benefiting from the heavy crowds of Shepherd Drive, a four-lane, one-way road (the southbound traffic, Durham, goes behind Kroger). To the east was another Kroger, nestled in the Greater Heights area.<br />
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You'll also notice a large building with a dark roof at the northeast corner of the picture. This was a Kmart that opened in the 1970s and probably did okay (at least initially) because it was a Kmart. It closed in 2002 because it wasn't making a profit, and I believe it...I passed it by in 2011 for the first time and was astounded that a Kmart even existed in such a desolate location. Like the Albertsons, it didn't reopen as major retail, ending up becoming a dance studio and a wholesale store for the restaurant industry.<br />
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Both the H-E-B and Foodarama had better access and although they tend to draw a rather scruffy crowd (even in 2015), they at least seem moderately popular and have far better access. The Foodarama had been originally built as a Safeway and had been a Foodarama since 1994 when it took over the AppleTree that was there. The H-E-B had been built a few years prior but it replaced a legacy of grocery stores that dated back to the 1980s. <br />
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Furthermore, while it was true that the main Heights area was starting to gentrify at this time, the Heights had previously been a really bad area in the 1980s and building a giant supermarket in a neighborhood just starting to get on its feet isn't the best plan. The smarter move would've been to buy the land then build once demographics are favorable, but that wouldn't have worked if traffic counts are unknown and the city wants you to build. Even if the traffic counts weren't an issue, it was separated from the stores and neighborhoods west of the bayou and too far from the stores and neighborhoods east of it. In other words, this store was in the middle of nowhere.<br />
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Reality is this store wasn't open for much longer than two years. It quietly closed in February 2002 along with the Tidwell/Antoine store (another terrible, terrible location) and was never picked up by another supermarket. H-E-B could've picked it up like they did a few other Albertsons stores to upgrade Pantry locations, but they didn't.<br />
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Not all of the Houston stores were bad, far from it. There were some very nice locations that probably fetched the struggling Albertsons chain some cash as they were sold to other operators like Kroger or H-E-B. But combined with the problems that Albertsons was facing with some bad locations like this one doomed the entire division, one they wouldn't return to until 2015 when they bought Safeway, bringing the Randalls stores back, which is longer than the gap between Safeway spinning off their old Houston division and purchasing Randalls...and Randalls has problems of its own.<br />
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After it closed, a large part of the parking lot was removed for a retention pond (likely to prevent flooding) and it became a self storage facility called Heights Self Storage. In spring 2016, this changed to LifeStorage.Pseudo3Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17848368606946150471noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477509977383877228.post-25576959442085342142016-02-24T20:04:00.000-06:002016-08-10T10:10:15.996-05:00Former Albertsons #2701 - College Station, TX<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2BfQCZAe-ppqs8N07qjBvHZtopco93N6-xoGiFxPSfMkfb_7x1F1jU3HNvdl0oNXWTDJFAnWeOC9ZkoRZp1Xz7W-sq61DorptcWZMxWHkYENdUoeU4RdxjmR5fzhLaGEj0i3uHM0YPXY/s1600/P1120091.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2BfQCZAe-ppqs8N07qjBvHZtopco93N6-xoGiFxPSfMkfb_7x1F1jU3HNvdl0oNXWTDJFAnWeOC9ZkoRZp1Xz7W-sq61DorptcWZMxWHkYENdUoeU4RdxjmR5fzhLaGEj0i3uHM0YPXY/s400/P1120091.JPG" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5561678187758513058" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
<center><small>January 2011. The Albertsons had been closed for about 13 years by this point.</small></center><center>301 S. College Avenue • College Station, TX</center>I originally covered this subject back in 2011 on my other blog, <a href="http://csroadsandretail.blogspot.com/2013/08/skaggs-albertsons-skaggs-alpha-beta.html">Brazos Buildings & Businesses</a>. This store is a little bit weird. It was #2701, the "first" in the Houston division...though it actually opened in 1992 as an Albertsons after #2702 opened in 1991. It was also #2797. And yet, it was not. Read on.<br />
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For those that don't know, this began as a store called "Skaggs Albertsons". One of the more interesting partnerships in supermarket history, Skaggs Drug Centers ran a highly successful group of drug stores. It was only natural that they would team up with a respected (but regional) name to create a chain of large food and drug combos when such a thing was more of a novelty than something expected, and Skaggs Albertsons was born.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn26F2JbSlimWMfldtTpUPOD5IjTj7DTNZep0OdQyb-SU4cYhseT_v-KK73wbvpXvohduCR6_iDQthZWpcRPSO7bVc14YepYDSlDoL1APXGs6ueomP-ufdFdvk-Br4SsilRnMf6JQxeW8_/s1600/10668450_10203956248778996_313493990_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn26F2JbSlimWMfldtTpUPOD5IjTj7DTNZep0OdQyb-SU4cYhseT_v-KK73wbvpXvohduCR6_iDQthZWpcRPSO7bVc14YepYDSlDoL1APXGs6ueomP-ufdFdvk-Br4SsilRnMf6JQxeW8_/s400/10668450_10203956248778996_313493990_n.jpg" /></a></div><center><small>Courtesy John Ellisor</center></small><br />
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The store opened in <a href="http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/85483692/">July 1971</a> and remained through the years with minimal exterior changes except in the front facade (the side entrance would remain the same, though it was eventually sealed). In the late 1970s, Skaggs and Albertsons split ways, and while Albertsons would rebrand their stores in other markets (San Antonio, Florida, and a few others), Skaggs would keep theirs. A few stores briefly got rebranded to Skaggs SuperCenters, but this store was spared and in November 1979, a full page advertisement in the paper announced that the store would be changing to Skaggs-Alpha Beta, facilitated by buying the Alpha Beta name with purchasing the American Stores grocery chain that same year (it would also change the corporate name to American Stores).<br />
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The new "American Stores" company continued to manage this store until it rebranded it as Jewel-Osco in 1991 (giving it a minor renovation in the process). Shortly after, American Stores sold the remaining Jewel-Osco stores in Florida (these were new-builds), Texas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma to Albertsons, as well as a dry goods distribution center in Oklahoma. <br />
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It was soon closed and reopened as an Albertsons, giving it another remodel, the "Blue & Gray Market" as <a href="http://albertsonsfloridablog.blogspot.com/">Albertsons Florida Blog</a> calls it. I don't know what the original store number under Albertsons was, as it was opened after 2702 and renumbered as part of the Houston division later in the 1990s.<br />
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And so from about 1992 to 1997, Albertsons managed a store on the corner of College and University. <a href="http://csroadsandretail.blogspot.com/2010/06/randallsalbertsons.html">However, Randalls, an upscale supermarket further down University, sold its store to Albertsons</a>, causing the small supermarket to quickly be abandoned (it closed in November 1997, according to sources I've heard), and it continued stand for nearly another 15 years, longer than it had been any name. Amazingly, something almost happened that would've prevented that fate.<br />
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Albertsons must have had second thoughts about closing down the store, as the store had been popular (24 hours!) despite its obvious age, so in May 2000, they filed plans with the city to re-open the store as Albertsons #2797. This time, the Albertsons would gain a fancy "Albertsons University Market" branding and come complete with a Starbucks and "J.A.'s Kitchen", a deli concept (JA stood for Joe Albertson) that Albertsons played around with for a short while in smaller stores (from what I can tell, it was just the regular deli usually placed in smaller stores or drug sores).<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl6XD6wwY1S29i_HvtELJcapgMVnvll7LtmBZq-ZkiavaktJBNIbDeHDOY4bbKCE9J0SOFnjOeXvuLCp1Ts3fvFdBEPkLd-2qdVaaPcnzoifo2M3O2NTHTo3J4-jCv4twFXB9ihh855T5R/s1600/Diagrams1a+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl6XD6wwY1S29i_HvtELJcapgMVnvll7LtmBZq-ZkiavaktJBNIbDeHDOY4bbKCE9J0SOFnjOeXvuLCp1Ts3fvFdBEPkLd-2qdVaaPcnzoifo2M3O2NTHTo3J4-jCv4twFXB9ihh855T5R/s400/Diagrams1a+copy.jpg" /></a></div>This never got off the ground, obviously, and it remained vacant for over the next decade, despite <a href="http://www.cstx.gov/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=2660">some plans tossed around</a> for redevelopment. Of course, a vacant building won't last forever, and in 2012, it finally began to come down, with demolition halting for months but continuing about a year later. The north wall stood for a long time, revealing that there was a second floor holding offices. While the demolition was intended for redevelopment, it and about half of the remaining shopping center just ended up becoming a field for a nearby apartment complex located behind the strip center.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEincaX6EBnxUyTagNvPJrkPepiHwyLtOUIp3bdIaK9CkqZB6uxcYhsI21pldnzifRsUk8fODzcji600l6k0YPgac5lYOds9pUj9lnQX-j4z-I9NicLgy9CLw_od28cTkyGn-Y_6YDi_tXDF/s1600/Screen+shot+2014-12-03+at+4.11.28+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEincaX6EBnxUyTagNvPJrkPepiHwyLtOUIp3bdIaK9CkqZB6uxcYhsI21pldnzifRsUk8fODzcji600l6k0YPgac5lYOds9pUj9lnQX-j4z-I9NicLgy9CLw_od28cTkyGn-Y_6YDi_tXDF/s400/Screen+shot+2014-12-03+at+4.11.28+PM.png" /></a></div><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTpJME86zdPmzYpouZmEZX9EB4O496K-nGZRithARSOImw4kB8HukTMeQYQwL_kuyGEkmpcNKUqC4XBjJ60jbmvdK1pM_IBTQiW9gz9s4e4vKkvCUYFUj6BPTp8iGlwijE7vzQRKG4iX8/s1600/Screen+shot+2011-12-14+at+4.15.52+PM.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTpJME86zdPmzYpouZmEZX9EB4O496K-nGZRithARSOImw4kB8HukTMeQYQwL_kuyGEkmpcNKUqC4XBjJ60jbmvdK1pM_IBTQiW9gz9s4e4vKkvCUYFUj6BPTp8iGlwijE7vzQRKG4iX8/s400/Screen+shot+2011-12-14+at+4.15.52+PM.png" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5686111449511945170" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 225px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
<center><small>An ad from the brief Jewel-Osco days. Note the "Special Supplement to The Eagle" to the left.</small></center><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1NqPuyOUseDRmyCdsxNquVFfrcWpqVJAUGWgYifxb-zDCuZTEdwQoNmR2M01tmLe2GPz93qrr-yH5VSydHteigxTE2Fe4AEJ743TWFprPmC6kY12kcWoLtZaOTlEVs5PIMX0YJke8hjM/s1600/Screen+shot+2011-12-14+at+4.20.32+PM.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1NqPuyOUseDRmyCdsxNquVFfrcWpqVJAUGWgYifxb-zDCuZTEdwQoNmR2M01tmLe2GPz93qrr-yH5VSydHteigxTE2Fe4AEJ743TWFprPmC6kY12kcWoLtZaOTlEVs5PIMX0YJke8hjM/s400/Screen+shot+2011-12-14+at+4.20.32+PM.png" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5686112620468279298" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 164px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 196px;" /></a><br />
<center><small>There's even a shot of a Sunny Delight bottle as I remember it, before they changed it to "Sunny D" (and later "SunnyD"). Tangy Original was called "Florida Style" and "Smooth" was "California Style".</small></center><br />
Other shots, taken January 2011...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIrDF9T8Y4H0rWFp422lTfnOqTTV-p9yqwO-rv14uDC6iqio4kUu24vFoP2_scbxLqiRaAWWlNjPRkjcLFwpKwrxdB2T7Zwq1eMFpSK5JMOOQsIl5zlqvaVwR-UP2Bmljg8OnkyD7QWSs/s1600/P1120096.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIrDF9T8Y4H0rWFp422lTfnOqTTV-p9yqwO-rv14uDC6iqio4kUu24vFoP2_scbxLqiRaAWWlNjPRkjcLFwpKwrxdB2T7Zwq1eMFpSK5JMOOQsIl5zlqvaVwR-UP2Bmljg8OnkyD7QWSs/s400/P1120096.JPG" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5561678548435848690" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy-hDKgODFJfHPZVAhOzUNq1Z5bSYYnl4-f4-ctpEyYkQF_hWobpAbAPttcBXznh1_kPVQ18xomYyYvd9J8niG_N6ato7F6LEj_h9ndbFKSwXN2sNur_HF-u4xZNKQfB04h3w7QbvxQV8/s1600/P1120095.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy-hDKgODFJfHPZVAhOzUNq1Z5bSYYnl4-f4-ctpEyYkQF_hWobpAbAPttcBXznh1_kPVQ18xomYyYvd9J8niG_N6ato7F6LEj_h9ndbFKSwXN2sNur_HF-u4xZNKQfB04h3w7QbvxQV8/s400/P1120095.JPG" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5561678542473210946" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsJTNVtzdOBzBMMS265j2w6jIe5_8S4sl0kMR3uEieCzYFZPaReFNsP3-2LWWnl99n1Q3m2onHpauR0XZEY2uOlE3_Nzoqz0sLfaki1aAoWtIU8ph9GrYtiymB-cGmL9qki90oTPdn-0g/s1600/P1120093.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsJTNVtzdOBzBMMS265j2w6jIe5_8S4sl0kMR3uEieCzYFZPaReFNsP3-2LWWnl99n1Q3m2onHpauR0XZEY2uOlE3_Nzoqz0sLfaki1aAoWtIU8ph9GrYtiymB-cGmL9qki90oTPdn-0g/s400/P1120093.JPG" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5561678536394039634" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJyfMwBUe2wM3xYnPsNXsAUR8zWzA3tyyl609gZUukF8dZtdeEMxsgQRrLOgCOJqsJpubQ003E7p8tGeT0yAI9b4vznhzCMTFO1CSkLOtdYEMrGRpNp3LNH3S-HZ6dVCLMTlUtXKR8z4s/s1600/P1120090.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJyfMwBUe2wM3xYnPsNXsAUR8zWzA3tyyl609gZUukF8dZtdeEMxsgQRrLOgCOJqsJpubQ003E7p8tGeT0yAI9b4vznhzCMTFO1CSkLOtdYEMrGRpNp3LNH3S-HZ6dVCLMTlUtXKR8z4s/s400/P1120090.JPG" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5561678182524235186" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
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Regrettably, I couldn't get any of the interior on that shot, or any other time: the windows were painted over, and my one shot of the interiors was kind of messed up by the flash, and while it did capture some of the interior in a blurry configuration that revealed rows of fluorescents and columns, it mostly created a reflection of me, which, of course, I'm not posting.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHaxlTm3_flsfNdrIGN5iaybhOvrP23zcb9MhLDvO-pPNC95-rok5gbLNPFAOKjKbdpufj03Q8lUj20iLY-KGiGkwEofVVNwYagNY8yxfGZa7_f8ElYeFzGWsavldGEc5tN7ghEILzxTE/s1600/Photo317.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHaxlTm3_flsfNdrIGN5iaybhOvrP23zcb9MhLDvO-pPNC95-rok5gbLNPFAOKjKbdpufj03Q8lUj20iLY-KGiGkwEofVVNwYagNY8yxfGZa7_f8ElYeFzGWsavldGEc5tN7ghEILzxTE/s400/Photo317.jpg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5776645672325466594" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
<center><small>Whoa, Albertsons was open 24 hours! Must have been super-convenient, relatively rare (I don't think even H-E-B did when it first opened), and must have been fun to see at night when the bars had closed for the night.</small></center><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK1osWYpRqIeVEzeCCVs5GDU3L9cm-qS7mZWHgd7RBTjHqO_x5_lxAdms447cl5thMqFtErF0RkSWZq0ihQ-Tog9lK-mvHqua9dSJTILyNeRMaLsxqaBjC-372aJS_uh3XLisDIYyBJL8/s1600/Photo315.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK1osWYpRqIeVEzeCCVs5GDU3L9cm-qS7mZWHgd7RBTjHqO_x5_lxAdms447cl5thMqFtErF0RkSWZq0ihQ-Tog9lK-mvHqua9dSJTILyNeRMaLsxqaBjC-372aJS_uh3XLisDIYyBJL8/s400/Photo315.jpg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5776645665815315762" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
<center><small>What was left of Albertsons after the first major demo.</small></center><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih_806OyZXbv6ahdJko4kGbF5yF3vOeHpvob9rapAMCW56py5rQ9yHcqQyGcfYClUOMgQTUUGIL7Vj-E28mFAcM59AmFp4ac6k6sf8KIj9ZM9u1KC-kr-kFULw_K1CqhPlDTQUvDbeHCw/s1600/scan0001.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih_806OyZXbv6ahdJko4kGbF5yF3vOeHpvob9rapAMCW56py5rQ9yHcqQyGcfYClUOMgQTUUGIL7Vj-E28mFAcM59AmFp4ac6k6sf8KIj9ZM9u1KC-kr-kFULw_K1CqhPlDTQUvDbeHCw/s400/scan0001.jpg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5776645659404348338" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 266px;" /></a><br />
<center><small>The first Christmas at the store.</small></center><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIxFjSWQOaFWcD6P96_tUY7116AJMPYwwU5bVINyjsWSIROdmHgydA_Rlt0-bOK9FYh_LehdjqLfUa-ysh6RUWEi2HdgxUIu03qiX-Fj3xU2egpZ4RcbiMW-CcOwrGvMiCr_PMGF5mkSA/s1600/2012-06-13+12.07.30.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIxFjSWQOaFWcD6P96_tUY7116AJMPYwwU5bVINyjsWSIROdmHgydA_Rlt0-bOK9FYh_LehdjqLfUa-ysh6RUWEi2HdgxUIu03qiX-Fj3xU2egpZ4RcbiMW-CcOwrGvMiCr_PMGF5mkSA/s400/2012-06-13+12.07.30.jpg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5776645645653373586" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 299px;" /></a><br />
<small><center>Albertsons interior. This looks like the "<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ssbn737rm/2746412391/in/set-72157606629312422">Blue & Gray Interior</a>" (Official Stalworth Picture)</small></center><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5Jjiu2t6PZwZxV5qxQfoZpqUmfMqmo51IZbmZopwt31QUZiqMxGWXOz-rTfE1fI5Vr02Gs-Be6O_IxvgjnTEsefh-S0B-EhYBMzU9W90yy6ZOjDBBHPuWygATx62Ej0d1Gw7Q3eGpRDc/s1600/solongalbertsons.jpeg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5Jjiu2t6PZwZxV5qxQfoZpqUmfMqmo51IZbmZopwt31QUZiqMxGWXOz-rTfE1fI5Vr02Gs-Be6O_IxvgjnTEsefh-S0B-EhYBMzU9W90yy6ZOjDBBHPuWygATx62Ej0d1Gw7Q3eGpRDc/s400/solongalbertsons.jpeg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5776645648988169602" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 297px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
<center><small>From The Eagle, shortly after the demo began.</small></center></div>Pseudo3Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17848368606946150471noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477509977383877228.post-59632195047990114262016-01-28T19:54:00.002-06:002016-01-28T19:55:32.004-06:00Whole Cloves, Safeway Quality<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX_sTrBZ1crzk5GL7J4-YPYrDJW13VRbWnXguD6w4-ZzQ1plF2luNJD_vLA5BgsT66d5QDeyRmn3Nlb1-Ch53d5vghX5EOW7wSQA9PmbKYOuEuKAcUK0Vw0Is8qSWedJaRMgdcaWvIGr1U/s1600/IMG_2459.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX_sTrBZ1crzk5GL7J4-YPYrDJW13VRbWnXguD6w4-ZzQ1plF2luNJD_vLA5BgsT66d5QDeyRmn3Nlb1-Ch53d5vghX5EOW7wSQA9PmbKYOuEuKAcUK0Vw0Is8qSWedJaRMgdcaWvIGr1U/s400/IMG_2459.JPG" /></a></div><br />
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.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZraE-7-9hoI-k8pfQbiWk4TEfnHgE3Q3vTxXEvnQAFIOmb_8DlvS1SGMUWsCnZUbam7Q5_d8JwM4nMhOPL6cWjLNceAtivtWSprakFh-p4tY2PDX_zVdfJZ_uVuwiU0K2rz5LWSvYFWvU/s1600/IMG_2458.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZraE-7-9hoI-k8pfQbiWk4TEfnHgE3Q3vTxXEvnQAFIOmb_8DlvS1SGMUWsCnZUbam7Q5_d8JwM4nMhOPL6cWjLNceAtivtWSprakFh-p4tY2PDX_zVdfJZ_uVuwiU0K2rz5LWSvYFWvU/s400/IMG_2458.JPG" /></a></div><br />
The bottom of the canister mentioned it retailed for $1.89.Pseudo3Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17848368606946150471noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477509977383877228.post-46723054162857675022016-01-22T16:48:00.004-06:002016-07-24T11:38:13.864-05:00Former Randalls #69 - Houston, TX<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxatzRfI_R2aTNgOgboukc2-JHYZYdfzJLf8Z1CTOzvUOOT-B17kBEZziO33Dit0x6AOSezPnOv6ESmae_fftXPHAgLXH_2i9F1bHVvRfUwnYVts_mEVeDCcerRZjIbpKUkg2yWrzSyFfj/s1600/Screen+shot+2016-01-22+at+4.26.07+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxatzRfI_R2aTNgOgboukc2-JHYZYdfzJLf8Z1CTOzvUOOT-B17kBEZziO33Dit0x6AOSezPnOv6ESmae_fftXPHAgLXH_2i9F1bHVvRfUwnYVts_mEVeDCcerRZjIbpKUkg2yWrzSyFfj/s400/Screen+shot+2016-01-22+at+4.26.07+PM.png" /></a></div><center><small>What luck! We even get a glimpse of the liquor center! (Bing Maps, appears to be c. 2007)</small></center><center>2224 FM 1960 West • Houston, TX</center>I started looking into this store after I had heard that this store was closed by Safeway due to its large size (100,000 square feet, supposedly a former Woolco). Well, in reality, it's 80,000 square feet, which is big for a supermarket but not monstrous—Wegmans stores routinely pass the 100k square foot mark, and non-expanded selection Kroger brand/H-E-B stores have gotten to it as well, or very close to it. Even A&P got into that game when it inherited Schwegmann's former "Real Superstore" sites in 1999, which were over 100,000 square feet.<br />
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Anyway, I did some more research on this site, even if I can't (yet?) get real pictures (so until then, Bing has to do). Fiesta opened in the Kuykendahl/FM 1960 store in late 1989, and while I couldn't find an exact address or square footage, they made note of it that it was around 80k square feet (not 100k). That Fiesta was bought out in early 1997 by Randalls, when they made an offer for it after their location at North Freeway and FM 1960 wasn't working due to highway widening. What Fiesta took wasn't disclosed, but from articles, it was an offer they couldn't refuse.<br />
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The reason why this store closed is also quite murky. It seemed to have opened well into 1998 (possibly due to remodeling to the "Remarkable Store" layout) but it was closed well before Safeway closed "underperforming" stores in 2005 and appears to be (based on Google) locked up tight by 2002. Even if it did survive the 2005 bloodbath, the widening of Kuykendahl (for those new, it's kirk-en-dahl, don't pronounce it as koi-ken-dahl) would've done it in for certain. The widening did take out a smaller building to the left, which I assume was the Fiesta liquor store. It isn't known if it became another liquor store later, but it's vacant in the Bing shot.<br />
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Since the original post was made in January 2016, I've done further research on this store, like the fact that it was definitely a Woolco as well as the store number. The only other source I could find on the matter was <a href="http://www.city-data.com/forum/houston/1454977-does-anyone-remember-store-please-help.html">this City-Data source</a> (was it one of you guys? It sure wasn't me) which discuss the Woolco. It talks about how Randalls didn't open until around 1998, which was partially remodeling but also might speak because of the financial trouble Randalls was in...they sold to KKR first, which then sold them off to Safeway, which of course, caused the chain to go from "Respected market leader" to "On the brink of failure".<br />
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That said, there are a number of interesting things about the store. First off, probably a handicap to further development is the extremely narrow alleyway in which goods are delivered, so that a truck would have to either enter from Kuykendahl (northbound only now), wedge itself into the alleyway (and hope no cars or anything were coming from the opposite direction and then go onto the truck ramp. Option two is going all the way from the other side of the shopping center. Most every other big box store in the area (even the former Kmart) either have ample space to turn around, bypass a truck loading, or have a back exit. (<a href="https://www.google.com/maps/@30.0086633,-95.4629629,18z">Google Maps link</a>)<br />
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Another curiosity is that the store appears to have an auto center, with garage bay doors on the Kuykendahl side that aren't for loading purposes. It would make sense in context with a former Woolco but less with a Fiesta, and that carried over to Randalls. If neither of them ended up bricking over the doors and patching that with a bit of stucco, that would lend to reason that that part of the store was sub-leased and operated independently of the stores (I guess that without it, it could've been 100k square feet as originally rumored).<br />
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Was it the largest Safeway-owned store to grace the chain? Sources say no...even if it was 100k square feet, there was a 130k square feet Dominick's (former Auchan-turned-Omni) in Bridgewater, Illinois, that closed in the late 1990s, after the one-two punch of being converted to the fancier Dominick's and being sold to a new national company caused many former Omni stores to close for good.<br />
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Now, could Randalls take this one back if they wanted? Well, it's certainly not locked up like many of its old locations, but the immediate area seems rather desolate and the loading docks would probably have to be rebuilt at best (reducing the amount of store space). Besides, there's a number other potential better sites in Houston that Randalls could use to re-populate if it wanted, one that's not complicated by dead retail or a dubious access road. A far, far better option would be to build fantastic new-build stores on the fringes of town, though it appears they haven't quite gotten that down either.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLXKd1eUBACjF3ghjSe96_1i_4ANTiNIeLoPb91J8yqZaRLTKdWd6MwoUiEKcamM60y5npegdx6U_3djRUBw-VsEBaGbM0BN0yp2tg4TInEdiqtZBTGS1-UPWQ_3cVr1rJ7bX32IRdd-aY/s1600/Screen+shot+2015-12-20+at+10.22.31+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLXKd1eUBACjF3ghjSe96_1i_4ANTiNIeLoPb91J8yqZaRLTKdWd6MwoUiEKcamM60y5npegdx6U_3djRUBw-VsEBaGbM0BN0yp2tg4TInEdiqtZBTGS1-UPWQ_3cVr1rJ7bX32IRdd-aY/s400/Screen+shot+2015-12-20+at+10.22.31+AM.png" /></a></div><center><small>Woolco by itself, 1978. The store does not appear to have a garden center.</center></small><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJfAIjIu8wF3XIiysAmmbqzt8n5_Jn4clYnaqWI4HHO90Uy16UwjkjEdlqAdALRIwCocKbDpx3sL7wxe-JsinwzKCc5rCSp4Z7nPQYw37E7UVK3tkBvrhfr29Dby0CvHWw2MSP1ifyWLd7/s1600/Screen+shot+2015-12-20+at+10.22.52+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJfAIjIu8wF3XIiysAmmbqzt8n5_Jn4clYnaqWI4HHO90Uy16UwjkjEdlqAdALRIwCocKbDpx3sL7wxe-JsinwzKCc5rCSp4Z7nPQYw37E7UVK3tkBvrhfr29Dby0CvHWw2MSP1ifyWLd7/s400/Screen+shot+2015-12-20+at+10.22.52+AM.png" /></a></div><center><small>By 1989, Fiesta anchors a thriving center. It's added what appears to be a liquor store.</center></small><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisygpyB_SUSUSfIViMoDOpOCL2Qrmo0gTIMJp7xtIHJYLQuwIKnpB6ThT4ABr9Mik3CB0RbIDTISBvpAcJowhw8ftF0TYIrlI2_HWIf3ccFOJmmfV5_0M52xMK8MKEUSDvG2GJ5DMhatYx/s1600/Screen+shot+2015-12-20+at+10.23.07+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisygpyB_SUSUSfIViMoDOpOCL2Qrmo0gTIMJp7xtIHJYLQuwIKnpB6ThT4ABr9Mik3CB0RbIDTISBvpAcJowhw8ftF0TYIrlI2_HWIf3ccFOJmmfV5_0M52xMK8MKEUSDvG2GJ5DMhatYx/s400/Screen+shot+2015-12-20+at+10.23.07+AM.png" /></a></div><center><small>Fiesta still draws in the crowds in 1995.</center></small><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNsPkTWKN6MlAkYzwKdkXbNNILvMOqWS0cBxSiK1_q-0kZ_Av91UucwhLQ-Ocw1MLIsOWwQkrCoM6psBospa3iPNvQ5-e0u1UiyqJDVcYpFgQspJwMadhBN7OC_MSiPg2R8IU0hPPnXHut/s1600/Screen+shot+2015-12-20+at+10.23.20+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNsPkTWKN6MlAkYzwKdkXbNNILvMOqWS0cBxSiK1_q-0kZ_Av91UucwhLQ-Ocw1MLIsOWwQkrCoM6psBospa3iPNvQ5-e0u1UiyqJDVcYpFgQspJwMadhBN7OC_MSiPg2R8IU0hPPnXHut/s400/Screen+shot+2015-12-20+at+10.23.20+AM.png" /></a></div><center><small>By 2002, Randalls had come and gone.</center></small><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPpGLfG4u0IQIxXJdg_TJV4kkc-azJaSSEvyuFjyZh57UUg9OIeZNjXUiOj5_0yrP0Wjpf93ANePhL3f3idGWrZQGBMq-f8iJi5Z9xgg7GB3uGMrJ4JGFL2FNOs9rdNfdbA0tsvnb-nWQ2/s1600/Screen+shot+2015-12-20+at+10.23.32+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPpGLfG4u0IQIxXJdg_TJV4kkc-azJaSSEvyuFjyZh57UUg9OIeZNjXUiOj5_0yrP0Wjpf93ANePhL3f3idGWrZQGBMq-f8iJi5Z9xgg7GB3uGMrJ4JGFL2FNOs9rdNfdbA0tsvnb-nWQ2/s400/Screen+shot+2015-12-20+at+10.23.32+AM.png" /></a></div><center><small>The liquor store is torn down for widening by the time 2008 rolls around.</center></small><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg85eQRjWMCO5uXONItaim51lD4vYhN_4NbofCio6Od1tbPYNgitL0GIknUwnDph7_qSu0FGMDh3Ef3XrtMqYD1xFFFbO_wwSBo7OEp4h2476-m2fHODrmtKOEzeOmMRpjdSAgPwzHyCdu1/s1600/Screen+shot+2015-12-20+at+10.23.44+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg85eQRjWMCO5uXONItaim51lD4vYhN_4NbofCio6Od1tbPYNgitL0GIknUwnDph7_qSu0FGMDh3Ef3XrtMqYD1xFFFbO_wwSBo7OEp4h2476-m2fHODrmtKOEzeOmMRpjdSAgPwzHyCdu1/s400/Screen+shot+2015-12-20+at+10.23.44+AM.png" /></a></div><center><small>Randalls still sits vacant.</center></small>Pseudo3Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17848368606946150471noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477509977383877228.post-33698928763761548742016-01-05T12:06:00.001-06:002016-07-24T11:33:43.378-05:00Albertsons #2775 / #775 - Lafayette, LA<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTgpUcyNi7kHu-S70cl_nbX2Dh_YzA4BvHED2D3pTo913DBZePB7NJHRfxOHj2uswT-vlZI_kUz8yuDftRbWTBfXjNWNHOW7D-vWwhynnfyPQPqV9zDZ794rRKeIMdeWVTw2AS-MbG9CUF/s1600/IMG_2483.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTgpUcyNi7kHu-S70cl_nbX2Dh_YzA4BvHED2D3pTo913DBZePB7NJHRfxOHj2uswT-vlZI_kUz8yuDftRbWTBfXjNWNHOW7D-vWwhynnfyPQPqV9zDZ794rRKeIMdeWVTw2AS-MbG9CUF/s400/IMG_2483.JPG" /></a></div><center>2863 Ambassador Caffery Parkway • Lafayette, LA</center><br />
For the first time in this blog's history, we have a living Albertsons that's not being closed down. Unfortunately, it's not in Texas, but that's okay, since this Albertsons was part of the original Houston division, and, thanks to the Safeway acquisition, has returned to that status.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVH31t9VlHwxEvf4Yw2Q2GzB0gn4wel9Drssxys6bcA28S7OTSZIsohsLKmZFFWkhM4Y1d_a-mz95QoUPpgEOCdO72zux4w81jZvjfTOCJWXbxGxudodQn9EhDpvXFDPS79GxtNVh3yQqX/s1600/IMG_2482.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVH31t9VlHwxEvf4Yw2Q2GzB0gn4wel9Drssxys6bcA28S7OTSZIsohsLKmZFFWkhM4Y1d_a-mz95QoUPpgEOCdO72zux4w81jZvjfTOCJWXbxGxudodQn9EhDpvXFDPS79GxtNVh3yQqX/s400/IMG_2482.JPG" /></a></div>So, where is this one? Lafayette, Louisiana, a city I visited on October 30th, 2015, by coincidence, exactly a year since I saw an Albertsons in person last, though last time I didn't go in because I was on a school-related trip. Sadly, this store trip had to be truncated slightly because I was also on someone else's clock (and a low phone battery), so I didn't get to explore it and see all the perishables department. Heck, I don't even remember seeing the seafood, meats, or bakery departments all that well, because I mostly breezed over them (or they could've been small, who knows).<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFOUJqMzb_Vn2NvcxVFlHpwYrkWah_7t_4CdRN_DbTWa6JnDteQ4ZxVfWreGpvlxHzlJ2MdydvfTeXrWLvbpjVQaIDubrc733qr16HP8dkVdwXHAetKxUKoNn6sUB2HZPUAnoNe8GBcfB5/s1600/IMG_2489.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFOUJqMzb_Vn2NvcxVFlHpwYrkWah_7t_4CdRN_DbTWa6JnDteQ4ZxVfWreGpvlxHzlJ2MdydvfTeXrWLvbpjVQaIDubrc733qr16HP8dkVdwXHAetKxUKoNn6sUB2HZPUAnoNe8GBcfB5/s400/IMG_2489.JPG" /></a></div><center><small>If you can make it out, note the "Albertsons Market" aisle markers. The "Albertsons Market" name was in the ads and even on the wall, but never outside. Since purchasing back New Albertsons and re-assigning the Albertsons Market name to United-operated Albertsons stores, the use of this name has decreased considerably.</center></small><br />
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The décor was updated to the current décor standards engineered under Cerberus ownership, called "Quality Built" by Acme Style Blog because of the fact that the décor (in the ACME division) pays homage to the historic brand, which previous décor packages have not. In reality, this décor packages achieves the goal of being modern yet colorful, something the Lifestyle stores never did (it was kind of trend-setting for 2005, admittedly, but definitely not a long term décor choice, especially at the pace they remodeled at).<br />
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I'm guessing that due to the relatively late build date (sometime between 1999 and 2003) and the high ceilings, that this décor started out as "Theme Park" (also, another Acme Style name) and was redone when a remodeling binge was done on the Louisiana stores. It also had a similar floorplan to <a href="http://albertsonsfloridablog.blogspot.com/2014/06/former-albertsons-4466-port-st-lucie-fl.html">the Port St. Lucie</a> store, except flipped left-to-right, so you walked in on the RIGHT side of the store, the deli was right there, and then the produce going toward the back of the store, and so on. However, the arrangement of other things (the stores in the front, like the "sports shop") was different, and it didn't have a large area in the middle of the store for a pharmacy and dry cleaning (which may have been original features later taken out).<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk-HxHkSvTWLJsVFJIqZVZs-UI8g0DjKA3R9ESeyUM8kU3_GRvzMfRxIVakYYUlmCphlVgm-_NS5at3MlekwyvFHVXRI4x2o9ei7foEk84eMDtxMPvKKCcBh2dEp5xZpgVKkFVtqdfWPk9/s1600/IMG_2486.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk-HxHkSvTWLJsVFJIqZVZs-UI8g0DjKA3R9ESeyUM8kU3_GRvzMfRxIVakYYUlmCphlVgm-_NS5at3MlekwyvFHVXRI4x2o9ei7foEk84eMDtxMPvKKCcBh2dEp5xZpgVKkFVtqdfWPk9/s400/IMG_2486.JPG" /></a></div><center><small>This is the first thing that I noticed that confirmed that yes, Safeway brands are here!</center></small><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_XT82WR4XeUN7hJsWwJ3ENyjRGsl9V8qh6m4F1B82c_0pbSvpDfy8w4GSniOq2PT-w6UKKMxF9rxFtDG7gShOTsntvJ31cHZSRsAxBVbYRF2yID31CiDm6LPSLy2p9SBX6RsRYt2aTIKi/s1600/IMG_2485.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_XT82WR4XeUN7hJsWwJ3ENyjRGsl9V8qh6m4F1B82c_0pbSvpDfy8w4GSniOq2PT-w6UKKMxF9rxFtDG7gShOTsntvJ31cHZSRsAxBVbYRF2yID31CiDm6LPSLy2p9SBX6RsRYt2aTIKi/s400/IMG_2485.JPG" /></a></div>The store didn't seem particularly huge, but it felt very open. The produce section had plenty of room to go around, but I wasn't sure if it just felt spacious because of the open space (and lack of crowds) or lack of merchandise. Other notes included the fact that there's signage with the Albertsons logo inside an outline of Louisiana advertising Louisiana made products.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIU6SzLuBtiArkoI5Jy2Y-zBbDvIt02-3_wJXrzHu1KAQO-7tSbcyyiiXbPOa3LJYWxydFGiAT8BWgrYwi6Rplm9_pf1iNAGm6mfdLwU6G2suhuq5qUhaQ05w9wiV8mt4gFow1dQKh8-5i/s1600/IMG_2487.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIU6SzLuBtiArkoI5Jy2Y-zBbDvIt02-3_wJXrzHu1KAQO-7tSbcyyiiXbPOa3LJYWxydFGiAT8BWgrYwi6Rplm9_pf1iNAGm6mfdLwU6G2suhuq5qUhaQ05w9wiV8mt4gFow1dQKh8-5i/s400/IMG_2487.JPG" /></a></div>I blurred out the milk price here because Louisiana milk is expensive due to local state laws (even Walmart's is shockingly high), but the focus is on Good Day milk. It's distributed by SuperValu and on its way out in favor of the Pantry Essentials brand, but it used to be the cheaper milk brand for Albertsons (and on the big gallon tubs of ice cream), with the logo largely as I had remembered it which, based on the last time I really remember going into a non-closing Albertsons, was about a decade ago.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAJ6U8GRs51lwHR0b-qGkrjYzPzjF462ntgyix3eDBVX3SFFCntB72aB6eZadXSzcCTqoVJ28YhPO3TO8d8XiWdD6DTFDI343PGK9s3GCCR9BXpMN49w7e-5YIXxLT05qcAnuFxumOof2P/s1600/IMG_2488.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAJ6U8GRs51lwHR0b-qGkrjYzPzjF462ntgyix3eDBVX3SFFCntB72aB6eZadXSzcCTqoVJ28YhPO3TO8d8XiWdD6DTFDI343PGK9s3GCCR9BXpMN49w7e-5YIXxLT05qcAnuFxumOof2P/s400/IMG_2488.JPG" /></a></div>Louisiana has one of the loosest liquor laws in the country, so the liquor store (detached in many Albertsons) essentially acts as its own department, not a separate store. Shoppers went in and out freely (I had to wait a few seconds before taking the picture), and I could've (if I wanted to) had the relatively rare pleasure of getting a bottle of Jack Daniels and toilet paper on the same shopping trip.<br />
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Another thing that I sadly didn't get a picture of was the hot foods and salad bars. Both were basically stuck in the middle of the deli area (titled Fresh Deli instead of ACME's Corner Deli, even though it was in the corner), which also had a self-serve soda fountain and a small area with containers of Community Coffee (the soda had prices, I considered the coffee, but didn't see the price...or cups). The salad bar looked okay at first glance, though I tend to stay away from that sort of thing, and the wings bar looked okay (but I'm used to it being behind the counter), but included boudin balls (basically <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boudin">boudin blanc</a> sausage, but instead battered and deep fried instead of being in a casing). There was also fried chicken.<br />
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There was a garden department at one time, but I didn't investigate it too closely because it was closed and if it had an entrance, it would've been through the liquor department. There was a labelscar on the old garden department but I couldn't make it out. Either the liquor store was added later in a former indoor garden center department (unlikely), the garden center was accessed through the liquor store, or the garden center was never intended to be accessed from the inside. [2016 UPDATE: The liquor store was originally a Lawn & Garden center, and there was a door between the inside portion (liquor store) and outside (abandoned garden area).]<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW-2tYZfdmF6hJWulWwwo8HEfYKkKX61nq1vxh0_jcf3ZaDUXvfSzEiZG0emOsOXuje56t_Mz1mJk_PVF5FJhDyhpp1OKVG8ZONTbCVoBeoT82M2jc2tNZZBMtKNE-GcOaH73RMPKiTAol/s1600/Scan+94+copy+2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW-2tYZfdmF6hJWulWwwo8HEfYKkKX61nq1vxh0_jcf3ZaDUXvfSzEiZG0emOsOXuje56t_Mz1mJk_PVF5FJhDyhpp1OKVG8ZONTbCVoBeoT82M2jc2tNZZBMtKNE-GcOaH73RMPKiTAol/s400/Scan+94+copy+2.jpeg" /></a></div>Although I didn't get a full view of the store, I did get the ad for that store. As the photos near the milk show, I came right at the time when Essential Everyday is being pushed out, and Safeway brands rolling in. This means that the store is getting a totally different distributor, going from the SuperValu warehouse in Indianola, Mississippi, to the Randalls warehouse in Houston, Texas. This also means that the distance is substantially closer (by about two hours).<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6Y404rlbpLq0Ooxy7lctCu9LS9nfXhqVWxSVHGJPFGaZqOuIN7GGPmtf8AsNyzdL1abYN8JjfPt63R4XmRbWwTTUYUn-rYlscClaY-NPxTh8DqFtrux5AjbB7O_894N4Li1YO3ohDwMHX/s1600/Scan+95+copy.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6Y404rlbpLq0Ooxy7lctCu9LS9nfXhqVWxSVHGJPFGaZqOuIN7GGPmtf8AsNyzdL1abYN8JjfPt63R4XmRbWwTTUYUn-rYlscClaY-NPxTh8DqFtrux5AjbB7O_894N4Li1YO3ohDwMHX/s400/Scan+95+copy.jpeg" /></a></div>In-store made tortilla chips? Wow! I don't think I saw this store have a tortilleria, though (but again, I barely checked out the perishables departments) and I don't think even H-E-B makes their own tortilla chips in-house.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlDbfnR3g7EMVp_x3_NDfTBVkEvRcWdRIJvXRd60trXCMIBjPg3gAI7CuXd2ZE66Yphzlfncn-f11vt3EJvq290llh23NSpr8wXO6I_saVheiLBu2ybMBkK6LORh-m2KFodNOvwAY2Sb_-/s1600/Scan+96.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlDbfnR3g7EMVp_x3_NDfTBVkEvRcWdRIJvXRd60trXCMIBjPg3gAI7CuXd2ZE66Yphzlfncn-f11vt3EJvq290llh23NSpr8wXO6I_saVheiLBu2ybMBkK6LORh-m2KFodNOvwAY2Sb_-/s400/Scan+96.jpeg" /></a></div>This was confusing. I had read earlier that it was the Albertsons fried chicken recipe being rolled out to Safeway in the West Coast, but now it's the Signature brand. I guess that unless they flip-flopped on the name, Signature is being used on the old Albertsons brand. [2016 UPDATE: I can confirm it is indeed the Albertsons recipe.]<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju7KS4S-Ujll2Fpuy11Y4C9PC5YdLs4d2tx5TPCVHj2Z3eEW1zxaWh23QvbvFBfMbTpHpevZnGzJpo_gVEGHF2EQH3mxsOLOYW1drELPyk8fNMIkhpFkHl4_ssnOr2C_tsfbPRRLsitEBT/s1600/Scan+97.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju7KS4S-Ujll2Fpuy11Y4C9PC5YdLs4d2tx5TPCVHj2Z3eEW1zxaWh23QvbvFBfMbTpHpevZnGzJpo_gVEGHF2EQH3mxsOLOYW1drELPyk8fNMIkhpFkHl4_ssnOr2C_tsfbPRRLsitEBT/s400/Scan+97.jpeg" /></a></div>Check it out, guys, a real Albertsons brand!<br />
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I guess this store does okay (and by extension, Louisiana stores) because there's not a lot of competition. Down the road I saw a Winn-Dixie Marketplace with original 1980s signage intact (unknown on the inside, since again, I didn't have time) and a billboard for Super 1 Foods, a warehouse style store owned by Brookshire's. And speaking of competition, there's a reminder of a certain ACME competitor...<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA-luxCTo8cQ8DL7c65mtx94lbhyphenhyphen5SnrlSOx4MLcBw5v7TUCFIcKEgeCYRI21B8mWSM_xb5NVrTQ6FcrH2YUeKWdlViYc6L2gwtpleIFA_pmFRYwjLNx4pJgn6fgIovj1yNn3-_mnOfUHO/s1600/IMG_2490.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA-luxCTo8cQ8DL7c65mtx94lbhyphenhyphen5SnrlSOx4MLcBw5v7TUCFIcKEgeCYRI21B8mWSM_xb5NVrTQ6FcrH2YUeKWdlViYc6L2gwtpleIFA_pmFRYwjLNx4pJgn6fgIovj1yNn3-_mnOfUHO/s400/IMG_2490.JPG" /></a></div>Pseudo3Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17848368606946150471noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477509977383877228.post-59435475492977764722016-01-02T19:50:00.001-06:002016-01-02T19:50:38.730-06:00Updates!Hey and welcome to 2016! First off, we have a glimpse at the Katy Randalls before it redid the facade (and a shame I didn't the other one--supposedly, it hasn't upgraded to Lifestyle yet and may even have original décor).<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi77dRuzGuhBshxD5HQfBYBHt-Q4m-7b5YuxSpm36brpl0QMDcw-pFBpkMcu6ZyIH_NHAyiA8pAGdOWzcltxxgeftIyynG9nQbXf-9RYtkt6wzfhZSRq0I2beCy5EdImiCvfyHlNaJefHL6/s1600/Screen+shot+2015-12-27+at+9.42.11+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi77dRuzGuhBshxD5HQfBYBHt-Q4m-7b5YuxSpm36brpl0QMDcw-pFBpkMcu6ZyIH_NHAyiA8pAGdOWzcltxxgeftIyynG9nQbXf-9RYtkt6wzfhZSRq0I2beCy5EdImiCvfyHlNaJefHL6/s400/Screen+shot+2015-12-27+at+9.42.11+PM.png" /></a></div><br />
Are my eyes deceiving me or are those the original "Food" and "Pharmacy" signs re-done in white to match the Randalls sign?<br />
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Anyway, be prepared for next week as we visit a true and open Albertsons in the 2700 series...Pseudo3Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17848368606946150471noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477509977383877228.post-7482615805945879202016-01-01T12:07:00.000-06:002016-01-07T12:07:57.488-06:00Off Topic Supermarket Discussions - January 2016This was actually posted after 1/1, but it's here to prevent clogging up the main page. 1 comment moved here from another post to start.Pseudo3Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17848368606946150471noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477509977383877228.post-45299375417793600262015-12-13T17:04:00.002-06:002016-07-20T15:50:30.235-05:00Former Albertsons #2726 / Randalls #2671 - Katy, TX<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXiFPawBQMnqS21vIevCAuGmNijrIAr5ElPLffMohICL7h_PZHsVfh_DoZQ3U4oJ3fmTacwbmWY8O0bzvfhqYHmV3ASuVHDWUFEFsch-otOanZ_8eqPGN2qlaIx5w4EF9UHkVVJ4k_v9uI/s1600/IMG_2448.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXiFPawBQMnqS21vIevCAuGmNijrIAr5ElPLffMohICL7h_PZHsVfh_DoZQ3U4oJ3fmTacwbmWY8O0bzvfhqYHmV3ASuVHDWUFEFsch-otOanZ_8eqPGN2qlaIx5w4EF9UHkVVJ4k_v9uI/s400/IMG_2448.JPG" /></a></div><br />
<center>525 South Fry Road • Katy, TX</center><br />
First, I would like to say welcome back. I know I said 2016, but that's when the blog will be operating again. Let's start by showing off a reverse of <a href="http://safewayalbertsonstexas.blogspot.com/2014/10/albertsons-and-randalls-in-college.html">our first post ever</a> by showing an Albertsons turned into a Randalls, with pictures and information from October 2015. This has the added benefit of essentially becoming an Albertsons again, although it's just not the same.<br />
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I can't figure out when the store opened originally, but it closed in 2002, and the Randalls must have come soon after. I should also note that the facade looks to be significantly modified...in fact, you can even see the original walls (white) coming off the sides of the tan Randalls. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwieQVS_TMN0PcKO7OakS3bTV8wI_RWuhuZ72FhxaN5riIP1JKV07_ENWOpM457xAOXdd4f4BZKSakSpcU2HrPt8OpgYBIoMjavGfhe7dmMX0X7Key5krNzgpPpVPK6dAa51g-tHKJJozm/s1600/IMG_2449.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwieQVS_TMN0PcKO7OakS3bTV8wI_RWuhuZ72FhxaN5riIP1JKV07_ENWOpM457xAOXdd4f4BZKSakSpcU2HrPt8OpgYBIoMjavGfhe7dmMX0X7Key5krNzgpPpVPK6dAa51g-tHKJJozm/s400/IMG_2449.JPG" /></a></div><br />
The arrangement was probably unaltered from the original Albertsons, with the florist to the left when you stepped in, then passing by the bakery on the left, the deli on the right, as you headed into produce, then the butcher area in the back (there's also a bread alcove area near here). What I tried to do was do some searching that Albertsons was in control. Besides the "it's just better" branding now common to all the Albertsons Companies brands, the only reference to their once and future parent company was a sign advertising hiring. The gang's all here, from ACME in the northeast to those few remaining Super Saver stores in Utah.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioHImw9m2yDuFskcgAQn3uQBxzwzQg1sUAp8Dow69CAwxfxCeYuGI98RuI4T-_udYd2THlACTMCx9nioFO1r2AAhSPqWDtR6nPZrNpx7RRZVPSJolXXlbqVSIkS7PFy9CQXGSAvgPiH6QL/s1600/IMG_2451.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioHImw9m2yDuFskcgAQn3uQBxzwzQg1sUAp8Dow69CAwxfxCeYuGI98RuI4T-_udYd2THlACTMCx9nioFO1r2AAhSPqWDtR6nPZrNpx7RRZVPSJolXXlbqVSIkS7PFy9CQXGSAvgPiH6QL/s400/IMG_2451.JPG" /></a></div><br />
There was a large segment of the floor being replaced, the original tiles were being replaced. I'm guessing the ugly not-white tiles are the ones being replaced, though I can't imagine them even being for Industrial Circus, the late 1990s Albertsons décor with corrugated metal.<br />
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The integration with Albertsons seems to be coming along. Quite a few Safeway-branded items were still on the shelf though they were being replaced with Signature in many categories. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj54hGN7Eh7TvCF8pz2XdtaBYcitHuyhRTk3ZeRGNQ6hzXgRGDEjvv40o0e7taUlFYe0LL5HvacyA6FWiZN4QAcNBVnuKfnE_DrF3Dkbj_JsHjTUPxLxDwRTzTuc7kj8Vixut6lx7epbzbg/s1600/IMG_2452.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj54hGN7Eh7TvCF8pz2XdtaBYcitHuyhRTk3ZeRGNQ6hzXgRGDEjvv40o0e7taUlFYe0LL5HvacyA6FWiZN4QAcNBVnuKfnE_DrF3Dkbj_JsHjTUPxLxDwRTzTuc7kj8Vixut6lx7epbzbg/s400/IMG_2452.JPG" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd9D6BdkSdbUNBxcRioIoPV28dB4Ehi_cZmLcfa-X0RjYcIMshC0Fm_mdHwKfHGPLITZedpMTSeDH6KZey7pqho9mzhsqJIK203tiwzK37hV6S5zHaOtIvTMYfTSferl_O2mnjqo0hXXzL/s1600/IMG_2456.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd9D6BdkSdbUNBxcRioIoPV28dB4Ehi_cZmLcfa-X0RjYcIMshC0Fm_mdHwKfHGPLITZedpMTSeDH6KZey7pqho9mzhsqJIK203tiwzK37hV6S5zHaOtIvTMYfTSferl_O2mnjqo0hXXzL/s400/IMG_2456.JPG" /></a></div><br />
One thing I noticed that probably other Safeway/Albertsons watchers may not have noticed is that "Better Living Brands LLC" has the exact same phone number and address as Safeway. Some quick Google searching revealed that Safeway Inc. wasn't surreptitiously renamed, but it was originally a <a href="http://supermarketnews.com/latest-news/safeway-unveils-better-living-brands-alliance-market-health-lines">name designed to market Safeway brands like O Organics</a> to other stores, which is why you can find a Flickr picture of O Organics showing up at an Albertsons several years before the merger actually happened.<br />
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The other big thing I noticed was that the deli is now selling a lot of Dietz & Watson meats and cheeses (as well as "accessories" like spicy mustard), with the deli counter now about two-thirds Dietz & Watson (Primo Taglio seems like its on the way out, happilly). It seems like Albertsons is taking things with Safeway slowly, which is a good thing, considering how "Albertsons"-izing American Stores was largely a disaster (rebranding Lucky within six months being the big one).<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoujl_sGrgtZjLmR0Ur0vQaDVfvQhtGVIrfxgi465sIqDv-wqwRJungk6C9qhyphenhyphenSvIqCpLxxtlF1-0SZ9DgVfom4udUXyBuUCSUOttL6tq7SQLQqlSzcxtSJBlm5g1DWR4cAWJDWVS1RvBP/s1600/IMG_2453.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoujl_sGrgtZjLmR0Ur0vQaDVfvQhtGVIrfxgi465sIqDv-wqwRJungk6C9qhyphenhyphenSvIqCpLxxtlF1-0SZ9DgVfom4udUXyBuUCSUOttL6tq7SQLQqlSzcxtSJBlm5g1DWR4cAWJDWVS1RvBP/s400/IMG_2453.JPG" /></a></div>The card is still unfortunately in effect, a lot of "Card Price" signs were out, but there were also a lot of "Everyday" prices too. One hopes that the Remarkable card (compatible with other Safeway cards, but had been around almost a decade before the purchase) will just become a rewards card instead of a necessity. Another "good sign" was a paper bag with just the Randalls name...which I didn't take a picture but I have bags from late 2014 that had ALL the Safeway brands post-Dominick's (Tom Thumb, Randalls, Vons, Pavilions, Safeway) on it, so at least Albertsons is giving the Randalls division an identity.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQnk_mvXZXwvT4-ALLHUuC3tDuR4T6rbxyB-wAQRRQP_-uVG6daSdB6qUYnrsHlbvsWpIyVPzxLahDxy0YxsOWE-XBdhGw355jfl1GFMhlEzZiBbLcMrnJLa8XNgqfVgivK0tm4J6qmPlj/s1600/IMG_2454.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQnk_mvXZXwvT4-ALLHUuC3tDuR4T6rbxyB-wAQRRQP_-uVG6daSdB6qUYnrsHlbvsWpIyVPzxLahDxy0YxsOWE-XBdhGw355jfl1GFMhlEzZiBbLcMrnJLa8XNgqfVgivK0tm4J6qmPlj/s400/IMG_2454.JPG" /></a></div>One of the things I noticed is at least with the drop ceilings, it's surprising how dark the Lifestyle stores really are. Albertsons has not added any additional lighting here.<br />
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In terms of features, the store is a bit light on them. It has the "Signature Café" sandwich bar (closed for the day, I came in mid-afternoon) and a soup station, as well as a little area near the front to eat products from the deli or bakery. It does not have a Starbucks Coffee, or any other place to get coffee for that matter. The bakery seems pretty good. I got a donut there for 50¢, and it was 10¢ cheaper than Kroger and didn't make me sick either (I've had terrible luck with Kroger's bakeries).<br />
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Now, the big question is, what did the Albertsons look like here when it was open? It's relatively low store number (#2726) and likely part of the "first circle" strategy (planting in the distant small towns orbiting Houston, then going for the throat, H-E-B Pantry did the same thing but to great success) so I would guess that it would be 1996, the same year the distribution center (also located in Katy) did. The only hint I got was the fact was the old floor tiles, which might've been with the "Industrial Circus" décor but I don't really know.<br />
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I left with a twinge of disappointment, not because I couldn't find any Albertsons leftovers, but because Randalls seemed to never amount to much anymore, and it was easy to see why rumors of its demise had swirled around for years. Despite the push with big 70k+ square feet "New Generation" stores (of which this one isn't, this was built post-acquisition), stores like this (or worse, former AppleTree conversions) aren't very big, their private brands still seem lacking (even to H-E-B), though to Safeway's credit, I'll take "The Snack Artist" over Kroger's packaging anyday, they still can't yet compete with Kroger on price, and the "lifestyle" décor is just the worst...bland, boring, and generally too dark. No wonder they went on the sale block.<br />
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Anyway, I do hope to have a living Albertsons on this site soon, unfortunately, it's a little outside the focus of this blog, technically...Pseudo3Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17848368606946150471noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477509977383877228.post-82698604621086205422015-07-05T19:36:00.000-05:002015-07-05T19:36:17.582-05:00News / Off Topic Supermarket Discussions - June through December 2015Self-explanatory. This will remain up for a few months, have fun.Pseudo3Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17848368606946150471noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477509977383877228.post-48421162895689563952015-06-27T17:09:00.006-05:002015-10-27T11:20:17.205-05:00The Last AppleTree - Bryan<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivdjNiC-InndjjleGOpNTH2sz2N_bpDIJRGj_3vLZA8SinKswdB73GUGQEgLl-TgIOgvFL6RJpSS89zODsqOoK9hcIYtTKg6gm7XKxaOhlj5UaLMp48G00DdNq3T0rjazEObIHeAMWKJM/s1600/Screen+shot+2014-01-12+at+12.13.23+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivdjNiC-InndjjleGOpNTH2sz2N_bpDIJRGj_3vLZA8SinKswdB73GUGQEgLl-TgIOgvFL6RJpSS89zODsqOoK9hcIYtTKg6gm7XKxaOhlj5UaLMp48G00DdNq3T0rjazEObIHeAMWKJM/s400/Screen+shot+2014-01-12+at+12.13.23+PM.png" /></a></div><center><small>A brief stay as "Food City". Picture from Stalworth Online. This is after a repaint.</center></small><br />
<br />
Safeway #736<br />
Address: 2001 Highway 21<br />
Bryan TX<br />
Opened: 1986<br />
Became AppleTree: 1989<br />
Closed: 2009?<br />
<br />
Rounding out the four Safeway stores that died as AppleTree in Bryan-College Station, today we have the fourth. Originally written as a post on <a href="http://csroadsandretail.blogspot.com/">Brazos Buildings & Businesses</a>, this was one of the last group of Houston Division Safeway stores to be built, and the very last AppleTree store to close.<br />
<br />
With the larger <a href="http://safewayalbertsonstexas.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-original-bryan-weingarten.html">Weingarten store</a> in the Safeway family just a few miles south, a decision was made to close the <a href="http://safewayalbertsonstexas.blogspot.com/2014/12/safeway-downtown-bryan.html">original downtown store</a>, and have it replaced with a larger store a few miles north, giving it some more distance from the second Safeway (a third Safeway in town was more toward the east part of town by then).<br />
<br />
This particular Safeway opened in early 1986 as store #736 and the anchor of the small Culpepper North, a shopping center at Highway 21 and Texas Avenue. It replaced the store at Texas Avenue and William Joel Bryan (#294, that's now the Health Department). By 1988, however, Safeway had already spun off the division, and in 1989, the new company had changed names to AppleTree. <br />
<br />
Almost immediately, of course, AppleTree began to suffer, and the "apples" began to fall. Declaring bankruptcy in early 1992, one of the first to go was the former Weingarten store, and within 24 months, the chain went from 95 to about 6. The new independent chain lost its last stores in Houston and Huntsville within a few years after that, but the remaining few stores soldiered on. The first signs that AppleTree was about to go away forever was in 2002, when <a href="http://safewayalbertsonstexas.blogspot.com/2015/05/college-stations-safeway.html">the College Station store closed</a>, unable to fend off a huge H-E-B that opened a stoplight away. <a href="http://safewayalbertsonstexas.blogspot.com/2014/10/village-foods.html">The Briarcrest store</a>, having been replaced in the late 1980s and one of the most modern, up to date stores in the chain (though hardly up to date or large in modern standards), went next, selling the store to the landlord when the lease ran out, who kept it open and renamed it. Finally, this one was left, and remained until around late 2009 when the AppleTree letters came off in favor of a store called "Super Canasta", which was a Hispanic supermarket (there is a color AppleTree picture on Yelp, albeit tiny).<br />
<br />
No bravado followed this passing of the AppleTree name, and for all intents and concerns, AppleTree had been dead for years, just another no-name company that was a client of Grocers Supply Co. in Houston. Super Canasta soon gave way to Food City (owned by El Ahorro) which gave it its own name in a matter of months. Food City/El Ahorro was the first to do away with the old Safeway/AppleTree décor, and in summer of 2013, El Ahorro sold to La Michoacana Meat Market, which downsized and didn't use all the store space (it wasn't very large to begin with). You'll notice that all the stores are supplied by the same company, so the store names still have the same trucks coming in. In the same plaza, there's also a Family Dollar (since day one?) and a few other stores.<br />
<br />
By the way, until a few years ago, there was an <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/southerncalifornian/766319209/">AppleTree</a> in San Diego, which had been there since at least 2005-2006. The sign looks slightly different than the Bryan ones (looks they painted solid colors over the apples and the logo), but there's no relation, and it's likely they bought the sign from Texas. It's worth wondering about: there were once nearly 100 of these things, some sign exists somewhere.<br />
<br />
Finally, here's an article and some small black and white shots of some of the Bryan AppleTrees from a <a href="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/8243916/iaabv/200403BTUTCP.pdf">2004 BTU article</a>. What's interesting is that <i>every single</i> mainstream Bryan supermarket has closed or moved since 2004. The AppleTree on Briarcrest was the <i>least</i> affected, and it closed and reopened with a different name. Everything else moved (Kroger, H-E-B), or flat out closed (Albertsons, the other AppleTree in Bryan).Pseudo3Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17848368606946150471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477509977383877228.post-5462313539178486562015-06-13T22:53:00.001-05:002016-01-06T08:27:51.461-06:00Former Albertsons #2705 - Houston, TX<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi92m1XwmiA74QTou7mG34wTneCPUunZBm3aAU0OJzbe4exynKC8E2GJTROsbtzoh-9ypdDsN2lEaxBf2SvwM3c4GnVwIyKcCK4XE-J84H2wm7qCzKmPNsBspXshzjJfRkgHCfYdY6QDrc4/s1600/albertsons_voss.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi92m1XwmiA74QTou7mG34wTneCPUunZBm3aAU0OJzbe4exynKC8E2GJTROsbtzoh-9ypdDsN2lEaxBf2SvwM3c4GnVwIyKcCK4XE-J84H2wm7qCzKmPNsBspXshzjJfRkgHCfYdY6QDrc4/s400/albertsons_voss.png" /></a></div><br />
Albertsons #2705<br />
7530 Westheimer Road, Houston, TX<br />
Opened: October 18, 1995<br />
Closed: April 2002<br />
What's There Now: DSW, REI<br />
<br />
One of the first Houston locations of Albertsons, the Westheimer at Voss location of Albertsons was a bit of an oddity. Albertsons in Houston is remembered as a disaster that would the 2700-series stores, the Houston division stores, to completely vanish except for a handful of stores in Louisiana (today, ironically, part of the Houston division of Albertsons/Safeway). Like what most chains would do, Albertsons decided to start in the suburbs, but it also decided to simultaneously take on more urban areas. While hardly it was "inner city" (it was a few miles out from the Galleria mall and Uptown district, which was just outside the 610 Loop), it had tough competition. Just about half a mile north on Voss, there was a Kroger Signature store (still there), and a bit farther beyond that, a Randalls Flagship (closed and torn down a few years ago for a Whole Foods).<br />
<br />
<i>Clearly, the idea of doing battle with entrenched competitors has worried Albertson's, which postponed its Houston invasion for years. Before it pulled the trigger on expansion, the company interviewed hundreds of Houstonians about their shopping preferences. It asked local shoppers if they would accept Albertson's, despite it being a newcomer to Houston and that it is based thousands of miles away in Boise, Idaho. <br />
<br />
"We did a lot of research, and people said, 'We don't care where you're from. What are you going to do for us today?' "</i> - Houston Chronicle article from 1995<br />
<br />
Of course, we all know the ending to this story, faced with a mountain of debt from the American Stores acquisition, and facing a competitive market, Albertsons pulled out of Houston leaving behind dozens of stores in its wake to be picked up by competitors or simply abandoned. But even in the pre-ASC, more optimistic times, already Albertsons didn't have the size of the Kroger near them or the cachet of Randalls, though it did still have everyday low prices competitive with others and no card (this probably allowed them to replicate in Houston in better times).<br />
<br />
The other thing that Albertsons had that its contemporaries didn't was that this wasn't just any street corner, this was Westheimer and Voss, the busiest non-highway intersection in Houston. More than 105,000 cars passed by everyday, and the center where Albertsons was in, the new Westheimer Crossing, was anchored by a Venture, an upscale discounter from the north that was bullish on building stores in Texas.<br />
<br />
While Albertsons competed with Randalls and Kroger, Venture competed with Target and Kmart. It was the perfect environment and only Westheimer Crossing had both a large discount store and a supermarket. The Venture didn't last long, however, and closed around 1998. It was not one of the stores that Kmart picked up, as there was a Super Kmart and a Target down the road. With no discount store to replace it, the Venture ended up becoming an Academy. Likewise, Albertsons would have a similar fate. It would close here in 2002 (according to a news article). This particular Albertsons didn't get a replacement grocery tenant, for good reason: H-E-B had just built their first full-line store in Houston just a mile east (the store has since moved to an even bigger location) and of course, Randalls and Kroger had their spots (the Randalls has since been torn down for a Whole Foods, and is right across from a Trader Joe's now).<br />
<br />
Albertsons was divided between two new stores, a Linens N Things and a REI sporting goods store (REI is different from Academy, while Academy focuses on things like athletic clothing and a limited supply on fishing and hunting, REI is more outdoors-oriented with mountain climbing and more upscale). Linens N Things went out of business in 2008 and was replaced with a DSW.<br />
<br />
I actually went inside the REI in December 2013, and wondered what it must have been like as Albertsons. The backroom (where there was a large sale) didn't have any trace of Albertsons, and frankly, it was a bit hard to get a feel for it when it was half a store (likewise, another trip to an old Albertsons, which I DIDN'T realize was one at the time, happened in March 2014 with the half being a Sprouts that time).<br />
<br />
EDIT: I should mention that the facade was completely reconstructed when the two stores came in, originally the entrance (where REI is now) bumped out a bit more.Pseudo3Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17848368606946150471noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477509977383877228.post-81729167711667385262015-06-04T20:43:00.001-05:002015-06-04T20:43:05.667-05:00A bit on Simon DavidI apologize for not having a lot of posts on the backburner, most of which what I do have is some old Safeway/AppleTree type posts, and those don't have any good pictures. So, while I am working on the Westheimer/Voss Albertsons and try to get more content, here's an article on the new 1985 Simon David, which was sadly demolished in 2010 for a Tom Thumb Flagship. Simon David was the "upscale" brand that Tom Thumb owned (as if Tom Thumb wasn't already upmarket), which languished under Randalls ownership (a failed attempt to expand the SD brand was replaced with the "Tom Thumb Flagship" name, and under Safeway ownership, Simon David would vanish completely).<br />
<br />
I'd like to write a full article on Simon David eventually, but settled on this because right now I'm physically exhausted from a full day of hard labor (my day job doesn't have enough hours) and I don't want to run the risk of being completely burned out from this blog. Here's an article instead from the Dallas Morning News, called "Checking Out a Ritzy Grocery Store", originally published May 9, 1985 by Maryln Schwartz. Enjoy.<br />
<br />
<blockquote>I arrived at the grand opening of a North Dallas supermarket thinking I'd gotten the wrong address. It could just as easily have been a deb party.<br />
<br />
There was valet parking. Admission was by invitation only.<br />
<br />
BMWs, Mercedes and Jaguars were lined up around the location at Inwood Road and University Boulevard. And the women were wearing serious diamonds -- nothing I'd ever associate with buying brussel sprouts and Windex.<br />
<br />
"Welcome to Simon David,' a Tom Thumb-Simon David employee said as he handed me a long-stemmed red rose and directed me toward a woman serving white wine.<br />
<br />
"You will notice this is the first supermarket in Dallas to have a mezzanine,' he pointed out.<br />
<br />
I gazed up, and sure enough, there was a mezzanine running all around the store.<br />
<br />
"How do you haul a shopping cart up to the second floor?' I asked.<br />
<br />
"There's an elevator, of course,' he explained.<br />
<br />
I had come to this grand opening with a friend, but I wandered off on my own to get the feel of the glitzy new surroundings. I didn't get too far.<br />
<br />
No strings attached<br />
<br />
I had to stop to listen to a quartet playing chamber music and nibble on the duck pate that was being served in the store's cheese and pate bar.<br />
<br />
"You're not going to believe this!' my friend said as she rejoined me. She was munching on a piece of almond gateau she found in the pastry area where pastry filled with asparagus also was being served.<br />
<br />
"I know,' I said. "I've already seen the cello and the violins. You don't get many string concerts in a grocery store.<br />
<br />
"Not that,' she said. "Look at the store directory. This grocery store has a gift-wrap department. I don't mean paper and ribbon to take home. They will actually gift-wrap your grocery purchases.'<br />
<br />
I would have gotten more involved in the gift-wrap concept, but something else caught my attention. An employee was pointing guests to the chocolate boutique on the mezzanine.<br />
<br />
"You can't miss it,' she said. "It's right behind the perfume boutique and the Simon David's Cafe.<br />
<br />
"You have a cafe in a grocery store?' I asked.<br />
<br />
"Yes,' she answered. She explained that shopping is much more pleasant when one can relax over a glass of wine or chocolate mousse.<br />
<br />
I hopped on the elevator and went right up to check this out for myself. Not only did the menu feature mousse, but also lamb aux honey mustard, lobster and seafood Louie. And the tables were conveniently placed so diners could look over the railing and watch other customers zipping their carts up and down the aisles.<br />
<br />
Just past the cafe was the perfume boutique -- an entire glassed-in area featuring everything from Halston to Polo.<br />
<br />
No holds (chocolate) barred<br />
<br />
Then I saw it -- the chocolate boutique. No Reese's Pieces or Hershey Bars here. No, there were glass cases filled with giant truffles, 15 varieties in all. There also was a potpourri boutique for custom-made sachets and a floral boutique dripping with orchids.<br />
<br />
After strolling the mezzanine, I took one more turn downstairs and watched guests get in line to sign up for charge accounts. Then I wandered over to check out the fresh pasta bar that featured such delicacies as salmon and beet pasta.<br />
<br />
I counted 14 different varieties of mushrooms at the produce counter and noted that fresh oysters, mussels and live crayfish also were available.<br />
<br />
By the time I caught back up with my friend, she told me something was bothering her.<br />
<br />
"I think it's wonderful to have duck mousse and white asparagus just a half block away from my house,' she said. "But this is my neighborhood store. Do you think they have things like mops?'<br />
<br />
We checked. In a tiny corner of an aisle was one small rack of mops.<br />
<br />
A few minutes later, Tom Thumb executive Charles Cullum asked what I thought of the new store.<br />
<br />
I had to tell the truth. "If you put in condos,' I confided, "I might move in.'<br />
<br />
Cullum smiled. "We didn't think of that,' he said, "but it might work.'</blockquote><br />
What's interesting about the store is that it many ways, it kind of reminds me of the modern-day Market Street stores, which do have gift shops on the mezzanine (or so I've heard) and several other niceties, though not nearly as over-the-top in terms of other things. However, other things have been standardized in it and other stores: a wine bar, for one, is not unheard of (Whole Foods, the late Hiller's Market).Pseudo3Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17848368606946150471noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477509977383877228.post-32397278750332845562015-05-12T09:25:00.000-05:002016-07-25T09:37:08.295-05:00Former Safeway #714 - College Station, TX<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN8oBkg2ZqezQTlEAuBP2eo8aFRjJJG-npGp7UkGzH6cqsTS4AsDq-fYLSpURXOu351wjuYJG8jjePQDAu7CKg26OvKk5m3KG6a-l87C8TIGgoHKLEkghu6t2-Mk1ID5DVSJ4nP_zixs1n/s1600/IMG_2103.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN8oBkg2ZqezQTlEAuBP2eo8aFRjJJG-npGp7UkGzH6cqsTS4AsDq-fYLSpURXOu351wjuYJG8jjePQDAu7CKg26OvKk5m3KG6a-l87C8TIGgoHKLEkghu6t2-Mk1ID5DVSJ4nP_zixs1n/s400/IMG_2103.JPG" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi84kA907miS5wmD3rlTTf3kHkJZILSkzu_NZs3JGJVk4YQ6FH6TbSkrffS1iiDqnw4hSXsPHnLDp13uCMu6YEqSv4UlPu46tyvjZXPjU9qV_Gu1Bcom4nKoYhYb5_p9PtermW2caSj3hYu/s1600/IMG_2104.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi84kA907miS5wmD3rlTTf3kHkJZILSkzu_NZs3JGJVk4YQ6FH6TbSkrffS1iiDqnw4hSXsPHnLDp13uCMu6YEqSv4UlPu46tyvjZXPjU9qV_Gu1Bcom4nKoYhYb5_p9PtermW2caSj3hYu/s400/IMG_2104.JPG" /></a></div><small><center>Safeway and later AppleTree was right in the middle of these two stores.</center></small><br />
<br />
<center>1725 Texas Avenue South • College Station, TX</center><br />
This one was one I prepared sometime last month: it's the Safeway in my home town. Safeway's Texas expansion was still on the upswing in the 1970s, and in 1976, College Station, Texas got its very own Safeway store (there were two in Bryan), anchoring the large Culpepper Plaza shopping center, with a lease that lasted the better half of a century (I don't recall exactly, but it was in the ballpark of 60 years). The store wasn't all that large by modern standards but adequately sized for the mid-1970s at a size of 40,000 square feet.<br />
<br />
What was remarkable about the Safeway was the competition it weathered over the years. I believe by that time, a Piggly Wiggly (originally Brookshire Brothers), arguably the first full-line supermarket in College Station proper, had already closed. It became an AppleTree in August 1989 with the renaming of the Texas Safeway stores, and because I don't have any interior pictures (when it closed I was still fairly young and certainly not old enough to think about taking pictures).<br />
<br />
Here's a chart to show exactly what the store was up against. The distance on the main stretch is 2.75 miles between Farm to Market Road 2818 and University Drive, and I've marked some 10(!) competitors besides our store, though luckily none of them competed all at the same time. You'll have to see it at full size to see what I'm talking about here. The map is arranged so to the right is actually the south.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzXD3EFpUEMeaVFI9nic-r8M5WS6NHwAbhudAfvOwbBwuOsqIIz1GzD6a8sIY2wE8HkzXQ1ApzKafFmeyF1uzFN7oRJ4ug1GrN3ci-SKbhBTo7pyZ9B9javxS9y0s0Ms_3o7xQgJD6Lvpn/s1600/Screen+shot+2015-04-18+at+7.59.46+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzXD3EFpUEMeaVFI9nic-r8M5WS6NHwAbhudAfvOwbBwuOsqIIz1GzD6a8sIY2wE8HkzXQ1ApzKafFmeyF1uzFN7oRJ4ug1GrN3ci-SKbhBTo7pyZ9B9javxS9y0s0Ms_3o7xQgJD6Lvpn/s400/Screen+shot+2015-04-18+at+7.59.46+PM.png" /></a></div><br />
At the time, I'm not sure if the Redmond Terrace Piggly Wiggly was still there (at the southeast corner of Texas Avenue and George Bush Drive, though of course it wasn't called that at the time, and before you ask, it's named after H.W.), but competition included the <a href="http://safewayalbertsonstexas.blogspot.com/2014/12/skaggs-albertsons-college-station.html">Skaggs-Albertsons</a> (soon to be Skaggs-Alpha Beta), located at "9", the Lewis & Coker near Kmart (at "8") which would soon be another Piggly Wiggly by 1977, and FedMart (located at "2). The Safeway is marked on the map with a red "S".<br />
<br />
In the early 1980s, competition would begin heating up with a Kroger (6), a short-lived Weingarten (3), and a Winn-Dixie Marketplace (5). During that time, FedMart would close, but just as well since our store had bigger problems. Toward the end of the 1980s, Piggly Wiggly would close as well (so at 1989, 9, 5, 6, are all still open).<br />
<br />
The early 1990s brought the opening of a massive <a href="http://safewayalbertsonstexas.blogspot.com/2014/10/albertsons-and-randalls-in-college.html">Randall's</a> (1) and <a href="http://safewayalbertsonstexas.blogspot.com/2014/11/albertsons-college-station-first.html">Albertsons</a> (7), but also H-E-B Pantry (4), the no-frills H-E-B spin-off that lacked pharmacies or full-service departments. During all this time, AppleTree at the corporate level was "dropping apples" rather quickly in Houston and those were carted off by competitors by Fiesta, Kroger, Randalls, and independents.<br />
<br />
However, this AppleTree stayed open and continued to fight off its competitors, even managing to outlive Winn-Dixie, which closed at some point in the 1990s. By 2000, there were two Albertsons (7 and 1), a dated Kroger (6), and the H-E-B Pantry (4). Another Kroger opened that year, but it was even more toward the south. There was also another Winn-Dixie more toward the north that remained open all the way up to 2002, but these two stores were far away from AppleTree.<br />
<br />
Then, in 2002, it happened. A huge H-E-B (10) opened practically across the street from AppleTree (one stoplight up), which had the advantage of being newer, bigger, cleaner, cheaper, fancier, and overall better. Despite decades still left on the lease, AppleTree closed within 9 months of the opening of the H-E-B. Notice that the AppleTree did not compete with a Walmart Supercenter, the Wal-Mart in town wasn't a Supercenter until well after AppleTree closed for good.<br />
<br />
I remember that AppleTree remained standing with the logo on the side of the building advertising space for lease, but what would end up happening is that around the mid-2000s, it would be partially demolished for two new stores: a Spec's Liquor and an OfficeMax (the facades have absolutely no trace of the 1970s Safeway design), though the latter would open several years later (the OfficeMax is the one that holds the original Safeway/AppleTree address). This was in conjunction of a redevelopment of the whole shopping center that would tear out the center of it for a Kohl's.<br />
<br />
I say partially demolished because the footprint is the same though the facade is totally different, the south wall is totally different, and the back wall is totally different. There used to be extra walls that jutted out behind the AppleTree (see <a href="http://hold.cstx.gov/ProjectHOLD/DocView.aspx?id=1029736&page=3&searchid=65a051a7-f508-464d-ba6a-2af21435cb6f">page 6</a>).<br />
<br />
AppleTree as a name would cease to exist within a few years when the last two stores were sold off. But despite that, there are traces of the old AppleTree still there. When I was applying to a job at Spec's (I didn't even get an interview), I was trying to look for some traces of the old store. And sure enough, I found some! These scars in the pavement, I believe, were in fact the spaces where the doors to the Safeway/AppleTree were. Of course, today, they lead to nothing.<br />
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Between the premature loss of Randalls and the later loss of Albertsons, there's no presence of Safeway or Albertsons in town anymore, which is a shame...Pseudo3Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17848368606946150471noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477509977383877228.post-36697808638982025882015-05-12T08:29:00.002-05:002015-06-13T22:33:03.901-05:00Off-Topic Supermarket Discussions - May 2015Like what Acme Style is doing, I'm making a new thread to host off-topic supermarket-related discussions, especially since "business" is slow recently (I could go ahead and try to whip up something in the backroom soon), so a lot of those comments have been moved here.Pseudo3Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17848368606946150471noreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477509977383877228.post-10719849091267594802015-04-20T11:36:00.002-05:002016-07-26T18:16:11.625-05:00Former Albertsons #2790 - Houston, TX<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDNYSJii5xqeHYI5DQyfbhznKWUQOt5GhP04MFryo3ZJl66_umYPAMLRhAvF5Wx-kLzZxVE8SUmsWXyjRVR9RWgpz1rVW3pcHFCFJxIgVrmeeI0GwJHDcUfAgz9iQBoaQkAIvbtE-7NK04/s1600/IMG_2178.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDNYSJii5xqeHYI5DQyfbhznKWUQOt5GhP04MFryo3ZJl66_umYPAMLRhAvF5Wx-kLzZxVE8SUmsWXyjRVR9RWgpz1rVW3pcHFCFJxIgVrmeeI0GwJHDcUfAgz9iQBoaQkAIvbtE-7NK04/s400/IMG_2178.JPG" /></a></div><center>12400 FM 1960 West • Houston, TX</center><br />
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?<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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).<br />
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<i>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.</i>Pseudo3Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17848368606946150471noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477509977383877228.post-26973729171300720842015-03-14T17:31:00.000-05:002015-03-14T17:38:31.626-05:00A Texas-Owned SafewaySo, the last time I was in Houston, I took pictures of TWO candidates for this site just within a few blocks of each other: an H Mart on Blalock that was a Randalls prior to 2005 (but forgot to take a picture of the facade), and an older Safeway that was an El Ahorro (but didn't take a picture of the facade each other, just noting the distinctive hexagonal sign signaling that yes, this was a Safeway), and that Safeway was never an AppleTree.<br />
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It should be noted though that while Safeway spun off its Houston division in 1988, "Texas Supermarkets Inc." kept the names of the stores as Safeway well into 1989 until the AppleTree name was bestowed on them. Today's post is just an advertisement from June 1989 in the Houston Post, when the Houston division had not yet renamed but still spun off. I don't know what the "5-Star Program" was, must have been a failed plan to turn around the doomed chain and differentiate it in a rapidly changing market.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp3sM9n-rz-ptYp2W0KYO1iEShJWVEMtxwjKBoSbfMODJMkbF5D87PL2ZbkmBxOiCHG00dVoDlBM0qfLpAI2Hdx_FL8jL3yP2NKxThUXoH8H_lJi6pB52-fgz_1JRSLwPuOVxZFTW0cze2/s1600/Safeway2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp3sM9n-rz-ptYp2W0KYO1iEShJWVEMtxwjKBoSbfMODJMkbF5D87PL2ZbkmBxOiCHG00dVoDlBM0qfLpAI2Hdx_FL8jL3yP2NKxThUXoH8H_lJi6pB52-fgz_1JRSLwPuOVxZFTW0cze2/s400/Safeway2.png" /></a></div><br />
If things go <i>well</i> by next week, we can have a real post with photos and such, if things don't go as well, then there's one that I thought about earlier that won't have nearly as much pictures. Hopefully it's the former, and the latter will just be posted one of these days.Pseudo3Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17848368606946150471noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477509977383877228.post-79509845798440234022015-02-28T09:32:00.002-06:002015-02-28T09:32:15.906-06:00Bonus Store: The Littlest H-E-BThis post comes from the heels of a trip I took to Houston on Friday. I gotta admit, there was an Albertsons in the area where I went, now serving as a self-storage place. I wanted to get a picture of it, but it was out of the way and I was too embroiled in a four way stop to try to snap a picture of it. Makes me wonder how horrendous the intersection was when both the Albertsons and the Kmart catty-corner were both operating (today, the Kmart serves mostly as the home to "Restaurant Depot").<br />
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The subject today is a small H-E-B Pantry store in the Heights. It lost the Pantry name several years ago and now shares the same name as it does with its brethren, except it's a tiny little store that has nothing. Literally nothing. There's a booth for customer service, it has most of your dry dairy goods and a produce department, but no pharmacy, no florist, no seafood counter, no bakery, no tortilla machine, no sushi, no deli! This is the same chain that opened a store with the same name just earlier this month with a full restaurant, a wall of live plants, and 600 types of yogurt. It's as if Wegmans operated stores out of "Super Saver" era Acme storefronts missing most of the departments.<br />
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Sadly, once again, I lack interior pictures partly because the interior wasn't all that exciting...it used the same décor package from my c. 2002 store (only with no letters or graphics on the wall, just colorfully painted walls: I'm not sure if it's original to 1997 or not). A white guy in his mid-20s snapping pictures from an iPhone may have attracted some unwanted attention, so we'll have to do with exterior pictures. One of the things that was interesting to me was it's relatively late opening...August 1997, according to a plaque: a full five years after H-E-B started planting Pantry stores in town, and just about three years away from a full-line store opening. The August 1997 date suggests that there was another grocery store from a previous generation here.<br />
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