Former Albertsons #2773 - Pearland, TX

7121 West Broadway Street • Pearland, TX
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.

Like 2773, 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 ride the wave of the future in an expanding suburb. 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.

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.

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...

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.

Former Randalls #1013 - Houston, TX

1407 Voss Road • Houston, TX
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 Arlan's Market in late 2012.

Back in the early 1970s, Handy Andy ruled the San Antonio grocery market, with gourmet foods, including European meats and cheeses 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.

In 1979, Handy Andy pulled out of Houston and its stores closed, despite being fairly modern with cookware departments and full-service deli departments at a time when many did not. Handy Andy would file for bankruptcy in 1981 and its stores never again a serious threat.

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 56,000 square feet). 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 The Robb Report and computer magazines (almost certainly Byte), televisions, orchids, expensive perfumes, and live rainbow trout.

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 the dying store. 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.

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).

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.

Former Albertsons #2766 - Houston, TX

9125 West Sam Houston Parkway North • Houston, TX
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 their look at #4466, 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.

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.

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 2790). 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!

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).

Former Albertsons #2773 - Houston, TX

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.

1770 East T.C. Jester Pkwy.• Houston, TX
While Acme Style and Albertsons Florida Blog are off for vacation, I have returned. Why did we go offline in the first place? Well, only a few know the real answer.

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.

• 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.
• 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.
• An inherently flawed plan that involved forcing their way into a crowded market where they would spend enormous resources for a market share.
• The weak economy (September 11th, Enron scandal, soft 2001 economy in general), though Albertsons denied this when they pulled out.

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.

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.

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 Brazil). This isn't a good thing if you're building large stores with full-service bakery, seafood, and deli departments.

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.

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.

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.

First, let's look at the immediate competition when this store was still alive.

Like the Bryan Albertsons, 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 here) 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Former Randalls #69 - Houston, TX

What luck! We even get a glimpse of the liquor center! (Bing Maps, appears to be c. 2007)2224 FM 1960 West • Houston, TXI 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.

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.

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.

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 this City-Data source (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".

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. (Google Maps link)

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).

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.

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.

Woolco by itself, 1978. The store does not appear to have a garden center.

By 1989, Fiesta anchors a thriving center. It's added what appears to be a liquor store.

Fiesta still draws in the crowds in 1995.

By 2002, Randalls had come and gone.

The liquor store is torn down for widening by the time 2008 rolls around.

Randalls still sits vacant.

Former Albertsons #2726 / Randalls #2671 - Katy, TX

525 South Fry Road • Katy, TX
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 our first post ever 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 name designed to market Safeway brands like O Organics 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.

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).

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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...

Former Albertsons #2705 - Houston, TX

Albertsons #2705
7530 Westheimer Road, Houston, TX
Opened: October 18, 1995
Closed: April 2002
What's There Now: DSW, REI

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).

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.

"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?' " - Houston Chronicle article from 1995

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).

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.

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).

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.

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).

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.

Former Albertsons #2790 - Houston, TX

12400 FM 1960 West • Houston, TX
One of the reasons I stopped updating the blog for a while was a brief stint with Kroger that lasted about two weeks (what exactly my job was or why I left will continue to be a mystery to you) but I strived to look for new things to add nonetheless. So, what better way would be to find an old Albertsons that had been converted to a 700-series Kroger in Houston?

I had my doubts when I pulled in, partially because the Pharmacy sign was a Kroger font and not an Albertsons font like a few other converted stores were. In fact, it had blue Albertsons Food & Pharmacy signs until fall of 2014, based on Google Maps Street View.

Well, it kind of had an Albertsons-like layout, but what got me excited was the fact that I first found the "Baby" flooring where some bottled waters were. Yes, this was indeed a full "Theme Park"/"Grocery Palace" Albertsons that Kroger left partially intact! No more giant bottles of soda, or spinning Meal Center signs, but it was definitely built as such with the full package, like the full Beverage Boulevard flooring. It was a welcome change to the usual modern-day Kroger stores I see, which often just have polished concrete floors. There was even a Garden Center that Albertsons had built, but Kroger had never opened or maintained it. There seemed to be some garden-related stuff leftover, though. Given that a few of today's Kroger Marketplace stores do in fact have outdoor garden centers, I can't see why this Kroger can't revive it, at least seasonally.

Because of the relatively recent changes in the Food & Drug signs, it's entirely possible that the store was remodeled in the last few years.

It's a shame that Albertsons closed (well, sold to Kroger in 2002 at least) because it was a beautiful store (less than two years--it opened in 2000), which unfortunately couldn't save it, because by the time it opened, the American Stores acquisition was taking a toll on the combined company. The other interesting thing about this store was that it replaced one of the very first Albertsons stores in Houston, at Jones and Bridgedown. Maybe it was to get away from its competitors (just one mile south on Jones, there was a Randalls and a Kroger, the former of which is now an H-E-B), maybe the FM 1960 location was the better location, maybe because they were already losing money and hoped that a big fancy location would stem the losses. I'm not sure, but it was definitely a deluxe store, with a full fuel center (the Albertsons Express had a convenience store) and the garden center, which was not standard in most of its markets (as far as I know, only Texas, Louisiana, and Arizona stores had it).

Editor's Note: A number of off-topic posts have been moved to another thread. Please do not comment on this post unless it is about this store or post.

Bonus Store: The Littlest H-E-B

This 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").

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.

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.

Safeway's First Island Excursion, The Galveston H-E-B Pantry - Galveston

Last seen alive in August 2008
Safeway #????
6013 Stewart Road
Galveston, TX
Open: 1979?
Closed: 1987
Currently: Odyssey Academy

For all you Safeway fans out there, this one's kind of an interesting story because it's one of those rare cases where Safeway wins a part of Houston. This one was opened in the 1970s (local county appraisal district says built 1970, but ""effectively" 1979, so that would seem the date, given a 1974 aerial is still vacant) as a Safeway, the only one on the island, and for seven years (at the very least) it served Galveston Island as part of the Houston until Safeway Inc. started to run into trouble, getting the axe in 1987 as part of a round of closings that would serve as a predecessor to spinning the whole division a few years later (hence, this never became an AppleTree).

Luckily for Galveston, it did become a grocery store again, reopening as an H-E-B Pantry in 1990, as part of the new H-E-B Pantry concept introduced in 1988. The Pantry stores lacked much of the things that real H-E-B stores had, or even grocery stores of the day. The prototype had "only four departments: grocery, meat, produce, and health and beauty", so things like a deli and bakery, and even a pharmacy, were out of the question.

And so for the next 15 years, the Pantry remained. It brought a smile to my face every time we were in Galveston, because of the familiarity of the H-E-B Pantry, and even moreso (post-2002, such as 2005) after the old local H-E-B Pantry stores closed as they were replaced with full-line stores. It was still operating in 2008 (hence, the picture). But something happened in September 2008: Hurricane Ike. It flooded the store, ruining all the inventory, and H-E-B took the opportunity that a few other retail stores did by taking the insurance money and not reopening (the Dillard's at the Mall of the Mainland as well as the Macy's in Northwest Mall did the same thing). The long-rumored plans to open a full-line H-E-B on the island disappeared, leaving residents with only Randalls and Kroger to shop at.

And here's the ironic thing: Randalls, which was on the island as part of the independent chain's reach across Houston and later purchased by Safeway, was one of the first grocery retailers to reopen. As for this store, H-E-B sold the store to a charter school, which renovated it significantly, even on the outside.

Here are some aerials taken over the years. There's a smaller building adjacent to the Safeway, which I would wager was a drug store, probably an Eckerd. This is what likely sustained the strip after Safeway left (in 2007, this space was vacant and wasn't refilled until Odyssey came in).

Over the years:

1974

1982

1990: First Year of the Pantry

1995

2004. Last time the gas station shows up.

January 2008

September 2008, city evacuated

2010, newly paved parking lot

2012, front part removed

The title refers to Safeway's first excursion to Galveston Island, before anyone tries to point out that Safeway had Hawaii stores in the first part of the 20th century.

Randalls #1857 - Houston, TX

An unremarkable store? (Photo by me. I'm not sure what thing is in the NW corner)
Randalls #1857
Address: 12312 Barker Cypress Road
Cypress, TX
Opened: September 2001

So it's here. Randalls, Tom Thumb, and the entire Safeway family are now married into the Albertsons family, which recently got back together from a painful divorce and the former American Stores rescued from their abusive stepfather SuperValu (okay, I'll stop with the analogies now), but that wasn't yet the case when I stopped at this Randalls after a job interview in the Houston area.

Sadly, I didn't pull out the camera inside for reasons unknown, but I did sample something from the bakery (a chocolate chip cookie baked onto a brownie!) and bought a coffee with the last of my Starbucks card. A bit about this store is that it was built in an era where Safeway had purchased Randalls and was still opening stores before changing gears around the start of the "Lifestyle" era and closing a bunch of Randalls stores in 2005 as market share deteriorated and a market pull-out seemed imminent. I visited this store hoping it hadn't yet been remodeled to "Lifestyle" yet (unfortunately, all of the remaining Randalls did get the do-over), but it was, and altogether wasn't a bad look. Because I didn't actually take any pictures inside, this post is going to be pretty brief.

When the Randalls opened in 2001, there wasn't a lot in the way of grocery shopping in the area. It was the last grocery store along the 290 corridor before a rinky-dink store in the Hockley/Waller area, but even in those halcyon days, Randalls wasn't bursting at the seams. The only other thing close was a 1999 H-E-B Pantry, a small-format store that lacked a pharmacy, deli, and fresh bakery (at least that was the prototype).

Randalls by itself in 2002

Even though the trade area continued to grow with subdivisions continuing to sprawl outward, the greatest threat to Randalls' well being happened in 2007 when H-E-B decided to replace a Pantry store a few miles away (despite the fact that said H-E-B Pantry was renovated at least once in its less-than-a-decade lifespan). Immediately, the new H-E-B zoomed to be the more popular in the area, packing out routinely. It was also larger than Randalls.

H-E-B steals the show in 2010

It's possible that the renovation came in the late 2000s to try to combat the influence of H-E-B.

H-E-B still maintains popularity

Since that time, Randalls has still held on. The H-E-B is cheaper than Randalls as well as not requiring a card, and has continued to march west with new stores while Randalls has stagnated.

If Randalls wishes to take its closest competition on, it's got to lower prices to be competitive (an impediment to the original Safeway Inc.), follow the Albertsons lead and remove the card, and perhaps cannibalize its own shopping center to expand floor space (perhaps making the store deeper by going through the back!) It won't unseat the king anytime soon...Randalls will probably never take #1 in grocery market share (behind Walmart, of course) without an expensive and aggressive building strategy, but knocking Kroger and H-E-B down a few notches will at least secure its place in the market.

As always, comments are appreciated.