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.

UPDATE: Most of this article was copied over to Carbon-izer at least in its first incarnation.

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...

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.

Former Albertsons #2758 / Former Randalls - College Station, TX

The decaying monolith beckons.
This post was originally seen on "Brazos Buildings & Businesses" in its original form.

Randalls #??
Albertsons #2758
Address: 615 University Drive East
College Station, TX
Opened (as Randalls): 1991
Closed (as Randalls) / Opened (as Albertsons): 1997 (Albertsons reopened the store in November 1997)
Closed (as Albertsons): 2011
What's There Now: vacant

I figure that this is a good one to start with since it concerns both Randalls (bought by Safeway in '99) and Albertsons (announced it would buy Safeway in '14). It's also fitting since it was one of the first posts on Brazos Buildings & Businesses, though at the time, it didn't have the pictures it does now and was still open.

The story of this building goes back to the early 1990s, when Randall's, the upscale-leaning grocery chain from Houston opened a new "New Generation" store in College Station fairly close to the Texas A&M University campus. With construction underway by March 1991, and opening in fall of 1991 (see comments on the original post), it was the largest grocery store in the county (not like there was much competition) and definitely the largest one in College Station. It had, according to this article featured "a coffee department with a bar and stools, fresh-made juices, pizza from scratch, a full-line floral department, a full-service bank and a one-hour photo shop."

The store was absolutely huge. It's listed on the H-E-B sublease page (see below in regards to that) at 80,478 square feet, which is still considered a rather large supermarket and was certainly large by Albertsons standards.

In the mid-1990s, with the purchase of the Cullum Companies of Dallas (acquiring Tom Thumb), Randalls (now without an apostrophe) added wine and beer to its line-up for the first time. Unfortunately, that was its undoing, with that and acquiring the former AppleTree stores in the Austin/Temple-Killeen area, the debt occurred necessitated some store closures, of which the College Station store (which was a victim of that) was sold off along with two other stores in Round Rock and Pasadena (both are now closed, of course). It wasn't stated how (un)successful the store was, but Albertsons bought it and reopened it sometime in late 1997 (the College Avenue Albertsons closed in late December of that year) with new décor. From what I've heard, the employees weren't able to keep their jobs, unfortunately.

Albertsons wasn't so unlucky as fellow stores in the Houston division (which all closed in 2002), in fact, 2002 brought a third Albertsons in the area and a renovation of another, but the breakup of Albertsons Inc. and subsequent trimming down by Albertsons LLC ultimately took its toll.

By 2011, there were only three stores left south of the D/FW market: this one, Kerrville, and New Braunfels.

So when I heard that H-E-B had bought all the Albertsons sites and would shutter them, I had to check it out. I wasn't happy with this arrangement, as all the employees were forced out of a job not because it had succumbed to the position (although it likely would've died soon enough, given how bleak the scenario at Albertsons LLC looked at the time), but a rival grocery store bought them out not to build another store (or even convert it to another concept) but to stop potential competition (or putting another grocery store there). This actually wasn't the case, H-E-B only wanted the Kerrville location but had to take all three as a package deal.

By the time I got to this Albertsons, it lost the Pharmacy, that’s way the "Sav-On" and "Pharmacy" removed. It should also be noted that the Sav-On was added sometime in the mid-2000s, but it's not like the store was an "Albertsons Sav-On" (unlike the Kroger Sav-On stores, which were different Sav-Ons entirely).

There's two shots of the "Beverage Boulevard" sign, and ironically, is still hanging in the closed store.

According to the comments on the original post (see Brazos Buildings & Businesses), Early Bird Cleaners was there from day one, and was connected to the store from the inside. I'm not sure when it closed, but a spring 2013 visit had the space cleared out and the empty store visible from the outside...complete with many pieces of décor still intact, like that Beverage Boulevard sign. In looking back at the pictures, the Early Bird Cleaners seems to have gone dark.

After the closure of the store, the street signage was used as advertising for "BedZGalore.com", which itself flaked and eventually fell apart. A nearby tutoring place in a strip center gets really crowded on some nights, taking up a good half of the parking (which is great for them since all the other tenants had up and died).

The décor package, as you can see, is the "Theme Park" package seen on Albertsons brands at this time, which wasn't around when the store reopening, possibly redecorating at some point in the 2000s. I don't know what décor package it opened with originally.


Approaching the store. The pharmacy has already closed.

Notice that the Early Bird Cleaners is already dark.

Ceiling, entrance.

The in-store florist is already closed.

The pharmacy is gone, too.


Final shoppers stroll to snatch up good bargains.


Closest thing to a bulk section, apparently


"Watered" aisles.


Let's meet the meat.

Magazines and books.


Frozen foods...

Pet foods...

...and shrimp ramen.

It's even more vibrant and better in real life. While the photos make the store appear a bit grungy, this was a very colorful and cool sign.


Another view.


Ceiling near beer and wine department. It's worth noting that when the store opened in 1991 as Randall's, and up until 1994 when the acquisition of Tom Thumb took place, this store did not sell any alcoholic beverages. Do you suppose this was originally the coffee bar?


Former video rental area.


I love these carousel things in the checkout lines. I think the other Albertsons over near Wal-Mart had them too.

Post closure, the bucket of soda is still there! (Courtesy "AggiePhil")

Those "Good Housekeeping" signs look kinda generic. Were they ever used in an Acme store? (Courtesy "AggiePhil")
All of these pictures were taken by me unless noted. I do have a couple more of the "post-closure" pictures, but I found this one to be the most interesting.

So, why is this store still vacant? While the H-E-B in Kerrville was reopened under their name, and the New Braunfels location was eventually sold back to the city so they could convert into a new city hall, the Albertsons in College Station is rather murkier. You see, while the other two were owned by Albertsons, the College Station location was not. Even as far back on tax records in 2002, UIRT Investors owned the building, then went to EF Holdings in 2003. The deed currently is owned by Hassan Kazerouni, who got it from 615 EUD LLC, and 615 EUD LLC was transferred from Ridgemont Investment Group LLC the same day Ridgemont got it from E F Holdings Inc. in 2012, meaning that 615 EUD LLC was probably a shell of that company and not H-E-B as I had expected.

Tax records do not show ownership before that, which means there are three options.

a) The store was not owned by Randalls but rather leased long-term. Given that by the early 1990s, the "40-99" year lease trend was out of date, so the likely scenario is 25 years, since the lease didn't expire after 20 (2011). This could mean the store could be out of lease by the end of 2016, meaning finally some action.

b) Randalls did not sell the stores to Albertsons in 1997 but rather had them rent long-term. This means that if it was a 20 year lease, we'd see action in 2018, maybe longer.

Its currently listed as a "sublease" on their real estate website, and they won't let any food or drug store occupy it.

Now that we've got that depressing part over with, here's an awesome YouTube video of a Randall's opening in 1992 in Lufkin. While not in College Station, it gives a feel for what it was like, as the décor was probably identical and so on.