Is it my imagination or was there a Safeway at Gears and Veterans Memorial roads? (Houston: sale, to buy)

[wardwhirlboromarlpool1955]

This would have been at least 25 years ago. The store would probably have been an AppleTree after Safeway closed, but if so, it became a Kroger BEFORE 1993, when most AppleTree stores were closed or sold. The store now is a "Thang Hung" Asian market. I seem to remember driving by a Safeway here at some point in the 70's or 80's but I can't be sure. Also, what's the empty store across Veterans Memorial from here? I haven't been down that way in a long time but I usually notice shopping centers, and I have no clue what was in this empty one. There definitely was an Albertsons a block south on Veterans Memorial, facing the beltway, which now is a Food Town. It's funny because I used to mix up this Albertsons with the one on West Road facing the beltway, which now is a Kroger. But the one on Veterans Memorial is all by itself, with no other stores next to it. I think the Starbucks was removed from the Albertsons/Kroger in the past year or two, but I don't care because there's still a Starbucks next door... amazing they ever coexisted. It's even stranger that one of two Albertsons built around 2000 and closed in 2002 on Spring Cypress in Spring is still abandoned after 10 years, but the other is a very busy Kroger.

[papitosabe]

mmmmm Foodtown. 16oz glass bottle cokes with pure can sugar for $1 ..mmmmm .

[Zhang Fei]

Randalls is owned by Safeway, so you could say that Safeway is still in Houston, only it's operating with a different name.

[wardwhirlboromarlpool1955]

Yep, and it's ironic because competition from Randalls probably was what made Safeway itself retreat from this area in the 80's. Randalls also seemed to be the only chain in Houston that DIDN'T buy many ex-Safeway/AppleTree stores. In suburbs such as The Woodlands, Spring, Cypress, and Tomball, H-E-B bought ex-Safeway stores, most of which were demolished and replaced by new H-E-B stores in the past decade. I live near a Stein Mart (it's on 249 between Jones and Louetta) which was built in 1984 as one of the last new stores Safeway built in Houston, and was probably a lot nicer than their late 60's/70's stores in the area. Not surprisingly, this was the ONLY one that ended up as Randalls in 1993, but strangely the Randalls closed in 1997 or 1998, perhaps because of competition from the then-shiny new Albertsons up the road (at 249 and Cypresswood) that now is a Kroger. So it closed as Randalls right before Safeway bought the chain, and this must have been completely coincidental. THEN this store was an H-E-B, but it closed in 2001 or 2002. I wonder why because H-E-B just built a much larger new store across the street from there. Ironically, the Safeways in Tomball, Spring, and The Woodlands were all built in the 70's, but H-E-B took all three over and stayed put until they could demolish and rebuild them. But I guess it makes sense because the Safeway/H-E-B near me was in the middle of a shopping center, and they would have had to force other stores to move to allow demolition and expansion.

[Zhang Fei]

Originally Posted by wardwhirlboromarlpool1955

Yep, and it's ironic because competition from Randalls probably was what made Safeway itself retreat from this area in the 80's. Randalls also seemed to be the only chain in Houston that DIDN'T buy many ex-Safeway/AppleTree stores.

Sellers, HEB and Fiesta all have better prices than the national mass market grocery chains in Houston, namely, Kroger and the current Randalls/Safeway. Since they presumably have similar operating costs, I have to wonder if the local chains are either barely profitable or losing money. Was the original, pre-Safeway-merger Randalls cheaper than the current one, relative to the other chains?

[wardwhirlboromarlpool1955]

Regretfully I don't know the answer to your question. But I get the feeling that Randalls might go out of business soon. Genuardi's, a Philadelphia chain that was independent in the 80's and 90's like Randalls was and was bought by Safeway around the same time, just sold a number of stores to the local GIANT chain and closed the rest. People complain about the Safeway changes to both Randalls and Genuardi's, and I'm really surprised Randalls has hung on longer. Randalls still has a lot of small stores built in the early 80's, but most Genuardi's weren't built until at least the late 80's if not early 90's. Perhaps Rouses, the New Orleans supermarket chain, will buy Randalls? I wonder because they bought the operations of both Albertsons and A&P (a Northeastern chain that was in Houston in the 60's but is LONG gone from here) as those two exited New Orleans. I think most Randalls that remain (and several have already closed) are too small for any other chain already in Houston such as Kroger or H-E-B to buy them. If not, most Randalls are too close to existing Kroger or H-E-B stores for those chains to be interested.

[wardwhirlboromarlpool1955]

I wonder if Whole Foods would be interested in replacing the current Randalls in The Woodlands (which is in an ex-Albertsons building and replaced an older Randalls). It seems ironic how Safeway, which once had a store in The Woodlands which was then an H-E-B, then was demolished for the new H-E-B, ended up capitalizing on the misfortunes of Albertsons (it was in their early years of Safeway ownership that Randalls moved their Woodlands store to the Albertsons site) but now Randalls is struggling.

[Zhang Fei]

Originally Posted by wardwhirlboromarlpool1955

Randalls is struggling.

Are Randalls stores all that empty? I've never bothered going to one, because the prices in the sale flyers are a little high, compared to the competition. Safeway as a whole appears to be doing reasonably well, profits-wise, despite flattish sales, so it's possible that their customers think the higher prices are justified, thereby providing the margin necessary to keep the ship afloat. (Of course, everyone wants to be Whole Foods - a non-union grocer, but with a floating halo *and* non-grocery retail margins).

[wardwhirlboromarlpool1955]

I could picture the rest of Safeway being dissolved in the not-so-distant future. Here's what would happen to each division:

1. Randalls: would be sold to Rouses, a New Orleans chain that broke off from A&P

2. Tom Thumb (Dallas): would be sold to Publix, a Tampa Florida grocer

3. rural Western Safeway stores: would be sold to Kroger

4. San Francisco Safeway stores: would be sold to Stop & Shop, a Boston grocer

5. Vons (Los Angeles): would be sold to ShopRite, a New Jersey grocer

6. Pavilions (the upscale division of Vons): would be sold to Wegmans, a New York grocer

7. Pak N Save (a discount division of Safeway in California): would be closed

8. Carrs (Alaska): would be sold to H-E-B

9. Dominick's (Chicago): would be sold to Jewel-Osco, a local rival

10. Baltimore/DC Safeway stores: would be sold to Super G, a local rival owned by Stop & Shop

[monicapies]

Safeway would have been smarter to have bought Randalls in the early 80's, as soon as the Randalls phenomenon started. And yes they should have kept the Randalls name. The 70's Safeway stores should have been closed right away. Making them into AppleTree was a huge mistake because that chain was unable to pull its weight the whole time it existed, and because it went bankrupt and was dissolved, it was also unable to ban other supermarket chains from taking the place of its stores. The success of H-E-B has caused the slow demise of Randalls. Who knew both of them would have been connected to Safeway somehow.