Yet another Lifestyle/Colorful Lifestyle decor variation Las Colinas (Irving) Tom Thumb

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Re: Yet another Lifestyle/Colorful Lifestyle decor variation Las Colinas (Irving) Tom Thumb

Post by pseudo3d »

Besides living up to its name, the store above illustrates why Randalls/Tom Thumb was fundamentally a poor fit for both companies (if Randalls hadn't bought Tom Thumb, then they probably wouldn't have run out of money and ended up selling out to Safeway, coulda woulda shoulda). The stores with their merchandise mix and demographics were fairly similar, but the differences were everywhere else. Randalls usually built in new suburbs, Tom Thumb remained in old-money parts of Dallas (in fact at the time of the purchase, there were only two Randalls stores in inner-loop Houston). Randalls remained in Houston with only a few excursions to the satellite cities of Houston like Galveston, College Station, and Lufkin. Tom Thumb had expanded to a second market (Austin). Randalls pushed the envelope on square footage, reaching 70k to 80k square feet by the early 1990s. Tom Thumb had smaller stores, with Tom Thumb-Page combo stores reaching 50k sq. feet with lots of stores closer to 20,000 square feet (or smaller). For an example, the Turtle Creek Village store that existed prior to 2001 was smaller than the former Fresh Market store there now (assuming the current tenant, World Market, didn't downsize at some point).
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Re: Yet another Lifestyle/Colorful Lifestyle decor variation Las Colinas (Irving) Tom Thumb

Post by architect »

pseudo3d wrote: December 15th, 2017, 6:08 am Besides living up to its name, the store above illustrates why Randalls/Tom Thumb was fundamentally a poor fit for both companies (if Randalls hadn't bought Tom Thumb, then they probably wouldn't have run out of money and ended up selling out to Safeway, coulda woulda shoulda). The stores with their merchandise mix and demographics were fairly similar, but the differences were everywhere else. Randalls usually built in new suburbs, Tom Thumb remained in old-money parts of Dallas (in fact at the time of the purchase, there were only two Randalls stores in inner-loop Houston). Randalls remained in Houston with only a few excursions to the satellite cities of Houston like Galveston, College Station, and Lufkin. Tom Thumb had expanded to a second market (Austin). Randalls pushed the envelope on square footage, reaching 70k to 80k square feet by the early 1990s. Tom Thumb had smaller stores, with Tom Thumb-Page combo stores reaching 50k sq. feet with lots of stores closer to 20,000 square feet (or smaller). For an example, the Turtle Creek Village store that existed prior to 2001 was smaller than the former Fresh Market store there now (assuming the current tenant, World Market, didn't downsize at some point).
I definitely agree that the Randalls-Tom Thumb merger was the factor which hurt the combined chain's chances in the long run simply due to its financial implications. However, even at that, I wonder where both chains would be today if the merger had not occurred.

On Randalls' end, I think that they might have been able to remain independent and relevant if they had continued to expand outward into newer suburbs post-1994. However, as demonstrated by the 2005 Safeway closures, many of their pre-1994 stores were in neighborhoods which had not aged well. Even if they were still independent, my guess is that their store base would look far different than it did back then. Even at that however, they could have fended off HEB during their Pantry store stage and held the market to a closer three way battle between them, Kroger and Walmart. On that note, I could also see a situation in which HEB or Albertsons would have acquired Randalls as a path for expansion into the market.

For Tom Thumb, I think that the story could have been far different than it is now. Under Randalls' leadership, the Tom Thumb banner received many new stores in the suburbs and also quite a few replacement stores, stores which for the most part have been successful outside of a couple of ill-fated sites around Fort Worth. Without the scale of the combined company, I doubt that such an expansion would have been feasible. In addition, Tom Thumb's expansion into Austin would have likely been a distraction from maintaining and investing in their older DFW stores, many of which were not aging gracefully even back at the time of the merger. For the most part, the pre-1994 Tom Thumb locations feel quite outdated by this point. Standing alone, I am not convinced that these stores could have produced a chain which was overall profitable still to this day, or at best, held the title of a second-tier grocer such as Minyard or Food Town in their respective cities.
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Re: Yet another Lifestyle/Colorful Lifestyle decor variation Las Colinas (Irving) Tom Thumb

Post by pseudo3d »

architect wrote: December 16th, 2017, 12:44 pm
pseudo3d wrote: December 15th, 2017, 6:08 am Besides living up to its name, the store above illustrates why Randalls/Tom Thumb was fundamentally a poor fit for both companies (if Randalls hadn't bought Tom Thumb, then they probably wouldn't have run out of money and ended up selling out to Safeway, coulda woulda shoulda). The stores with their merchandise mix and demographics were fairly similar, but the differences were everywhere else. Randalls usually built in new suburbs, Tom Thumb remained in old-money parts of Dallas (in fact at the time of the purchase, there were only two Randalls stores in inner-loop Houston). Randalls remained in Houston with only a few excursions to the satellite cities of Houston like Galveston, College Station, and Lufkin. Tom Thumb had expanded to a second market (Austin). Randalls pushed the envelope on square footage, reaching 70k to 80k square feet by the early 1990s. Tom Thumb had smaller stores, with Tom Thumb-Page combo stores reaching 50k sq. feet with lots of stores closer to 20,000 square feet (or smaller). For an example, the Turtle Creek Village store that existed prior to 2001 was smaller than the former Fresh Market store there now (assuming the current tenant, World Market, didn't downsize at some point).
I definitely agree that the Randalls-Tom Thumb merger was the factor which hurt the combined chain's chances in the long run simply due to its financial implications. However, even at that, I wonder where both chains would be today if the merger had not occurred.

On Randalls' end, I think that they might have been able to remain independent and relevant if they had continued to expand outward into newer suburbs post-1994. However, as demonstrated by the 2005 Safeway closures, many of their pre-1994 stores were in neighborhoods which had not aged well. Even if they were still independent, my guess is that their store base would look far different than it did back then. Even at that however, they could have fended off HEB during their Pantry store stage and held the market to a closer three way battle between them, Kroger and Walmart. On that note, I could also see a situation in which HEB or Albertsons would have acquired Randalls as a path for expansion into the market.

For Tom Thumb, I think that the story could have been far different than it is now. Under Randalls' leadership, the Tom Thumb banner received many new stores in the suburbs and also quite a few replacement stores, stores which for the most part have been successful outside of a couple of ill-fated sites around Fort Worth. Without the scale of the combined company, I doubt that such an expansion would have been feasible. In addition, Tom Thumb's expansion into Austin would have likely been a distraction from maintaining and investing in their older DFW stores, many of which were not aging gracefully even back at the time of the merger. For the most part, the pre-1994 Tom Thumb locations feel quite outdated by this point. Standing alone, I am not convinced that these stores could have produced a chain which was overall profitable still to this day, or at best, held the title of a second-tier grocer such as Minyard or Food Town in their respective cities.
I disagree. Tom Thumb in Austin was a relatively small operation. The Randalls stores in Austin were composed of BOTH AppleTree (Safeway) and Tom Thumb, and a few years before Randalls took over, Tom Thumb had actually sold some Austin stores to Albertsons, and their position in inner-city affluent Dallas would've made them an attractive takeover candidate to a bigger fish (Albertsons or Kroger). I'm not sure about Randalls, as despite their upscale nature and some disastrous early 1990s stores, they were decent at marketing to less-affluent stores (on YouTube, there's even a Randalls commercial with Randall Onstead speaking in Spanish, and that wasn't dubbed over) and could've survived in the "transition" areas that Safeway did poorly at (well, poorer than usual--I can't say enough how much Randalls was damaged during Safeway's time). If Randalls never bought Tom Thumb, then it wouldn't have officially broken the handshake agreement with H-E-B, and it could've possibly resulted in a merger, but then it becomes a question if instead of a Randalls/Tom Thumb disaster, a Randalls/H-E-B disaster, and the possibility that Randalls/H-E-B could've gotten bought by Safeway (alternate history takes a weird turn). Randalls getting bought by Albertsons could have worked if they hadn't been focused on American Stores, and certainly would've boosted their market share, but that also runs the risk of Randalls getting ruined by Albertsons.

On the flip side (getting back to topic), it was almost a weirdly better thing that Safeway ended up getting Tom Thumb because Safeway did have experience running some pretty tiny stores (and not big ones--as a result some of the larger Randalls stores got the axe).
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Re: Yet another Lifestyle/Colorful Lifestyle decor variation Las Colinas (Irving) Tom Thumb

Post by architect »

We have yet another Tom Thumb receiving this version of Colorful Lifestyle, but compared to our last (micro-sized) store, this one is on the opposite size extreme at Preston/Forest in Dallas. I am not sure of the history behind this location, but at some point under Safeway's leadership, this store was either rebuilt or heavily expanded into the large store it is today. It is also located in an extremely upscale area, and unlike the other locations featured previously in this thread, does not have any new or imminent competition nearby.

Aside from the Colorful Lifestyle conversion, this store is also receiving some new features. Most notably, a new pan-Asian bar is being installed near the front of the store. In addition, floors are being changed from tile to a fake wood throughout the perimeter of the store (however, this wood does not exactly match the existing wood in the produce area, so it may actually look really sloppy where the two meet). Interestingly, this store has no Starbucks and does not seem to be getting one during the renovation, although there is already a Starbucks in the adjacent shopping center. I will get more photos once construction is complete.

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Re: Yet another Lifestyle/Colorful Lifestyle decor variation Las Colinas (Irving) Tom Thumb

Post by pseudo3d »

architect wrote: January 1st, 2018, 4:53 pm We have yet another Tom Thumb receiving this version of Colorful Lifestyle, but compared to our last (micro-sized) store, this one is on the opposite size extreme at Preston/Forest in Dallas. I am not sure of the history behind this location, but at some point under Safeway's leadership, this store was either rebuilt or heavily expanded into the large store it is today. It is also located in an extremely upscale area, and unlike the other locations featured previously in this thread, does not have any new or imminent competition nearby.

Aside from the Colorful Lifestyle conversion, this store is also receiving some new features. Most notably, a new pan-Asian bar is being installed near the front of the store. In addition, floors are being changed from tile to a fake wood throughout the perimeter of the store (however, this wood does not exactly match the existing wood in the produce area, so it may actually look really sloppy where the two meet). Interestingly, this store has no Starbucks and does not seem to be getting one during the renovation, although there is already a Starbucks in the adjacent shopping center. I will get more photos once construction is complete.

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I have in my notes somewhere (which I posted somewhere on the Internet) that it opened in the late 1980s and expanded around 2008 by taking out part of the shopping center itself to get its weird floorplan. Features of this store (including on the outside) said it was a "Kosher Market" though I think they only have one deli. No idea if that's still the case though. The poke in the new Asian cuisine section sounds really interesting (if they can cycle the ingredients like sashimi fast enough or get people trained at that sort of thing, the Randalls/Tom Thumb store I used to work I wouldn't touch anything like that due to the condition of the store).

There is a Whole Foods across the street and another Tom Thumb a mile south.
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