The present and future of Randalls

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pseudo3d
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Re: The present and future of Randalls

Post by pseudo3d »

Actually, the Panther Creek Randalls was built as something else (no, not Albertsons)...it was an independent supermarket called Jamail's (there was an upscale supermarket on Kirby and a convenience store-sized specialty market in the Galleria area, neither of these were related to this store, though they were all the same family). Some online sources state that Jamail's was in a different location, but I did confirm that this address was originally Jamail's. It's likely that it was renovated to New Generation though.
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Re: The present and future of Randalls

Post by architect »

pseudo3d wrote:Actually, the Panther Creek Randalls was built as something else (no, not Albertsons)...it was an independent supermarket called Jamail's (there was an upscale supermarket on Kirby and a convenience store-sized specialty market in the Galleria area, neither of these were related to this store, though they were all the same family). Some online sources state that Jamail's was in a different location, but I did confirm that this address was originally Jamail's. It's likely that it was renovated to New Generation though.
Actually, that whole shopping center has the same physical address. According to Google Earth imagery, the southern portion of the shopping center was built in the 80's, with what appears to be a grocery anchor. Then, sometime in the early 90's, the Randalls was built, likely replacing Jamail's in the smaller anchor spot. The smaller anchor space now features the Woodlands Children's Museum along with a Sears Hardware store.
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Re: The present and future of Randalls

Post by pseudo3d »

architect wrote:
pseudo3d wrote:Actually, the Panther Creek Randalls was built as something else (no, not Albertsons)...it was an independent supermarket called Jamail's (there was an upscale supermarket on Kirby and a convenience store-sized specialty market in the Galleria area, neither of these were related to this store, though they were all the same family). Some online sources state that Jamail's was in a different location, but I did confirm that this address was originally Jamail's. It's likely that it was renovated to New Generation though.
Actually, that whole shopping center has the same physical address. According to Google Earth imagery, the southern portion of the shopping center was built in the 80's, with what appears to be a grocery anchor. Then, sometime in the early 90's, the Randalls was built, likely replacing Jamail's in the smaller anchor spot. The smaller anchor space now features the Woodlands Children's Museum along with a Sears Hardware store.
Hmmm...interesting! That all puts the pieces into place. So it really was built as a New Generation. Trying to search for when this proved futile, but a mid-1990s article mentioned that this store was one of three that made their own "water-boiled hearth-baked" bagels in store. Sounds delicious. :P
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Re: The present and future of Randalls

Post by architect »

Interesting Randalls logo update: On all marketing materials related to the current Monopoly promotion across all Albertsons banners, the Randalls logo has been changed so that the text is blue with a red line underneath (usually on a white background), vs the White text on blue background logo formerly used by Randalls (and still used by Tom Thumb). This chain is also reflected online. It appears that Albertsons is attempting to create separate identities for the two chains while also freshening up the Randalls branding. It will be interesting to see if the general public even notices this change, as it obviously does nothing to fix the real issues plaguing the brand overall, which are operational and competitive in nature.
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Re: The present and future of Randalls

Post by pseudo3d »

I think it was in the 50th Anniversary logo. Still, it is a change (formerly it used the "Ingredients for Life" tagline). It does look a bit cleaner, though.
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Re: The present and future of Randalls

Post by storewanderer »

Logo changes are probably not something that should be very high on the priority list unless it has some meaning. A different logo in print materials than on the storefront and other areas of the store just confuses the customer.

Safeway's logo change made some sense as they started to change logos as stores were remodeled. So, you knew a new logo store was a lifestyle store. Some of the very early lifestyle stores still have the old logo signs to this day as they were remodeled before the logo change was implemented.
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Re: The present and future of Randalls

Post by pseudo3d »

storewanderer wrote:Logo changes are probably not something that should be very high on the priority list unless it has some meaning. A different logo in print materials than on the storefront and other areas of the store just confuses the customer.

Safeway's logo change made some sense as they started to change logos as stores were remodeled. So, you knew a new logo store was a lifestyle store. Some of the very early lifestyle stores still have the old logo signs to this day as they were remodeled before the logo change was implemented.
The logo itself wasn't used on stores. The stores all have just the script "Randalls" written on them in black or white text (depending on the color of the store itself) with a red underline (the presence of "Food & Pharmacy" directly underneath was post-Safeway, pre-Lifestyle). Either way, the logo alteration doesn't make a whole lot of difference either way at all.

Randalls used to use an apostrophe until sometime in the early 1990s, and before that (back in the 1970s I think) it was block letters.
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Re: The present and future of Randalls

Post by pseudo3d »

I wanted to chime to add this: 5311 Balcones was never a Safeway, it was a Tom Thumb. It dates back to 1964, before Tom Thumb entered the area in 1972. A forum out there mentions that this was one of the seven locations of Rylander's Super Markets. Note that Randalls did add a small addition to this store, even though it's barely 35k square feet today (including an office mezzanine). [http://propaccess.traviscad.org/clientd ... &year=2017]
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Re: The present and future of Randalls

Post by architect »

After a long (months) delay, I finally bring photos of the final Houston Randalls location mentioned earlier in the thread. This store is the College Park Randalls in the Woodlands, which straddles the border with Conroe. This store was built in the early 2000's under Safeway, and has seen almost no renovation since that point. The store is one of only a few Houston-area locations to have not received Lifestyle decor, which is somewhat unexpected due to upscale demographics in surrounding neighborhoods. However, until recently, this store was also relatively isolated, with multiple Randalls locations along with other grocers being closer in distance to the majority of the Woodlands. I suspect that this store may have been a potential store closure candidate at one point, based on the lack of capital investment I saw. Over the last few years, the 1488 corridor has seen increased residential growth, bringing both potential customers, but also new competition through a new HEB just to the west of this store. When I visited this Randalls (on a Sunday afternoon, around the same time I visited the other Woodlands store previously discussed), it became immediately obvious that that HEB was receiving the bulk of the area grocery dollars. Although this Randalls wasn't empty, there were around 15-20 cars in the parking lot and just moderate shopper traffic in the store, while the nearby HEB was packed (easily well over 100 cars in the lot). It will be interesting to see what happens with this store over the long haul, as much of its success likely depends on continued residential growth in the area to bolster its potential shopper base, along with Albertsons' willingness to invest in and renovate this store.

Also, coming soon, I will have another update on several Austin-area Randalls locations.

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Re: The present and future of Randalls

Post by klkla »

[quote="architect"]Image

I wonder if this store was already in the design phase when Safeway bought Randalls. The layout of the deli and bakery seems more like some of the Randalls Flagship stores I've been in although produce would have been in the back corner where the wine is.

But it also slightly resembles the design of late 90's Pavilions.
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