Retail Watchers

Perhaps some of the older style (and even size) stores in the southern states do OK as more people move there when retiring. They may remind them more of what they were used to in the past, and particularly as they age a smaller store is probably appreciated for ease of getting around it.

I have split off the Winn Dixie post into another forum in the Southeast category. Please keep further discussion of this topic to how this relates to Randalls, and let's steer back in that direction, please.

Should you like to discuss WD, the posts can be found here: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2414&p=23077#p23077

Four of the 5 Houston-area Randalls stores closed earlier this year have been listed for lease/sublease.

In one case — Panther Creek — there’s a little more than 7 years left on the lease. The Clear Lake store has 4 years left and one of the two Kingwood stores that closed has 3 years left. The fact that Albertsons was willing to eat these leases speaks volumes about how much they’re hurting in the Houston market.

The Grogan’s Mill store is owned by Albertsons and is listed for lease. Seems like it’d make more sense to sell it, but this isn’t a company known for making smart decisions ...

https://shelbyestus.com/for-lease/

Greggo wrote: ↑April 2nd, 2020, 5:40 pm Four of the 5 Houston-area Randalls stores closed earlier this year have been listed for lease/sublease.

In one case — Panther Creek — there’s a little more than 7 years left on the lease. The Clear Lake store has 4 years left and one of the two Kingwood stores that closed has 3 years left. The fact that Albertsons was willing to eat these leases speaks volumes about how much they’re hurting in the Houston market.

The Grogan’s Mill store is owned by Albertsons and is listed for lease. Seems like it’d make more sense to sell it, but this isn’t a company known for making smart decisions ...

https://shelbyestus.com/for-lease/

There's an article that states the Grogan's Mill store was deeded to be ONLY a grocery store, not allowed to be anything else. It doesn't help though the store is in a rotten location that isn't even signed from the main road and only a smaller sign on the small road, and almost invisible from both. (Albertsons time in Houston in the 1990s had some bad locations, from wrong neighborhood to off the beaten path)

I'm not sure if Albertsons is trying to do a slow exit from Houston or not, or what plans it has for the other stores (including selling them to competitors). However, coronamania has basically put a pause on all grocery buying/selling/closing/opening activities, so we'll see later.

Another Randall’s closure announced, this time in Bellaire, as has been speculated on here previously.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/busin ... 867748.php

architect wrote: ↑January 13th, 2021, 2:09 pm Another Randall’s closure announced, this time in Bellaire, as has been speculated on here previously.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/busin ... 867748.php

Sad but hardly surprising, as I had expected to pull out last year. So what "reinvesting" are they doing into their other stores? I imagine Midtown is a big question, and the fact that Kroger in Montrose is now kill might not even help it. Galveston is another question, unless they're keeping the seat warm for H-E-B to swoop in with a sweetheart offer (H-E-B is not in Galveston, hasn't been since they closed their Pantry store in 2008). And a store near the southwest corner of 610 is still hanging in there despite a new H-E-B being built in the area, too.

I was kind of expecting some big movement and shaking to happen in the Southern Division before any more stores were closed, though.

If the Google photos are accurate, the Bellaire store appears to have been upgraded to Colorful Lifestyle. Seems like a waste, if true ... unless they did it in hopes of being able to increase traffic and hang on.

Greggo wrote: ↑January 20th, 2021, 8:01 pm If the Google photos are accurate, the Bellaire store appears to have been upgraded to Colorful Lifestyle. Seems like a waste, if true ... unless they did it in hopes of being able to increase traffic and hang on.

According to this HAIF thread, it appears that the store's closing may be driven more by a redevelopment of the site versus strictly underperformance.

https://www.houstonarchitecture.com/hai ... velopment/

However, in recent years in both DFW and Houston, Albertsons has also shown a tendency to renovate a store when a competitor is opening/rebuilding nearby in an attempt to minimize market share loss. The Randall's stores in both Bellaire and Meyerland fall into this category, along with Tom Thumb/Albertsons locations in Las Colinas, Euless, Mansfield, Arlington (Sublett Road), Dallas (multiple locations in proximity of Central Market), etc.

architect wrote: ↑January 21st, 2021, 3:41 pm

Greggo wrote: ↑January 20th, 2021, 8:01 pm If the Google photos are accurate, the Bellaire store appears to have been upgraded to Colorful Lifestyle. Seems like a waste, if true ... unless they did it in hopes of being able to increase traffic and hang on.

According to this HAIF thread, it appears that the store's closing may be driven more by a redevelopment of the site versus strictly underperformance.

https://www.houstonarchitecture.com/hai ... velopment/

However, in recent years in both DFW and Houston, Albertsons has also shown a tendency to renovate a store when a competitor is opening/rebuilding nearby in an attempt to minimize market share loss. The Randall's stores in both Bellaire and Meyerland fall into this category, along with Tom Thumb/Albertsons locations in Las Colinas, Euless, Mansfield, Arlington (Sublett Road), Dallas (multiple locations in proximity of Central Market), etc.

I wonder if Weingarten was holding on the store this entire time even after selling the store to Safeway (the first time) back in the 1980s, but also might explain why the store held on as long as it did. If they do redevelop the site as something denser, I wonder if they're interested in coming back.

It might actually might work, as the actual store itself had all sorts of problems as far as maintenance and access went. They didn't have modern loading docks where a truck just backs into a sunken area with a door that opens directly to the truck's back like most supermarkets do...they had a rising platform to the truck that was mostly out in the open. The backroom wasn't large, so in addition to all sorts of stuff piled in back hallways (fire violation?), there was an outbuilding that was basically constructed with chain link fence (I believe Albertsons did put some metal siding on it to make it less atrocious). The deli and the bakery had a combined kitchen area, which was also in poor conditions (lots of holes in the floor filled with grease). The break room was really tiny, too.

Could these problems have been fixed by expanding the store's footprint and renovating it? Sure. However, it would make it extremely difficult to keep the store operating during that time as it would involve rebuilding the loading docks and knocking out the south-side walls which are where the deli and kitchen operate. Combine that with the rest of the store suffering from deferred maintenance (the problems I described were pre-Color Lifestyle but no doubt many problems remain), and it would be better to just close the store and do a large-scale rebuild anyway. And if you were going to close the store, it might as well be with a denser development.

I actually thought Randalls was hanging it up based upon recent inactivity, but they have resumed Colorful Lifestyle remodels. The store at 183/Braker in Austin is in the final stages of its makeover. This likely was spawned by the fact H-E-B is in the process of adding 40,000 square feet to its store across the street. The nearby Target is remodeling too.