The newest Kroger store was a Marketplace format in McKinney (a far flung northern, but fast-growing suburb). All the newer DFW Kroger stores are, in fact, the Marketplace format. Most of them are in far flung suburbs (Denton, Forney, Mansfield, Frisco, Prosper, etc.), although there is 1 or 2 in north Fort Worth where there's still a fair amount of undeveloped land.storewanderer wrote: ↑March 26th, 2022, 10:23 pmIt will be interesting to see. Typically the chains that follow the pattern of growth, are the chains that "win" a market long term. Chains that don't follow growth and stay in the mature areas tend to get bled out over time for one reason or another (locations get too old, neighborhoods deteriorate, etc.). This isn't always the case though and maybe DFW is one of those markets where it will work out.DFWRetaileWatcher wrote: ↑March 26th, 2022, 2:46 pm
With Central Market, you have a ton of shoppers who are making small purchases. It's not the type of store where people make weekly grocery trips to, but instead for one-off items they can't get at a Tom Thumb or Kroger. On top of that, H-E-B already has to eat up higher distribution costs having to transport those product all the way from Temple. With all the frills they jam pack into these Central Markets and how aggressive H-E-B tends to be with their staffing, I'm not surprised they aren't that profitable. It may also explain why they've only committed to opening one CM each in Houston and San Antonio.
As far as Tom Thumb / Albertson's, ironically enough, I think they will feel the least amount of pressure from H-E-B's initial debut in DFW. They have the heart of the Metroplex on lock in terms of Market Share, and their store count trail of prertty drastically as you head out into the far flung suburbs, where H-E-B is building their stores. Yes, there wil be a small contingent of DFW residents (myself included) who will drive out of their way to shop at the new H-E-B stores, but I suspect the average person who doesn't live near these new H-E-B stores will decide that driving so far to shop there isn't worth their time/money.
I am also wondering why HEB is only selecting far flung suburbs and isn't trying to get more stores in more interior locations. It seems like they have had some real estate, and then let go of it, maybe the sites wouldn't hold a large enough store or they didn't want to redevelop/buy out surrounding tenants/etc.
Does Kroger have any new stores in development and when did the last new build Kroger open?
i'm not aware of any Kroger stores currently in development though, as the McKinney store opened in 2019. The newest grocery store is likely Brookshire's Fresh format that opened in Royse City (a far flung & fast-growing eastern suburb). The last new Walmart was built in 2018, while the last new Tom Thumbs were built in Dallas' Deep Ellum & Uptown neighborhoods in 2019.
There was a Dallas Morning News article back in September about the state of grocery retail in the Metroplex, and one of the highlights was the region is ripe for a disruptor to enter the market. Walmart is what it is, but the Kroger and Tom Thumb/Albertson's locations in the heart of DFW are pretty dated. While both companies have invested in some cosmestic renovations of these stores, they're not really modernized with the frills and aesthetics of a Kroger Marketplace, Market Street, Brookshire's FRESH or modernized HEBs. The thing is, Kroger and Tom Thumb are under no pressure to modernize these stores either without some other brand coming in to give them competition.