I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt because I don't recall the signs in Pavilions being rounded like these signs...ClownLoach wrote: ↑March 3rd, 2024, 3:43 pmThe signs look like they came right out of the Westminster store that closed. They never remodeled it out of Pavilions decor when downgrading to Vons.ClownLoach wrote: ↑March 1st, 2024, 8:38 amThis picture from a Randalls Flagship was taken a month ago. Woof. What in the world were they thinking? Extra, extra neon version of the cheap lifestyle repaint coupled with leftover Pavilions decor from the mid 2000s...pseudo3d wrote: ↑February 29th, 2024, 8:37 pm
It's just Tom Thumb Fine Foods (not "Finer").
The Flagship moniker for Randalls was a little more complicated. As I understand it, under original ownership, the Flagship name was promoted but not used as a store title (Randalls Flagship at Westheimer and Shepherd definitely opened as Randalls on the outside) and was more for the stores features, with more upscale items and a sit-down in-store restaurant. Later stores were "New Generation" which also had no special name on the outside, but were even larger (75k-80k square feet) with more of a focus on perishables. I read an article but can't find it that this was more-or-less inspired by Wegmans, so the perishables had things like the deli serving sandwiches, pizza, salad bar, and the seafood department even whipping up fish and chips. There was at least one Tom Thumb that got a New Generation-style store (and Austin as well, that was the one that closed) but the non-Houston market were weirder as the Austin market was entirely composed of old AppleTree (Safeway) stores and small Tom Thumb stores (some of them converted from a chain Cullum bought in the early 1970s, Rylander). Compared to the palaces that Randalls had built, these were dumps. Dallas had some small Tom Thumb stores (many of which are still there today) as well as some larger "Tom Thumb-Page" combo stores (they acquired a small drug store chain), so the Tom Thumb New Generation stores weren't really a good fit.
Once Safeway took over, they rebranded a few Randalls Flagship stores with a new "Flagship Randalls" logo (this is what it looked like, though I'm sure better photos can be found elsewhere), which was a takeoff of the Pavilions logo, and remerchandised to be closer to whatever Pavilions was offering at the time (no Panda Express though), but all these started to become irrelevant as time went on and the chain suffered. Later on, the Randalls Flagship stores (what was left of them) got another logo that was just the word "Flagship" under Randalls but by that time it was pretty much meaningless.
When a Randalls Flagship was rebuilt in the early 2010s they had used the new Randalls Flagship logo, and that was also what the Westheimer/Shepherd store used before it closed. As far as I know, there aren't any Tom Thumb Flagship stores.
Also that they have two of these signs hanging...
But...
Found photos of that Westminster Pavilions... appear to be two of these hanging signs on produce there... clearly the same signs but slightly different style at Westminster, but Westminster had a slightly different decor style than many Pavilions. https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/vons-we ... e=(direct)
Tough to believe they are taking used decor from SoCal and circulating it down in Houston... seems like it would be cheaper to just get new fixtures... this isn't like moving stuff nearby... wow.
I guess recycled Lifestyle interiors are really... recycled... and going long distances...