Randalls to open a new store in Georgetown

[pseudo3d]

The first Randalls store to be built through Albertsons entirely will be in Austin, about five miles northwest from a defunct Albertsons on the Interstate. The store will be a little under 60k square feet, which is modest but smaller than H-E-B. The features planned seem pretty modest as well, Starbucks, drive through pharmacy, gas, deli, seafood, zzz....sushi wasn't listed but I'm not sure if that means anything.

http://www.statesman.com/news/business/ ... own/nskXG/

[storewanderer]

Sounds like a textbook new Safeway.

Who bought who again?

[architect]

Sounds like a textbook new Safeway.

Who bought who again?

Prior to being the Albertsons merger, Randalls was largely being run from the corporate level by Safeway, as the division office in Houston had been cut down to minimal staff. As a result, Randalls still retains a strong vestige of Safeway's "generic" operations, especially in Austin where many of their stores are simply too old and small to truly differentiate themselves. The biggest reason they have been able to stay relevant in the Austin market is simply due to being the only traditional competitor to HEB (although Whole Foods also provides serious competition). Most of HEB's Austin-area stores have been either rebuilt or significantly upgraded in recent years, but prior to that, Randalls was considered to be a equivalently competitive chain against HEB.

With this Georgetown store, it will be interesting to see if there is a discernible "Albertsons influence" to the design.

[pseudo3d]

Sounds like a textbook new Safeway.

Who bought who again?

To be fair, Albertsons stores were pretty generic and about the same size too. I don't think Albertsons got much more than 60k square feet anyway, and frankly, "unique" features are far and few between even in other supermarkets (beer and wine bars, specialized departments, etc.)

The real test will be if it has a better merchandise mix than Randalls traditionally have had.