Brookshire Bros. opening - College Station, TX

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pseudo3d
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Brookshire Bros. opening - College Station, TX

Post by pseudo3d »

The new Brookshire Bros. opened in College Station (445 George Bush Drive West) about 2 to 3 days ago, and it's a far cry from the Brookshire Bros. most are familiar with. The chain usually operates in smaller towns and tends to be pretty dowdy, but the one built on A&M campus (technically) is a full-featured store. The local media ran a piece on it here but it seems to be more of a specialty type grocery store than anything else. It's not big (no bigger than 40k square feet). From my own walkaround, the produce section is small but didn't look bad--could be new, but most of the independents are/were supplied by Grocers Supply Company, which had pretty bad produce. The meat/seafood section is small but has a lot of specialty meat items (like beef-stuffed mushrooms, etc.) and bulk products made at the Rosenthal Meat Center (TAMU building) a few miles away.

There's a pharmacy toward the back, a small bakery, and a large deli area. It doesn't seem to have the sliced cold cuts, but it's more on the emphasis on prepared foods, from traditional plates (fried chicken, fried okra, mashed potatoes) to burritos to sandwiches, even a self-serve salad bar. (Cold foods by the pound aren't plentiful, but they're there).

The store combined its coffee bar with a beer and wine bar like a lot of stores have been doing (though because of liquor laws, they can't serve hard liquor/mixed drinks in-store), and it has a huge outdoor seating area, with two levels of seating and an amphitheater.

Store brands are Food Club where available, and it has a bit of a strange selection, the soda section is a third of what H-E-B or Kroger has, yet it has five flavors of Frostie's soft drinks, which is almost unheard of.

It makes for a real interesting store that compensates for its small size with some unique features.
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Re: Brookshire Bros. opening - College Station, TX

Post by retailfanmitchell019 »

pseudo3d wrote: April 22nd, 2021, 10:01 pm but most of the independents are/were supplied by Grocers Supply Company, which had pretty bad produce.
I think that wholesaler distributes the Parade brand from private label broker Federated Foods: http://www.fedgroup.com/
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Re: Brookshire Bros. opening - College Station, TX

Post by pseudo3d »

retailfanmitchell019 wrote: April 23rd, 2021, 9:53 am
pseudo3d wrote: April 22nd, 2021, 10:01 pm but most of the independents are/were supplied by Grocers Supply Company, which had pretty bad produce.
I think that wholesaler distributes the Parade brand from private label broker Federated Foods: http://www.fedgroup.com/
They used to carry Parade, actually. After GSC got bought out, I think they had Best Yet for a while, which is still in other independents.
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Re: Brookshire Bros. opening - College Station, TX

Post by wnetmacman »

pseudo3d wrote: April 23rd, 2021, 12:18 pm
retailfanmitchell019 wrote: April 23rd, 2021, 9:53 am
pseudo3d wrote: April 22nd, 2021, 10:01 pm but most of the independents are/were supplied by Grocers Supply Company, which had pretty bad produce.
I think that wholesaler distributes the Parade brand from private label broker Federated Foods: http://www.fedgroup.com/
They used to carry Parade, actually. After GSC got bought out, I think they had Best Yet for a while, which is still in other independents.
Brookshire Brothers of Lufkin is self-distributing, but they get Food Club from Topco Associates. They seem to copy a lot of ideas from Brookshire Grocery in Tyler, which is a sister company to them. Wood Brookshire actually took the Tyler stores and split from his brothers in 1929, and they operated on a gentleman's non-compete agreement until the Brothers took over David's a few years ago. Both companies used Federated's Hy-Top for many years. Brookshire Grocery uses their own house brand now.
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