Retail Watchers

I was in Houston on Friday and made a stop at several area Randalls to see what things were like; frankly, my experiences were all over the map:

The store at Memorial Dr/Beltway 8 (Town and Country) was as packed as I have ever seen it. The customer base was definitely older-skewing, but most had substantial carts, so clearly they were doing their regular shopping there. The store was overall in excellent condition, having completed a recent Colorful Lifestyle remodel with LED lighting upgrades and well-stocked perishable departments. Based on what I saw, it would not surprise me if this is the high-performer for the market.

The store at Holcombe/Buffalo Speedway had some traffic, but not as much as I have noticed in the past at this location. This was particularly noticeable considering that I was visiting during what should have been the after-work rush. Perishable departments were not completely bare, but definitely looked more picked-over than the Town and Country store. The store was upgraded to Colorful Lifestyle some time ago, but has not yet but upgraded to LED lighting, which made it feel quite dim and drab by comparison.

The store at San Felipe/Sage was by far the most concerning. The store had received a Colorful Lifestyle remodel since my last visit along with LED lighting, but otherwise, general upkeep was lacking. Water-stained ceiling tiles were fairly common, and the entry vestibule had a distinct mildew odor. Product selection seemed a bit sparse here as well, and there appeared to be more people walking around killing time or picking up 1-2 items vs. doing their routine grocery shopping here. For comparison, the H‑E‑B down the street was packed with shoppers and a mostly full parking lot in the after-work rush. Frankly, with what I saw, I am surprised that Albertsons is continuing to invest in this store with what appears to be noticeably low traffic.

Another Randalls closure, this time in South Austin:

https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/randalls-closing-underperforming-store-on-mopac-in-southwest-austin/

This closure is not particularly surprising, as the store has seemed to have perpetually low foot traffic over several visits in the last five years or so. It is also quite a large store. It is revealing that Albertsons wasn’t able to make this store work, as it is located at a highly trafficked intersection, on the right side of the road for evening commuters. The closest H‑E‑B to the east down William Cannon is also a massive pain to get in and out of, and is always packed, which should have made this Randalls a reasonable alternative if it had been merchandised/priced properly.

It’s kind of weird they only announced the one store closing. Usually they announce several at the same time. Maybe they’ve finally cut all the unprofitable stores. But yeah, you’re right. This store is at a major intersection on the “going home” side. Kind of pathetic they couldn’t make it work.

I was all ready to make some odd comment about there only being 12 remaining Randalls in Austin metro (quick Google map search), several w/out pharmacies, but then I went to look at a comparably sized population area and realized that Associated has sold off so many "Fresh Market" and Dans stores in the Salt Lake County/Summit County/Tooele County area₁ that they are down to like 16 locations between all their brands now.

Food retailing really has changed a lot over the past few decades.

¹Chosen due to similar population size/mix of legacy grocers, chains, supercenters

SamSpade wrote: ↑July 26th, 2021, 3:56 pm I was all ready to make some odd comment about there only being 12 remaining Randalls in Austin metro (quick Google map search), several w/out pharmacies, but then I went to look at a comparably sized population area and realized that Associated has sold off so many "Fresh Market" and Dans stores in the Salt Lake County/Summit County/Tooele County area₁ that they are down to like 16 locations between all their brands now.

Food retailing really has changed a lot over the past few decades.

¹Chosen due to similar population size/mix of legacy grocers, chains, supercenters

I'm counting 9 Fresh Market, 15 Maceys, 2 Dans, and 2 Dicks for AFS Corporate within about an hour of SLC. But they have gotten rid of a lot of former Albertsons locations.

As far as Austin and Randalls goes, I think the problem here is when Safeway owned Randalls they ran the thing like a CA Store. Of all the TX markets, Austin was the place where that CA format went over the best. Now over time as Albertsons has been running the stores there have been changes to these stores in Texas including Austin where they are not necessarily so similar to a California Safeway anymore. While this may have helped (?) performance around Dallas, it likely did not help in Austin and it sure hasn't helped in Houston.

Looking at this store that is closing there is a Whole Foods right past it "on the way home" and maybe that captured the customer who didn't care how much they paid. Meanwhile the HEB down the road seems to out-assort, out-price, and out-service the Randalls. So I can see how this particular Randalls ended up failing. HEB seems to be a very tough competitor.

Another Austin Randalls bites the dust. The lease ran out on the West 35th Street store and the land owner is going to demolish the building housing the store and replace it with a mixed-use development. Store is supposed to close for good in early November.

https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/ ... locations/

Greggo wrote: ↑September 30th, 2021, 2:42 pm Another Austin Randalls bites the dust. The lease ran out on the West 35th Street store and the land owner is going to demolish the building housing the store and replace it with a mixed-use development. Store is supposed to close for good in early November.

https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/ ... locations/

I anticipate that this is not the last time that we will see this happen, considering skyrocketing land values in the Austin metro. Additionally, this store was fairly small and outdated (being an old Safeway), though it has continued to receive decent shopper traffic. I am honestly surprised that HEB hasn't opened a store in this area (outside of Central Market, that is). It's quite underserved, with the closest mainline grocers being the HEB on Burnet Rd. and another (very small) Randalls to the west on Exposition Blvd. The area would seemingly be a perfect candidate for one of their dense urban stores, much like they have done in the Houston area.

They say they are looking for new sites to build new Randalls Stores in Austin. The bigger question is, do Austin shoppers actually want new Randalls Stores?

Should take a carbon copy of one of the two Boise Albertsons Market Streets, plant it in Austin, and see what happens... (don't call it Randalls...).

storewanderer wrote: ↑September 30th, 2021, 6:07 pm They say they are looking for new sites to build new Randalls Stores in Austin. The bigger question is, do Austin shoppers actually want new Randalls Stores?

Should take a carbon copy of one of the two Boise Albertsons Market Streets, plant it in Austin, and see what happens... (don't call it Randalls...).

Yeah, return Albertsons to Austin after a 14 year absence.

While I think Randalls sadly has a very limited future in Austin and especially Houston, I do know for a fact they were planning to remodel this store to Colorful Lifestyle. So they still had faith in it. An employee was geeking out and told me many months ago that he was pumped about the sushi kiosk they were supposed to be getting. It’s fairly well known that Randalls was looking to add a small urban store (think Dallas Tom Thumb) to a new high-rise development adjacent to downtown Austin, but the zoning debates for the project went off the rails and it was resubmitted with no retail. It seems like they want to try, but they are cursed or inept. Within the last 1-2 years they lost one Austin store to H‑E‑B in a lease bidding war, closed an Austin store they said had low sales and are now closing another Austin store after losing their lease. And they don’t have a big store count in Austin to begin with. I will say it is interesting the RXs for the closing West 35th Street store were sold to Walgreens instead of just being transferred to the Randalls on Balcones. Seems like you’d want to drive customers to another nearby store. I guess they thought selling the records was more lucrative. Mixed messages.