Tom Thumb to enter Waxahachie

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Tom Thumb to enter Waxahachie

Post by pseudo3d »

This came out of left field. It's both the first real expansion Albertsons has done in any market in years, one of the few new stores announced, it's surprising to see Tom Thumb operating this far south as a name, and the relatively large size of the store at 60,000 square feet.

60k square feet is small compared to H-E-B but it's pretty large compared to what Albertsons has built recently, especially in Texas. While it is the first Tom Thumb in the county, Cleburne (southwest Fort Worth area) has had a Kroger, Albertsons, and H-E-B all co-existing for years.

I'm not sure about it—H-E-B isn't a death sentence; the bigger challenge is the way corporate Albertsons is run. If they can counter the annoying facets of H-E-B, then they can make it work...and they've already got a slight advantage since Kroger left in the 1990s and the only other supermarket in town is an independent.

The next nearest Albertsons in the DFW area is in Cedar Hill (and branded as an Albertsons).

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Re: Tom Thumb to enter Waxahachie

Post by biggins »

I've been to the H-E-B in Waxahachie many times, and it is one of my favorite stores for selection and size. It's not as overwhelming as the Plus stores, but it carries a much broader selection than the typical 'rural' H-E-Bs you might find in Ennis or Stephenville. Tom Thumb will have a difficult time carving into this market unless they locate somewhere close to new and planned growth, but perhaps isolated from the city's main retail area along US-77- to give themselves a captive market, in a manner of speaking. The overall market is growing quickly (as with all counties around DFW), so I expect it will be at least partially successful.
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Re: Tom Thumb to enter Waxahachie

Post by storewanderer »

This follows new store openings by Albertsons. They go for areas with high growth and this fits the bill. I am not sure why they are bothering at this point given the pending merger with Kroger, and that HEB is there.

This was one of the few HEB locations I've been to. I was underwhelmed, but I was looking for a better perimeter. Or at least one I could actually buy lunch from. This store failed on that front.
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Re: Tom Thumb to enter Waxahachie

Post by pseudo3d »

storewanderer wrote: January 9th, 2023, 11:35 pm This follows new store openings by Albertsons. They go for areas with high growth and this fits the bill. I am not sure why they are bothering at this point given the pending merger with Kroger, and that HEB is there.
They can't just drop everything with the Kroger merger, besides, if Kroger does end up getting the company, they keep this store 100% since the last Kroger in Waxahachie left in the late 1990s.

This was one of the few HEB locations I've been to. I was underwhelmed, but I was looking for a better perimeter. Or at least one I could actually buy lunch from. This store failed on that front.
H-E-B stores don't have service deli (just sliced cold cuts). A few have an in-store restaurant near the concept, but it's not universal. This is one of the "annoying facets" of H-E-B I mentioned.
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Re: Tom Thumb to enter Waxahachie

Post by storewanderer »

pseudo3d wrote: January 10th, 2023, 4:17 pm
storewanderer wrote: January 9th, 2023, 11:35 pm This follows new store openings by Albertsons. They go for areas with high growth and this fits the bill. I am not sure why they are bothering at this point given the pending merger with Kroger, and that HEB is there.
They can't just drop everything with the Kroger merger, besides, if Kroger does end up getting the company, they keep this store 100% since the last Kroger in Waxahachie left in the late 1990s.

This was one of the few HEB locations I've been to. I was underwhelmed, but I was looking for a better perimeter. Or at least one I could actually buy lunch from. This store failed on that front.
H-E-B stores don't have service deli (just sliced cold cuts). A few have an in-store restaurant near the concept, but it's not universal. This is one of the "annoying facets" of H-E-B I mentioned.
If Kroger wanted a store in Waxahachie again, they would have put a Marketplace Store there some time ago.

It will be interesting to see how this store does if/when it opens. Why would people pay higher prices/accept a smaller mix when there are already lower cost/better mix options in that town?

We know Kroger has no fears about not opening stores under construction that come to it in progress with a merger. The new build Fred Meyer in Phoenix learned the hard way how that works.
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Re: Tom Thumb to enter Waxahachie

Post by retailfanmitchell019 »

storewanderer wrote: January 10th, 2023, 6:11 pm We know Kroger has no fears about not opening stores under construction that come to it in progress with a merger. The new build Fred Meyer in Phoenix learned the hard way how that works.
That aborted Fred Meyer was at 35th and Bethany Home in Phoenix. Kroger could've turned that into a "Fry's Superstore" concept. Unfortunately, it was torn down for a Walmart Supercenter.
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I wonder if Fred Meyer was considering putting its own stores in SoCal back then? They bought land sites around Sacramento. I can imagine their goal was to go south from there...
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Re: Tom Thumb to enter Waxahachie

Post by pseudo3d »

storewanderer wrote: January 10th, 2023, 6:11 pm If Kroger wanted a store in Waxahachie again, they would have put a Marketplace Store there some time ago.
Not really. They were really building Marketplace in the mid-2010s but then slowed down to a dead crawl. They allowed H-E-B to get the jump on them in Houston as it continued with inner-area stores and went from planning a Kroger Marketplace in College Station to closing one of their stores (though they did extensively remodel and expand one of their mid-2000s stores).

It will be interesting to see how this store does if/when it opens. Why would people pay higher prices/accept a smaller mix when there are already lower cost/better mix options in that town?
Well, there is an independent in town...but the funny thing is H-E-B's mix isn't actually that good, at least as their square footage would suggest. They push their own store brand extensively, as well. My Plus store in Kyle, TX has lots of store-brand yellow mustard that took up 40 slots in the shelf between three sizes. In comparison, French's got six, and an additional bargain-basement brand owned by H-E-B took up two more.
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Re: Tom Thumb to enter Waxahachie

Post by storewanderer »

pseudo3d wrote: January 10th, 2023, 8:31 pm
storewanderer wrote: January 10th, 2023, 6:11 pm If Kroger wanted a store in Waxahachie again, they would have put a Marketplace Store there some time ago.
Not really. They were really building Marketplace in the mid-2010s but then slowed down to a dead crawl. They allowed H-E-B to get the jump on them in Houston as it continued with inner-area stores and went from planning a Kroger Marketplace in College Station to closing one of their stores (though they did extensively remodel and expand one of their mid-2000s stores).

It will be interesting to see how this store does if/when it opens. Why would people pay higher prices/accept a smaller mix when there are already lower cost/better mix options in that town?
Well, there is an independent in town...but the funny thing is H-E-B's mix isn't actually that good, at least as their square footage would suggest. They push their own store brand extensively, as well. My Plus store in Kyle, TX has lots of store-brand yellow mustard that took up 40 slots in the shelf between three sizes. In comparison, French's got six, and an additional bargain-basement brand owned by H-E-B took up two more.
Well that is how HEB does volume. They push cheap products out. I have said it before; HEB is no Hy Vee and is no Publix either. That is why I can't wait to watch HEB vs. WinCo play out. I am not a Texan so I know what side of that team I am rooting for, and which side of that team I think has a better store. But HEB and WinCo strategy is completely different. HEB has proven they will penetrate an area. WinCo does not use that strategy and typically locates stores few and far between.
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Re: Tom Thumb to enter Waxahachie

Post by jamcool »

retailfanmitchell019 wrote: January 10th, 2023, 6:22 pm
storewanderer wrote: January 10th, 2023, 6:11 pm We know Kroger has no fears about not opening stores under construction that come to it in progress with a merger. The new build Fred Meyer in Phoenix learned the hard way how that works.
That aborted Fred Meyer was at 35th and Bethany Home in Phoenix. Kroger could've turned that into a "Fry's Superstore" concept. Unfortunately, it was torn down for a Walmart Supercenter.
Off Topic
I wonder if Fred Meyer was considering putting its own stores in SoCal back then? They bought land sites around Sacramento. I can imagine their goal was to go south from there...
Fry’s kept the former Smitty’s store open while letting the new Fred Meyer site stay unused (it was ready to be stocked and signaged before Kroger decided to convert the local Fred Meyers-which were changed from Smitty’s just a few years before that-to their dominant Fry’s banner)
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Re: Tom Thumb to enter Waxahachie

Post by retailfanmitchell019 »

storewanderer wrote: January 11th, 2023, 7:20 pm Well that is how HEB does volume. They push cheap products out. I have said it before; HEB is no Hy Vee and is no Publix either. That is why I can't wait to watch HEB vs. WinCo play out. I am not a Texan so I know what side of that team I am rooting for, and which side of that team I think has a better store. But HEB and WinCo strategy is completely different. HEB has proven they will penetrate an area. WinCo does not use that strategy and typically locates stores few and far between.
HEB seems to have a cult following in Texas. I could see why: they have huge stores, they manufacture their own goods, and they are still family owned. Great quality also.
That is why I think they'd be a great buyer for Albertsons/Market Street/Tom Thumb DFW assuming the Kroger merger fails.
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