Greetings, this is Anonymous in Houston here, guest blogger at Houston Historic Retail and occasionally at other retail blogs. Someone mentioned this comment about the Cypresswood Krogertsons to me and so I thought I would send a comment about this store via Pseudo3D since I know this store and the area very well.
The current head of the Houston Kroger division, Laura Gump, was a nearly 30 year veteran of HEB and she also spent some time recently as VP of store operations at Home Depot. If Kroger’s Houston stores are looking a bit dumpy lately, it is because their leadership has a lot of experience running dumpy stores. Granted, from what I’ve seen online, Houston’s Krogers aren’t as bad off as, say, Atlanta’s Krogers.
As for the Cypresswood Krogertsons itself, keep in mind that the store is in an area which has many other Kroger stores, mostly ones which were formerly called Signature stores, nearby. I’d describe the Krogertsons as a neighborhood store, a smaller Kroger which one would have to drive past to get to a competitor’s store. There is another Kroger on Cypresswood about 2.5 miles to the east which is the very first Kroger Signature store. It is a nicer store situated in the middle of a wealthy suburban neighborhood and the closest competition that store has is a Randall’s. Those wanting a premium Kroger experience, or at least as premium as one can expect in 2023, will go to that store or one of the other Kroger Signature stores in the area.
At around 55k, the Krogertsons is on the smaller side for Houston Krogers. The bakery is indeed a bit smaller than normal as are all the service departments, but it has all the service departments one would expect a Kroger to have. Like a lot of smaller Houston Krogers, this Krogertsons does not have online order pickup. It is a bit of an odd omission here in 2023, but the benefit is that there is plenty of close-in parking for in-store customers. It is an easy store to get in and out of.
I think HHR guest blogger billytheskink did a great job describing in HHR’s latest ‘The Year of Kroger’ series post why many Houstonians, including yours truly, like these smaller neighborhood Kroger locations. They have 90%+ of the stuff a bigger Kroger has while being very easy to shop at and far less hectic than other Krogers and other supersized grocers:
https://houstonhistoricretail.com/2023/ ... -my-store/
Galveston aside, Houston’s Krogers have pitiful hot delis. Actually, this is a Houston thing and not just a Kroger thing. HEB and Randall’s also have very small hot delis which mostly only feature fried chicken and sandwiches. I confirmed with an HEB employee at a larger Houston store that they don't have much more than soups so if you saw something to the contrary, it probably wasn't at HEB or it was something else that you saw. I was recently in Portland, OR and the Fred Meyer and Safeway/Albertsons stores there have much, much nicer hot delis than any typical Houston supermarket. Perhaps it is because fast food is (relatively) cheap and plentiful here, but hot delis are not taken seriously here. This is just the cultural norm for supermarkets here. Grocers did try expanded hot delis here in the 1980s and 1990s, but it didn’t stick.
The produce department at the Cypresswood Krogertsons is a normal size. It has basically everything a much larger Kroger would have. People in the 249 area who want expanded produce selection will go to the Fiesta Mart, but that itself is an interesting story which you can read about here:
https://southernretail.blogspot.com/202 ... 0-and.html
The main problems the Cypresswood Krogertsons has are problems most Houston Krogers have: understaffing with only one or two manned checkouts open, cheapskate décor like concrete floors, and poor inventory control on certain items. I made many visits to Fred Meyer in the Portland suburbs and Kroger’s operations are much stronger up there. Things like the dairy case, which are Swiss cheese-like here, were full up there. Fred Meyer had 4-5 lanes open. Kroger has a better operation up there.
But, of course, Kroger is competing mainly against Walmart and HEB here and those are both deep discount operations so expect things to be bad. I reckon the HEB you visited is The Vintage HEB (not that it is vintage, that is just the name of the shopping district it is in). At first glance, the store might look really remarkable. It is packed, it is big, it does a lot of business. This is all true, but when you start to look closely, you’ll find that the parking lot is a madhouse. The spots are tight...even more so when you consider the big cars people drive here. The store is tight and HEB’s maze-like layout only adds to congestion. The departments are large not because they have a ton of stuff, but mainly because they have to be big to hold the huge crowds. Even still, cart crashes are frequent and you’re always dodging ‘personal shoppers’ at the bigger HEBs. It is not a pleasant place to shop aside from the front end where HEB still defaults to manned checkouts with self-checkouts being reserved for people making small purchases. Even with 7-8 open manned checkouts, there are still long lines. Oh, and the stores have all the visual appeal of a Home Depot sans the forklifts. These are high volume stores.
HEB uses a regional model as opposed to the traditional Houston norm of neighborhood stores. This means HEB stores are often on freeways, like The Vintage, and are madhouses. ‘The People of Walmart’ in Houston has quickly become ‘The People of HEB’. In fact, at that very The Vintage store a month ago, two customers got into a dispute and one shot multiple rounds into the store. Fortunately, nobody was injured, but crazy things like that are the norm at HEB.
As Pseudo3D mentioned, HEB doesn’t really have great service departments. They do have some cuts of meat which aren’t available elsewhere, but the quality isn’t any better than Kroger’s and I’d rate Kroger’s produce above HEB’s most of the time. A big problem with HEB is that they don’t sell a lot of national brands. They push their store brands hard. Now, HEB’s store brands are generally good quality and they have some unique flavors, but if you want a normal selection of national brands, you’ll be heading to Kroger or Randall’s.
HEB is cheap, and the manned checkout focus is better than what Kroger offers, but there are many reasons why someone would deem Kroger to still be the better option. After all, Kroger has good store brands as well and their pricing is very competitive...though you have to jump through some hoops at Kroger to get the best prices. But, anyway, shopping at HEB is like shopping at Walmart, but with a better front end and a more chaotic store experience. Oh, and Walmart’s general merchandise is way better than HEB’s even at HEB Plus stores which are not numerous in Houston. If you really want the best prices, you’d go to HEB’s Joe V’s stores anyway where you get an austerity shopping experience not too dissimilar than HEB, but with lower prices on meat, produce, and center store items.
Long story short, for all of Kroger’s faults, there are reasons why many of Houston’s retail enthusiasts shop at Kroger and Randall’s over HEB.