Here is a quick post from another Drug Emporium, this one from Longview Texas.
This store has many retro features, check out the Thank you sign in the middle of this photo.
Here is the vitamins plus section which carries many vitamins and herbal supplements. This part of the store has been one of the busiest in my most recent visits to the store.
Interesting, thanks for the photos. I remember shopping at the Breck Rd. and FM 1960 W. Drug Emporium back in the 1990s when we had their stores here in Houston. That one was across Breck Rd. from North Oaks Mall and was located in a former Handy Dan hardware store. There is a 99 Cents Only store and an Anna's Linens that is using up at least some of that store space currently. I discussed more memories of the FM 1960 store in your Lafayette Drug Emporium post from last May. This store does not look like the North Oaks area 99 Cents Only store specifically, but it does look kind of sort of like some of the older Houston area 99 Cents Only stores like the FM 1960 and Jones Rd. location. Granted, Drug Emporium is not a dollar store and 99 Cents Only does not have a pharmacy, but the stores look a little bit similar.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to tell how similar the layout of this store is to the old FM 1960 Drug Emporium. I could see some possible similarities in the Lafayette photo, but it's harder to tell with this one even though you have a lot more photos of this store. That said, this store is certainly a throwback to the early to mid 1990s aside from the Vitamins Plus department. The concept of large discount pharmacies itself reminds me of the early 1990s with Phar-Mor and Drug Emporium. The store's aisle signage, which seems similar to the former FM 1960 store, is certainly vintage 1990s. The "Thank You for shopping with us" sign may be even older than the 1990s. Perhaps it came from the former tenant of the building (if there was one). It looks like it may have been a grocery store before, but I really can't tell what it might have been. I don't know what kind of grocery stores they have in Longview specifically. Perhaps it was a Brookshire's store, but I don't even know if they had/have those there. That's a total guess.
Big drug store chains like CVS and Walgreens tend to be a reliable source for things like blank audio and VHS cassettes even though some other stores have stopped selling those items. I wonder if Drug Emporium has any of those items. It would be fitting if they did given the retro look of the store.
I don't know when you last visited this store, but I'm guessing that it was around Christmas time based on the decor in the photos. If not, Drug Emporium may be even more overly enthusiastic about selling Christmas goods than Sears. Speaking of which, did you get a chance to visit the Longview Kmart during your visit or visits up there? If so, did you get any photos of it? I believe the Longview Kmart is of the modified mansard slice variety. I find the mansard slice Kmarts to be quite fascinating. Of course, any Texas Kmart is bound to be fascinating simply due to the limited number of them.
The store is about the same size as the former 1960 store, but the aisles are very long and don't leave much space in the back or the front of the store. The area has Brookshires stores, but I am not sure about the history of this store. It is remarkably clean and well stocked as you can see in the images. I did not see much in the way of electronics at the store, but I may have passed right by without noticing. The night I went to this store there were not many people so I was able to get many more photos here than in Lafayette. I did in fact make my visit to Longview towards the end of last year. I visited the Kmart and Longview Mall on my trip so you will see posts about these properties. The Longview Kmart was one of the busiest Kmart stores I have been to in a long time, but I was able to get some good photos of most of the store.
DeleteThis store was built by Drug Emporium new. It has never been anything else. At the time it was built, the Super 1 Foods next door was not planned, but a Super Saver Wholesale Warehouse was. Because of this, the land that Super 1 sits on has a specific 'no pharmacy' deed restriction, and is the only Super 1 Foods not to have one.
ReplyDeleteDrug Emporium was smart to include a no pharmacy clause for the property. Pharmacies are the big moneymakers for drugstore chains and if you can keep your next door neighbor from opening up one, then you get all of the sales. One thing that Drug Emporium stores should add to their stores are the fast health clinics like many of their competitors have done. Having a pharmacy in the same building as the clinic will increase sales and help them to compete against the larger chains.
DeleteI wouldn't wait for the clinics. This operator only owns 7-10 stores. Their niche is the Vitamins Plus section of the store.
DeleteAnd yes, Longview was the second major town where Brookshire Grocery built stores. There were 5 at the height of their popularity:
ReplyDelete#4, 1800 S. High St., remodeled into Super 1 Foods #632 (combined with a S. Mobberly store circa 1980)
#5, 2505 N. Judson Rd., now Surplus Warehouse (moved from Chapparal Plaza in 1981)
#11, 1217 E. Marshall, demolished for Super 1 Foods #612 in 1992
#22, 400 block of Pine Tree Rd. at Loop 281 (Combined with #45 when moved to old Super 1 #606)
#45, 3354 Gilmer Road, a former Food Lion. #45 has also been located at 2401 Gilmer (now Harbor Freight and Boot Barn) and at Gilmer and Loop 281, which was initially a Safeway, then Super 1 Foods #606, then #45. The building was demolished when Brookshires moved out in favor of an Eckerds/CVS and Chick-Fil-A.
Brookshire's is slowly growing but could become a major competitor if a chain like Randall's looks to get out of the Houston or Dallas markets and sells to Brookshire's. There are a few Brookshire markets in the outer suburbs of Houston, but adding stores in 30+ locations all at once would give them a good market share if they look to expand even more.
DeleteI wonder if you are confusing Brookshire Brothers with Brookshire’s. It’s very confusing, but they are two separate grocery chains. At one time they were the same (or related at least), but they have been separate for a long time now. The one that has stores in the outermost Houston suburbs/exurbs is Brookshire Brothers I do believe. The closest Brookshire’s to Houston is probably their Palestine store, but I’m sure that most would not consider that to be the Houston metro area.
DeleteThanks for the information, Scott Greer. I think I’ve read your posts on Groceteria. It’s nice that you’re posting here too. I’m actually a little surprised that the Longview Drug Emporium wasn’t something else before as the building looks like it might have been a repurpose job, but that isn’t the case.
According to Wikipedia, Drug Emporium stores are currently franchised. It is interesting that these stores have maintained such consistency from the 1990s given that they may have different owners, but perhaps the same owner owns the stores in the region. It's hard to say.
The Brookshire stores you've seen in Houston are a part of Lufkin-based Brookshire Brothers. It's an interesting story. Brookshire Brothers was started by several members of the Brookshire family in 1921 in Lufkin. In 1929, Wood T. Brookshire took the Tyler stores and formed what is today known as Tyler-based Brookshire Grocery Company, parent of Brookshire's and Super 1 Foods. Brookshire Brothers and BGC do not overlap with their namesake stores. As an example, Longview, Marshall, Kilgore and Overton have Brookshire's. Carthage, Tatum and Jacksonville have Brookshire Brothers. That's pretty much the divider in that area.
DeleteBrookshire Brothers recently acquired David's Supermarkets out of Grandview. There are a few overlapping stores, but they will remain David's. The non-overlapping stores will be rebranded.
I did not know there was a difference in the two stores, both look almost identical. I have seen Super 1 Foods stores in several areas but I have never been inside of one. Thanks for clearing that up.
DeleteWhat made the Brookshire's/Brookshire Brothers relation even more similar until recently was that they both carried the same store brand from Federated called Hy-Top. Brookshire's and Super 1 Foods changed in 2010 to Food Club, which is now being phased out in favor of the Brookshire's brand.
DeleteI'm not sure that Drug Emporium is still franchised or not. The original company no longer exists as it once did. These stores may just have bought the name.
Here is a Drug Emporium update. I was reading their Wikipedia page and there was a line on there that in August 2019, Drug Emporium renovated many of their Texas locations. The line then has a reference to the Lubbock Drug Emporium. I went to the Lubbock Drug Emporium website, which I'll link here, and they have a video of the renovated store below the store hours.
ReplyDeleteI was really quite amazed because even after the renovation, the store still has a pretty vintage 1990s look to it. I like it! Pictures of the store before the renovation can be found on Yelp or Google. It looks like the major difference is that the VitaminsPlus department is no longer green. Instead of part of the store being green and other white, now the whole store is a bit of a cream or beige color. It looks pretty nice to me. It's a classier look than the bright green I think. Aside from that, it looks like all the 1990s era department signage is still up. I'm not sure if the other 1990s aspects are still there.
If you go to the Drug Emporium homepage, which I'll link here, they have a flying tour of another one of their locations. I'm not sure which one it is and it is presumably one from before the renovations. It's kind of neat that their website flies around a store like that to give a tour of it.
So, yeah, with all the Kmarts in Texas and Louisiana closing, those wanting a vintage shopping experience for everyday goods in Texas and Louisiana might want to find a Drug Emporium store to visit. Oh, from what I can tell from some of the user comments from the various Drug Emporium locations on Yelp, it seems that Drug Emporium started accepting credit cards in 2019. I'm not sure if all the locations are taking credit cards now, but that's one part of modernizing that I don't mind Drug Emporium doing. It's just a shame we don't have their stores in Houston anymore.
It sounds like Drug Emporium is beginning to finally modernize. I always enjoyed going to their stores because it is such an old school experience.
DeleteIt looks like the Lubbock location still looks vintage despite the fresh coat of paint. I wonder if the Houston area will ever get a store in the future. I think certain areas of town would be perfect for them to open up in.
I am not sure if Drug Emporium would be interested in returning to Houston, but I would shop there again if they did. I used to shop at the Drug Emporium that used to be at the shopping center next to the North Oaks Mall in the 1990s. Granted, if Drug Emporium opened a new store, it might not vintage like a store that's been around a while, but it still seems like a neat store just like it was when they were here last. Perhaps it wouldn't hurt to contact them and let them know that there are some shoppers here in Houston who wish to see their return.
DeleteSome suburban areas would probably be happy to have a Drug Emporium store. I actually thought the company was gone a long time ago. It really surprised me when I found the one in Lafayette Louisiana, and also from the comments here. There are a lot more stores still open than I would have imagined.
DeleteI can see Drug Emporium doing well in neighborhoods where people are interested in health foods. When I read user reviews of Drug Emporium locations, which are usually quite positive, most people mention buying health foods from there. They also sometimes talk about great deals on fragrances and cosmetics.
DeleteDrug Emporium seems like one of those stores which is quite reliant on advertising in local newspapers and such. That's pretty easy in smaller communities, but I'm not sure if there are any areas of Houston that has local media like that. They do have a location in Denton so it's not like they're completely opposed to putting stores in larger population centers.
I had no idea that Drug Emporium even still existed until you made that post about the Lafayette location. I was shocked. It was probably the most shocked I've ever been reading articles on your blog. Maybe the only other shock of that magnitude was when you showed those Mexican department stores for the first time because I wasn't expecting to see department stores of that quality here in the 21st century.
But, yeah, Drug Emporium does seem to have a number of locations in this region and I suppose they have the money to renovate their stores. I'm guessing the people behind Drug Emporium are not much for taking on big amounts of debt, but I don't know. I don't think their current stores are franchised, but I don't know for sure.
Drug Emporium management must have seen worse than expected results in the Houston area, and pulled out. As we have seen with Alco, hhgregg, and the original version of Gordmans, over expansion is a killer.
DeleteI spent some time in the Omaha area in the early 90's which is where I visited my first Drug Emporium. We later went to the one on FM 1960, but it was a little out of the way for it to be our regular drugstore.
One of the reasons why they continue to exist is by changing their stores to meet customer preferences. The Lafayette store has a huge vitamin and healthy food department, whereas Longview had a much smaller one. Waco also had the larger vitamin and healthy food department. Both Waco and Lafayette are in college towns so that probably has a lot to do with their product selection.
I was surprised to see the Drug Emporium as well and even more surprised to find out that it was not the only one left. Every now and then I come across something extraordinary for the blog, like finding a Drug Emporium. The crazy thing is that I have not covered a lot of areas that I wanted to when I started the blog.
You make a good observation that Drug Emporium seems to do well in college towns. I looked at the Denton location on a map and it's seemingly within walking distance of Texas Women's University and the University of North Texas is not far from it either. I'm not sure how far the Tyler Drug Emporium is from UT-Tyler, but it can't be that far. I can see college students and faculty being interested in Drug Emporium's products and maybe even with their more personal service as well.
DeleteIt seems that all the existing Drug Emporium stores have been around in their communities for decades now. Some of the customers for the pharmacies have probably been with them since the 1990s. It'll be hard for Drug Emporium to come into Houston and have that kind of customer base and loyalty right away. A business like Drug Emporium might be better off sticking to captive customers in smaller towns where they can advertise effectively in local media and so forth.
I was browsing the Drug Emporium website a little further and I found another 2019 remodeling video. This one is on the Abilene location's website. I'll provide a link to the video here. Once again, they make a pretty big deal about the renovations, but I'm not exactly sure how much is new besides the paint. Maybe they've reorganized the aisles to free up some room. I seem to remember the North Oaks Drug Emporium being a little bit of a tight fit.
The funny thing about Drug Emporium is that you probably wouldn't have thought that it was anything worth visiting if you didn't have a prior history with them. A local pharmacy, vitamins, and health food store doesn't seem like anything interesting, but you probably remembered that their stores had an interesting mix of products in the 1990s. Fortunately, it hasn't stopped being the 1990s at Drug Emporium, lol. Drug Emporium is kind of like a store like Alco where it's easy to overlook, but I'm glad you found them or else I'd probably never know that they still existed and are seemingly doing well.
The remodeled Drug Emporium does not look too much different than before. The store department signage is still the same as I have seen at the other locations. The lighting and floor space were mentioned so a lot of the clutter was probably cleaned up.
DeleteThey still have a good selection of odd products that a lot of similar stores do not have including lesser known sodas and candies. For the cities that have a Drug Emporium, it is a good alternative to the larger chains.