Here is the short lived Fiesta Marketplace market in Sugar Land Texas. I visited the store in the day (Late March) and again at night (Final Week) to see what may have caused the quick demise of this store.
Opened July 17, 2013
Closed April 20, 2014
This sign was on the entrance doors in the final week of business. I wonder if this sign was approved or if nobody noticed it had been placed on the door.
Now for the inside of the market. The market looked much better in person than it did in the promotional photos.
The Caribou Coffee was at the front of the store, this was the only location in the Houston area of this popular coffee chain.
A Red Mango kiosk inside of the store near the prepared foods counter.
Here are my opinions as to why this store failed so quickly. Many of the departments that Fiesta is known for are downsized to make space for other departments such as the wine section which was probably too big for a store of this size. Many of the departments that were downsized did not have enough products to find what you needed or find a sale item. The basics of what Fiesta has succeeded at along with the extras would have been a better fit, instead of the other way around. The store should have been larger that it was (about 50,000 sq ft) to have been able to compete with the more established higher end grocers. Finally the whole shopping center is mostly hidden behind a freeway ramp you will not see this store unless you are on the service road.
The store had many positives as well, with the variety and kiosks inside of the store with coffee, yogurt, and prepared foods. The employees were very nice and have all been transferred to other area Fiesta stores.
