Surprise, surprise......
I had no plans on revising the Katy Mills Mall for the blog, but here we go. An evening late November 2021 visit with a surprise.
Here is a cool link to past photos of the mall provided by a blog reader "unknown" Katy Mills Shopping Mall (archive.org)
So what is this store and why am I covering it?
Any guesses yet?
Yes here is the reveal, if you didn't already guess it. A new F.Y.E. store. As you may know F.Y.E. has been gone from the Houston area for around a decade now. The original Katy Mills store closed in 2011. This one must be brand new because there is only one review online.
The store is a lot like the Think Geek stores that were recently closed. There is a lot of collectables, candy, tshirts, records and toys. There are some movies, CD's, audio equipment, and video games. It is really awesome to see this store come back to the Houston area.
The F.Y.E. is a couple of spaces down from the original F.Y.E. location that was here.
Now for some Katy Mills photos. Here is the mall directory. I only snapped a handful of photos of the mall itself. As you may know, the mall was renovated a couple of years ago and all of the 1990's color scheme and neon was taken out.
This is the massive space where F.Y.E. originally had a store over a decade ago at Katy Mills. There are three entrances to this space (the other entrance is not pictured). As you can see it is now a Tilt Studio. The background of the signage is exactly the same as it was for the F.Y.E.
Bland mall design with Christmas cheer.
The Food Pavilion. Just call it what it is, a food court!
Sun and Ski Sports, one of the original anchors.
The sitting areas are the only areas with color besides the storefronts themselves.
Bass Pro Shop another original anchor.
The look of the mall is just so bland now.
The main entrance to the mall at the food court has this awesome color changing LED signage. This is the only mall entrance with this, the others are bland in comparison. One of the road signs also has color changing LED, but I was unable to get a picture of that sign.
All in all, Katy Mills is not much different over the years besides the bland remodel. The anchor lineup features Burlington, Sun and Ski Sports, Bass Pro Shop, AMC, Ross, Books a Million, and Marshall's. Bed Bath and Beyond, Steve and Barry's, and Circuit City have closed over the years, but the anchor lineup has been fairly stable for a 22 year old mall.
I’ve seen recent pictures of the interior of Katy Mills and it seems like the number of empty storefronts are increasing.
ReplyDeleteThat seems to be the case. A lot more Mom and Pop retailers have taken up storefronts as well. The edges of the mall have struggled from the beginning and some storefronts in the center of the mall have emptied out. The outlet feel of the mall is going away as well. A lot of the "Outlet" stores are not much different from the regular stores these days. The area has a ton of nearby retail, you could almost say there is too much for the area.
DeleteIt is funny that you posted this because last week, I was considering ordering something from the FYE website. While I was there browsing around for music albums, I went to their store locator and noticed that the Katy Mills location was on there. I was a bit surprised about that and I was struggling to remember if the original Katy Mills FYE, which I do remember, ever did close. I probably should have remembered that all Houston FYEs did close and that the Beaumont Suncoast was the closest location, but I guess I was so surprised to see Katy Mills on the list that I forgot about that even though we've discussed it many times!
ReplyDeleteBut, yeah, it's neat that FYE has returned to the Houston area. Katy Mills might be really bland these days, but the presence of Books-A-Million and FYE does give some unique things for this area. I'm glad to see that FYE's new owners are investing in the chain. The store is quite large, but it looks like they don't have a ton of music and movies. It seems like it's mostly full of pop culture stuff, but some albums are better than none. If nothing else, that Donna Summer CD which is visible in one of your photos is probably a winner and not too expensive either!
Hopefully FYE will open some more stores in the Houston area. They would bring some much needed variety to our malls especially with Think Geek's problems. I've ordered CDs from the FYE website before in recent years so it would be nice to be able to visit them in-person again as well.
I was really excited to see this store. We gave them some business and bought some sodas while we were there. It was an odd set of events that brought us down to Katy that evening, but I will spare the boring details, lol.
DeleteAfter going to F.Y.E., we went to the former F.Y.E. now known as Tilt Studio. Now that was a huge store, there is no way F.Y.E. could fill a store up like that and keep it profitable. The new store is a decent size, there is room to grow.
Books A Million is starting to look very tired and worn down like Barnes and Noble stores these days. If Books a Million ever shuts down, 2nd and Charles or Vintage Stock could move into that location.
I would really like to see more F.Y.E stores, if this one does well we should see more in the future. They have a great location near Tilt Studios, Ross, Five Below, and the Food Court.
Very cool! FYE definitely seems to be expanding again under their new ownership, which is great to see. Hopefully the stores are performing well, also. I'd love to see them return to my region.
ReplyDeleteFingers crossed that they revive the Sam Goody nameplate as well. This store was definitely a surprise, I never thought F.Y.E would come back to the area after leaving so long ago. I wonder if the new company is going to remodel the old stores and rebrand them all as F.Y.E.
DeleteWith the loss of Think Geek stores, there is an opportunity for the new version of F.Y.E. to make a comeback.
I'm interested to see what happens with the old stores also. There are a handful of Sam Goodys and Suncoasts still out there, plus a couple other one-off brands as well. Remodels never seemed to be a high priority in the past, but we'll see if that changes with the new owners. By the same token, I think keeping the trademarks in active use is also a good thing.
DeleteHow big was ThinkGeek's presence? We never had them in my region either. But I did visit one once on vacation, and liked it.
The new FYE owners are doing the right things to keep their business relevant. The prices are one thing that may turn people off though, they are charging collector prices for everything. I like the updated store look and the fact that they still have a small movie and music selection.
DeleteThinkGeek had around 30 stores, but there seems to be less than 10 now. Gamestop has pretty much erased ThinkGeek from their website so it is difficult to find a list. We had one at Deerbrook Mall in Humble for a couple of years and they seemed to do well, but they closed the store over the Summer. ThinkGeek had similar pricing to the FYE store I recently visited so I am sure that turned some people off.