A special thanks to Anonymous for locating the opening dates of all Randall's locations to help complete these articles.
The featured Randalls opened on August 15, 2000 as a replacement store to anchor a new shopping center.
The original store was located at 23824 Highway 59 and opened on September 1st, 1986 as an anchor at the new Northpark Plaza shopping center. It was originally store #38 and was later listed as store #2038 when the company grew bigger in the 1990's. The Highway 59 store closed when the new store opened.
Here is the very scratched up directory from the old Randall's at Northpark Plaza, photographed in 2013. This directory has since been removed. The plastic cover was pretty scratched up so this is about the best I could do.
Now for the replacement store located at 600 Kingwood Drive, store #1776. This store closed on February 15, 2020. This was the main anchor store for the Kingwood Commons shopping center. This store is listed as 63,990 square feet. We visited this store on February 6, 2020, a little more than a week before closing.
Randall's announced the closing of both Kingwood locations in early 2020, two months prior to the height of the pandemic restrictions. Both Kingwood Randall's stores had been upgraded when Albertsons and Safeway merged. Then Hurricane Harvey and the resulting flood inundated the Randall's in the back of Kingwood causing that store to undergo a full renovation. We will see that store featured here soon.
As you walk in you are greeted by the typical ice machines. The other side entrance had claw machines and drink machines. This Randall's had one set of doors on each side of this enlarged foyer area, and another set of doors to go into the main store.
The shopping cart corrals were located on each side of the interior doors, you can kind of see them to the far right in the first image.
Looking from the foyer to the exterior. The claw machines and vending machines were to the right of this image.
As you walk in to the right of the store, you have the typical floral, deli, bakery, salad/soup bar, and produce areas.
The meat and seafood counter was just past the produce section on the far right corner of the store.
The back wall was an extension of the meat department. Then you went to the cold cuts, cheese, frozen meats, juice, and in the back corner dairy.
Let's roll through the aisles.
The kiosk to the left of this photo was a fairly new Starbucks. These were added about a year earlier to both Kingwood Randall's locations and closed along with the store.
More of the back wall of the store.
There were a lot of displays in this part of the store that had already been taken down at this point.
The back area of the store was looking really empty at this point.
The greeting cards aisle was still pretty full.
Not much left in the pharmacy area.
Still a good amount of alcohol left at this point in the sale. Alcohol was one of the least discounted items in the sale.
Piles of stuff was just thrown into the shelves here. The store closing sale went by so fast, there wasn't a lot of time to consolidate items properly like we see at store closing sales at retailers.
Pharmacy was long gone at this point.
I think this was one of the health and beauty aisles.
Some seasonal items at the front of the store near the pharmacy area.
The back left corner of the store featured dairy, eggs, and dessert items.
More health and beauty items.
To see where the discounts were at just look at the left ceiling sign. The empty shelves were in front of the pharmacy area.
Lightbulbs had been consolidated into the rest of the inventory.
Air filter and cleaning supply fixtures.
Snack and chips aisle.
Soda aisle.
Frozen foods.
Rolling back to the self-serve meats looking to the back right of the store.
More aisles. Dry goods, canned goods, baking supplies, and more pictured here.
Cereal and coffee aisle.
Looking at the checkout area. Customer service booth and Starbucks kiosk also pictured here.
Deli and bakery counter.
A much better look at the Starbucks kiosk.
Bread aisle to the right, international foods, pasta, dry goods, and more pictured here.
That ends the tour of the store while it was open. Now we will see the store on February 18, 2020, three days after closing.
As of the making of this post, the store is still vacant. Power to the store appears to be off, and all exterior signage has been removed. No concrete plans have been announced for the redevelopment of this building.
This was a really nice looking Randall's! I really like that Randall's logo on the brick in the entryway. Randall's always put a lot of effort into their entryways.
ReplyDeleteEven though this store was 20 years old when it closed, it still looks like a modern supermarket. If anything, it looked a bit nicer than modern supermarkets with the hybrid drop ceiling and actual flooring cover. The design of the ceiling looks quite similar to some Albertsons stores from that time period that used the 'Blue & Green Awnings' design. Given that this store opened after Safeway got their hands on Randall's, I wonder if this store uses a design made by Randall's or by Safeway.
I'm not sure what decor package this store would have had when it opened, but it was probably something similar to the 290 & Barker-Cypress Randall's that closed around the time that this store did. The decor package the store had when it closed is the Safeway Lifestyle v2 package that is still very popular at Safeway properties and is probably still the most popular decor package that remaining Houston Randall's have. That said, since this store is newer than most other Randall's, the lettering and photos on the wall are bigger than most of the older stores.
It's a shame this store could not survive. I know it was near the relatively new HEB and Kroger Marketplace stores just up 59 a bit and I'm sure that's what did this store in. There are some wealthy portions of urban Houston where Randall's can compete with HEB and Kroger, but usually suburban locations aren't a place Randall's can compete as most Houstonians shop based on price and not on how nice the store looks.
I shop at Randall's fairly regularly. Recently, the FM 1960 W Randall's in Champions (the only remaining Randall's in all of north Houston if one does not count the Barker-Cypress location that's just north of I-10) put up a photo of an Albertsons store from the 1940s-50s in the entryway. That is really strange. Safeway stopped trying to hide their ownership of Randall's towards the end and now it seems Albertsons is doing the same. While the prices are still Randall's prices, I will say that management has done a better job keeping the checkout opens and ensuring inventory is in stock. It seems to me that Randall's Google user ratings have improved a bit since the pandemic whereas Kroger's are going in the opposite direction. I don't think most Houstonians will dump Kroger for Randall's if they aren't already shopping at HEB, but it does seem that maybe Randall's can maintain their small niche of shoppers who want a more upscale experience. Randall's online promotions do help so I recommend that anyone who shops there uses their online coupons.
That said, you may have noticed that a couple of months ago, Randall's started promoting that the Remarkable Card is no longer required to get sale prices. It is still required to use the online coupons though, of course, but at least the card is no longer required for normal sales. I know that was an issue with Randall's (and Kroger) in the past. I suppose it still is an issue with Kroger.
That directory at the previous Randall's shopping center is really neat! I'm glad you got a photo of it before it got taken down.
Mike over at HHR has done some neat Randall's related posts here lately so you might want to check out his posts if you have not done so already. He did a post a couple of weeks back about the Memorial & Dairy Ashford Randall's which opened as a Handy Andy exactly 50 years ago and has been a Randall's for over 40 years now. The Champions store was also a Handy Andy and is only slightly younger so these have to be some of the oldest supermarkets in town that have not become some kind of ethnic/discount grocer.
The store looks a bit brighter than it did prior to Albertsons taking over. The floors and lighting were redone when Albertsons took over this store. The Starbucks came a few months after the store refresh. During the store refresh, a lot of product lines were discontinued, and Albertsons lines were added. The self-checkout was also taken out and replaced with small express lanes. I think that the loss of self-checkout lanes, Albertsons price increases, changeup on product offerings, and HEB expansions were what killed these stores.
DeleteKroger made their card use even more annoying with digital only coupons, something Randall's did as well. Cell phone service is usually pretty spotty in grocery stores so putting digital only coupons is a bad idea. I guess the fact of giving personal info to the grocery store can be upsetting to some people. Most cashiers had a default card to use if you asked, but you wouldn't get the gas points unless you have your own account.
The Sears Hardware final Kingwood location was at the old Randall's shopping center on Highway 59. I took the photo of the directory when I visited that Sears Hardware. I tried to find another one at the shopping center, but this was the best one that was left.
I have read a few of Mike's recent articles. I will check out the Handy Andy one, I passed by it looking for the Sears Hometown post. I also looked at some of his Fiesta articles as I did some Fiesta visits these past couple of weeks. All I can say about the Fiesta visits, is that the neon era of Fiesta seems to be coming to a close. Some of the stores I visited showed the neon signage in late 2021 and early 2022 photos but were gone by the time I visited the store. I am going to post a video showing some of these old school neon and flashing light signs in action in the near future.
When Randall's and other Safeway stores switched to Lifestyle v1 and v2 decor, Safeway put in spotlights instead of the usual strip lighting and that made their stores very dark looking. Too dark looking, IMO. They must have received a lot of complaints about it because they renovated these stores to put back the strip lighting that they used to have. It's improved the brightness of the stores a lot.
DeleteEven towards the end, the two 290 Randall's, the Barker Cypress one and the W 34th one that was a Kmart and is now an El Rancho that is partially owned by Albertsons, were still quite dark. OTOH, most of the other Randall's I've been to in recent times have the updated lighting and look fine.
The self-checkout thing at Randall's was quite strange. Safeway put them in about a decade ago, then took them out a few years later, and they started to put the self-checkouts back in a couple of years ago. Even still, I was at the Meyerland Randall's over by the odd non-Supercenter Walmart last summer/fall and even though that's a larger store and was recently renovated with Lifestyle v3, it still didn't have self-checkouts. The local Randall's in Champions is much smaller, but it did get the self-checkouts back. It's hard to explain that one.
I think that for the most part, the only major grocer who doesn't have self checkouts at most locations that I've seen is Fiesta. Even Food Town has self-checkouts now. Most of these grocers have online coupons as well, but some make more use of it than others and some make it easier to use than others. Kroger always uses a ton of online coupons so it's worth loading your card up on the computer before you shop there or else you might spend a lot of time trying to load coupons. Randall's isn't so bad and at least now you don't need the card for regular sales.
Fiesta has renovated some of their more inner-city neon locations like the Northline one, the Gulfton one, and one of the Pasadena area locations. The new decor looks okay I suppose, but it doesn't have the trademark neon which is very sad. I don't know how much longer the iconic suburban Fiestas with neon have before they are renovated...if they are renovated. I hope not. The Willowchase Fiesta and the Mission Bend/Astrodome Fiesta twins look great even 30+ years after they opened just like that Market Basket in Orange does that you posted to the blog a couple of years ago. Anyway, I look forward to seeing the Fiesta stuff that you have.
I want to say Randall's went to LED tube lights from their incandescent lights of old. I like the darker grocery stores; the new Market by Brookshire's in Fate is a great example of old and new decor. The lighting focuses on the products and not on illuminating the entire overhead area, the ceiling is also dark in most of the store. It is a really nice-looking market; Retail Mix USA went there at the grand opening.
DeleteI think just about every grocer will eventually switch to some kind of self-checkout system. It is like the baggers at grocery stores, if you ask, they will bring your groceries out. In the past, it was fairly common for grocers.
A self-checkout person could scan groceries for someone and still keep the lanes going.
I like the coupon papers at HEB, they really stand out in comparison to the sale stickers at other places. They are also easy to use even at the self-checkouts.
I did visit the Fiesta on the Southwest Side near Highway 6 off of Bellaire,
(Mission Bend location, I think). The neon was still in place inside of the store, but the exterior sign is of the newer variety without the chasing lights. The interior is a real blast from the past similar to the OST and Main location. Some of the signage is different from what I have seen before, so it was a real treat to go there. Some of the signage needed work, but most of it was working well. I need to see if there are any other good neon style Fiesta stores left. I think the Spencer Highway store may be another location to visit in the future. I did get some video footage of the signage with my new phone, so we will have some really accurate visuals of the old signage.
I was not aware that Brookshire's was building new stores like that, thanks for the information about that. This seems to be the trend these days to build warehouse-looking supermarkets like that. Brookshire Brothers opened a similar type of store in College Station recently and Rouses Markets in Louisiana have something similar as well like
Deletethis one in Lake Charles. Personally, I like the Rouses one better than the Brookshire's in Fate. The design is more cohesive and a little bit more colorful. All in all, I don't like these warehouse-style stores. They look too grey and industrial for my liking. The Brookshire's in Fate looks a lot like Kroger's new 'Artisan' decor package.
If I lived in Lake Charles, where there is a lot of grocery competition, I'd probably prefer to shop at
this neat looking Market Basket or at
this Albertsons recently renovated with their Heritage decor package. I think that style of store looks really neat. It's modern without looking too modern.
Yes, that Highway 6 Fiesta is the Mission Bend one. That store, the Astrodome one, and the FM 1960 W & Kuykendahl store that didn't last long all had similar decor. I've been to all three and the Mission Bend one is probably the one I've been to the most even if it's been a long time since I've been there. I'm glad the interior is still intact for the most part.
The South Houston/Pasadena Fiesta on Spencer is one of the stores that has been renovated into the new Fiesta decor. For better or for worse, that store didn't have neon even before that anyway, but maybe it did at some time in the past. Anyway, it's still an interesting store and it might be worth chronicling the new Fiesta decor even if it doesn't have neon. It does look good and I don't think anyone else has blogged about it yet.
I am glad to hear about the Rouses in Lake Charles, we have not ventured down that far South, so we will have to check it out. We have been to the renovated Market Basket down the street closer to I-210. It is a small supermarket but looks and smells new after renovations. The store was heavily damaged during Hurricane Laura. Google Maps still shows a lot of the damage, check out the old Kmart near Albertsons. Albertsons is actually worse than before in my opinion. The new store layout doesn't make much sense and their product selection seems to have declined from what they used to have. We had to check Albertsons out as well and left disappointed. I also noticed that most of the Supermarkets are now in the Southern section of town. Walmart has the central areas covered, but wow there is not much to choose from North of I-210. I really had not paid attention, but there is definitely a lack of supermarkets in that part of town now.
DeleteThe Brookshires in Fate is situated on a small incline/hill which really makes the store stand out off of the freeway. We actually passed by there on the way to one of our stops back in March.
We went to the FM 1960 Fiesta a few times before that store closed. The Chuck-E-Cheese/Showbiz was the closest one to us, so we went there when I was a youngster. It is a shame that only one of the FM 1960 Fiesta stores survived. The parking lot to the old Kuykendahl store is a very creepy place at night, there are also people parked back there in the dark and/or homeless people in sleeping bags/tents.
I am hoping that the Pasadena Fiesta store still has the outdoor signage intact, they still had it a couple of months ago, but I didn't stop to photograph it. I got several Fiesta signs in action to make a future video, so I am not too worried about it. I have been having fun going and checking out these Fiesta stores, some for the first time ever. I will keep looking for more retro stores to document.
It is hard to avoid seeing all the tarps when looking at the Google Maps images of Lake Charles. The hurricane damage there must have been immense and there are a couple of Market Baskets there which appear to have taken on a lot of damage. As for the Kmart over by the Albertsons, I do remember that one from the blog. I think when that Kmart was still around, Albertsons was not renovated yet. That's too bad that the Albertsons has taken a step back. It looks nice in the photos, but sometimes the photos don't tell the whole story.
DeleteAs far as North Lake Charles goes, it appears there is a relatively new looking Rouses Market there near Sam Houston High School. Not too far from there is a Market Basket and Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market, but it appears the Market Basket is still closed for repairs. There is another small, but nice looking Market Basket in Westlake.
Market Basket stores are really interesting and they might be worth covering on the blog like you did with that 1980s neon Market Basket in Orange. I really enjoyed seeing that one. There's a Market Basket at 3955 Phelan in Beaumont which appears to be reusing a lot of old Albertsons decor and one at 5960 TX-105 in Beaumont which is clearly in an older circa 1980 Safeway/AppleTree that still has the AppleTree department listing on the front exterior. This would have been a sister store to the Safeway on FM 1960 E that I think is now a Gold's Gym or something like that. There were a couple of stores like that near me on the NW side as well including one I shopped at a lot back in the day and still shop at occasionally now that it is a Food Town.
I'm not surprised to hear about the sad state of the old Kuykendahl Fiesta shopping center. That place has been on the decline for over 30 years now. I guess Fiesta and later Randall's learned about that. I do remember the Showbiz Pizza there though. Have you been to the Texas Thrift in the old Kmart across the street yet? I went there a few months back and it was surreal standing under an authentic Kmart vintage HVAC vent here in Houston!
Speaking of FM 1960 W retail, there's a lot of North Oaks Mall news to report. Some of it is actually good news. Mike at HHR did a recent post about some of the news. The shopping center sold at auction last week. I'm not sure who ended up getting it, but I was keeping an eye on the live bidding and it went for almost $40 million. The auction notes had an update on what's going on at the center. Of course, as we know, Half Price Books is closing. However, Big Lots has renewed their lease and a new grocery store is coming to North Oaks. It's actually a new grocery chain to Texas, Gordon Food Service store. It's a chain with stores elsewhere in the country, but their North Oaks location will be among a handful of their first stores in Houston. Gordon runs a food service catering business for restaurants, but they also operate stores that cater to both regular grocery shoppers with regular grocery items and those buying in bulk. Their grocery stores are a bit like Aldi. In addition to that, the auction notes said that the center has a tentative deal with an automotive retailer to fill the old TJMaxx spot. I'm not sure who that would be, but anyway, at least the center does seem to be getting some new tenants. We'll have to see who the new owner is of the center and what they have planned for the place. At least the news is more positive this time than the last few updates we got from there.
I'm not sure if you've ever been to Tomball, but I have a new guest post at HHR where I look at some video footage of Tomball retail from 1998. It might be worth checking that out if you want a retail blast from the past.
The good thing is that these stores are getting some much-needed renovations, I hope that the city gets back to normal soon. The sad part is that home renovations seem to be lagging behind. Some neighborhoods have multiple homes with tarps on the roof, while others look normal. A new sporting goods store opened in the former Toys R Us, it looks like a really nice place for outdoors sports. Lake Charles has an Academy as well, but it is a smaller store than you would normally see these days. For some odd reason Academy relocated their store across the shopping center about 10 years ago but did not appear to expand their store.
DeleteI have seen the Gordon trucks driving around. I was thinking they were a Cisco competitor from the looks of their trucks. It sounds like the owners of North Oaks are trying their best to keep the center from dying. There is just so much retail in that area, in order to grow, shopping centers need to pretty much steal tenants from other centers.
I watched the video I remember that Klein's grocery store they passed by in the Tomball video. That grocery store had an old school feel, we stopped in there a few times on the way to a place where company picnics were held in the 90's. I don't even remember the name of the place, but it seemed like we drove forever down 2920 to get there. I am sure that area is filled and unrecognizable these days.
I still haven't gotten a chance to make it to the Texas Thrift. The only thing I have been able to do is visit a few more Fiesta stores. Pasadena was a bust, but the Wirt Rd., I-10 and Lockwood, and Tidwell and Mesa stores were worth documenting. Wirt has the old sign and neon inside, I-10 has the main old sign still along with neon inside. Tidwell has the main old sign and one department with neon despite the rest of the store being renovated with new led lights and signage. I am beginning to notice a pattern I wonder if store managers can decide to change the store as they want, or if the company is only allowing a certain amount for renovations per store. Some stores like Airline and I-45 have the entire new interior with led lights but have the entire package of old signage on the exterior of the store. Some stores are mixed like 59 North and Wirt Rd. Either way the stores are being documented along with videos of the signs in action.
2022 has been a rough year for us so I have been taking a break from the blog. I am now up to 500 posts worth of articles uploaded thanks to a new fiber internet connection. 447 are currently published. The new internet speed makes uploading photos so much faster than ever before. I have my backlog of photos down to a very low number now with the hold up being on the posts themselves. Some very lengthy photo posts are now in the works along with some quick posts.