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List Of Grocery Stores In College Station (Past & Present)


IronTiger

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I've finally gotten around to posting my incomplete supermarket list here (inspired by the theaters)

COLLEGE STATION

OPEN:

Albertsons (University)

Opened late 1980s or early 1990s as Randalls, became Albertsons 1997

H-E-B (Holleman)

Opened 2002

Kroger Signature Store (Rock Prairie)

Opened 2000 or 2001

Kroger (Southwest Parkway and Texas)

Opened late 1970s or early 1980s

CLOSED:

Albertson's (College Avenue and University)

Started as Skaggs-Albertson's in 1971, then Skaggs-Alpha Beta in the late 1970s or early 1980s, then Jewel-Osco 1991-1992, then Albertsons again until '97

Albertsons (Texas Avenue, Harvey Mitchell, and Longmire)

Opened anywhere from 1982-1990, closed 2008

AppleTree (Texas Avenue and Harvey)

Opened possibly as early as the 1970s as Safeway, became AppleTree in late 1980s or early 1990s (1988?). Closed 2005-2006.

Piggly Wiggly (Texas Avenue, Harvey Mitchell, and Valley View)

Closed in the early 1990s. Possibly former Kmart Foods.

Winn-Dixie (Southwest Parkway and Texas)

Opened in the 1980s, closed around 1997. Now Lack's furniture

BRYAN

Sadly, I don't have all the info for Bryan. There was Townshire's short-lived Albertsons, the Tejas Center H-E-B, the "other" H-E-B up north, Village Foods, and Winn-Dixie (now gone). I'll update/add them in a later list.

Please write in for corrections!

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Bryan's list especially will need some detective work, but narrowing the list to true modern day supermarkets helps a lot.

Just for starters:

Current:

Kroger Signature- Boonville and Rudder

HEB- Tejas Center

Walmart Supercenter- Briarcrest

HEB Pantry - Old Hearne Rd. (near Texas & 21)

Village Foods- Briarcrest (formerly Appletree)

Appletree(has new name) on Hwy. 21

the Mexican market on Texas might qualify as a "supermarket", but I've only been in there once.

Previous(most recent first):

Albertsons Townshire (was only around 8 years or so?)

Kroger on Texas Ave. (closed when store on Boonville opened)

HEB Pantry, Townshire (closed when HEB-Tejas opened).

Food Town - never went there, may not qualify as supermarket. Downtown Bryan, south of MLK.

Winn/Dixie - 29th St. (currently Brazos Valley Council of Governments and Chamber of Commerce offices, closed mid 90's)

Food4Less - Manor East Mall (took over JC Penney spot, closed early 90's)

Jewell - smaller grocery store near Luby's (not open long, closed early 90's?)

Safeway/Appletree- Briarcrest and 29th (where Brazos Bingo is now, moved to current Village Foods location in late 80's)

Piggly Wiggly - Mary Lake and Texas Ave. (Aaron's Rental now, closed late 80's), was previously Orr's?

Safeway or Weingarten's ? - on the bend, Texas Ave. (where Whiskey River is now, closed mid-80's)

Safeway - WJB and Texas. (currently Health Dept., closed early 80's)

Kroger that predated Manor East Mall, current building contains Hasting's. (moved when store on Texas opened?)

Feel free to post corrections and I'll try to find out better info as well.

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Let's see...

COLLEGE STATION

OPEN:

Albertsons (University)

Opened late 1980s or early 1990s as Randalls, became Albertsons 1997

H-E-B (Holleman)

Opened 2002

Kroger Signature Store (Rock Prairie)

Opened 2000 or 2001

Kroger (Southwest Parkway and Texas)

Opened late 1970s or early 1980s

Walmart (Supercenter)

Opened 1990(?), expanded 2010 to Supercenter

CLOSED:

Albertson's (College Avenue and University)

Started as Skaggs-Albertson's in 1971, then Skaggs-Alpha Beta in the late 1970s or early 1980s, then Jewel-Osco 1991-1992, then Albertsons again until '97

Albertsons (Texas Avenue, Harvey Mitchell, and Longmire)

Opened anywhere from 1982-1990, closed 2008

AppleTree (Texas Avenue and Harvey)

Opened possibly as early as the 1970s as Safeway, became AppleTree in late 1980s or early 1990s (1988?). Closed 2005-2006.

Piggly Wiggly (Texas Avenue, Harvey Mitchell, and Valley View)

Closed in the early 1990s. Possibly former Kmart Foods.

Winn-Dixie (Southwest Parkway and Texas)

Opened in the 1980s, closed around 1997. Now Lack's furniture

BRYAN

Sadly, I don't have all the info for Bryan. But I'll try to do to my best (thanks to Scotch)

OPEN:

H-E-B (21 and Texas)

Opened as H-E-B Pantry Foods, but appears to be a regular H-E-B.

H-E-B (Tejas Center)

Opened 2005.

Kroger Signature Store (Boonville)

Opened circa 2006.

Village Foods

Opened as AppleTree in the 1990s. Became Village Foods '08

CLOSED:

Kroger (Post Office Street and Texas Avenue)

Opened in the 1980s(?), but closed in circa 2006. Now 99 Cent Store. Replaced by Boonville store.

Kroger (Manor East Mall)

1970s-1980s. Replaced by Post Office Street store. Now Hastings.

H-E-B Pantry

Closed 2005 when Tejas Center opened. Opened in the 1990s. Now Harmony Science Center.

Albertsons (Townshire)

Opened circa 2003 but closed a few years later. Lasted less than three years, I think

Winn-Dixie (Carter Creek Center)

Closed late 1990s. Opened possibly in the 1980s. It's not a 70s Winn-Dixie.

Jewel (Jewell?)

Now the shopping center that houses Jacque's.

There appears to be a building that may have supermarket at a block surrounded by Texas/29th/28th/Tabor

Also there's a building that is surrounded by William J Bryan/Texas/Houston/26th that houses Bryan ISD.

One of these was probably the Weingarten's/Safeway.

AppleTree on 21 and Texas could've been a former Safeway but is currently another grocery. I heard it is a Mexican grocery now.

There was Townshire's short-lived Albertsons, the Tejas Center H-E-B, the "other" H-E-B up north, Village Foods, and Winn-Dixie (now gone). I'll update/add them in a later list.

I can't find some of the older supermarkets listed...

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There appears to be a building that may have supermarket at a block surrounded by Texas/29th/28th/Tabor

This is and as far as I know has always been BTU.

The Bryan ISD building was a bank previously, as was the old Bryan police station. The current Health Dept. at WJB and Texas, kind of behind the Dairy Queen, was for sure a supermarket.

I also don't remember the College Station Piggly Wiggly at all, was it beside the K-Mart?

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Yeah, there was a smaller building directly next to the former Kmart (see it on the 1995 aerial view, available on MSR Maps and Google Earth) that I heard was a Piggly Wiggly. The "former Kmart Foods" was just an educated guess as Kmart Foods was a grocery store built adjacent to Kmart stores in the 1970s (and the Kmart was definitely an old one)

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Yeah, there was a smaller building directly next to the former Kmart (see it on the 1995 aerial view, available on MSR Maps and Google Earth) that I heard was a Piggly Wiggly. The "former Kmart Foods" was just an educated guess as Kmart Foods was a grocery store built adjacent to Kmart stores in the 1970s (and the Kmart was definitely an old one)

Lewis & Coker operated the grocery store next to the K Mart in Galveston. When Lewis & Coker closed that store, K Mart took over the adjacent space when it remodeled into a Big K. When my wife was a manager at that Big K in later years, older store employees still refered to that part of the store as "Lewis and Coker", even going as far as announcing over the public address system that "a delivery truck was at the Lewis and Coker loading dock". Some things take a long time to die.

Galveston had four Piggly Wiggly locations during the 60's. There were two Weingartens, one A&P and two Krogers (one formerly a Henkes). All of these buildings are still standing, but only one is operating as a grocery store today. I will take pictures of them and post them soon.

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The FWIW, the Winn Dixie on 29th in Bryan didn't close until I think 2000 or 2001. We used to live the apartments across the street and it was open when we lived there. I moved down the street the next year and it closed.

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  • 7 months later...

I was in BCS from 1974 to 1978 for undergrad and then 1980 to 1984 for grad school. Here are the stores I recall at that time.

Weingarten's in Bryan on Texas Ave at the curve.

Weingarten's in College Station in the shopping center next to Post Oak Mall. The store was very upscale when it opened. They had gourmet food like Central Market does, a coffee bar, and a huge candy/nut bar. They had a bakery that today would rival Central Markets. Being a Weingarten's they had the only Kosher section in the Brazos Vally. It then became another name when Weingarten's sold out on the verge of bankruptcy. I don't know what it is now, I think a Toys-R-Us.

The Tractor Supply on Texas in CS was a K-Mart and it originally had a grocery run by K-Mart but then sold to Lewis & Coker who then went bankrupt and Piggly Wiggly took it over.

Skaggs-Alpha Beta (aka Skaggs) on the corner of College and University. Biggest memory there was you could not wait until the Satursday or Sunday before a Chem 111 lab to go buy things like Epson Salts.

Randall's which was where the Albertson's on University is now.

The Kroger on Texas in CS was built in 1981 if I recall. I lived in the Redstone Apts right there by it. Sunday evenings included going to Chucky Cheese and playing Centipede and Millipede the doing the weekly grocery shopping at Kroger.

Also Fed-Mart had a great grocery store. Fed-Mart was on the hill on University just across the street from the Hilton.

Someone referred to Jewel on Texas in Bryan. It was originally opened as a Jewel-T. If you've ever been in an Aldi's where all the items are stacked on pallets and in cases this was Jewel-T. My folks would make a special trip from Sharpstown to go to Jewel-T because they had some items that were only sold there. One of those midwest chains who invaded for a while then simply sold out and went belly up.

You folks in CS don't know how good you've got it now to not be limited on your grocery choices like we were when I was in school.

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I was in BCS from 1974 to 1978 for undergrad and then 1980 to 1984 for grad school. Here are the stores I recall at that time.

Weingarten's in Bryan on Texas Ave at the curve.

Weingarten's in College Station in the shopping center next to Post Oak Mall. The store was very upscale when it opened. They had gourmet food like Central Market does, a coffee bar, and a huge candy/nut bar. They had a bakery that today would rival Central Markets. Being a Weingarten's they had the only Kosher section in the Brazos Vally. It then became another name when Weingarten's sold out on the verge of bankruptcy. I don't know what it is now, I think a Toys-R-Us.

The Tractor Supply on Texas in CS was a K-Mart and it originally had a grocery run by K-Mart but then sold to Lewis & Coker who then went bankrupt and Piggly Wiggly took it over.

Skaggs-Alpha Beta (aka Skaggs) on the corner of College and University. Biggest memory there was you could not wait until the Satursday or Sunday before a Chem 111 lab to go buy things like Epson Salts.

Randall's which was where the Albertson's on University is now.

The Kroger on Texas in CS was built in 1981 if I recall. I lived in the Redstone Apts right there by it. Sunday evenings included going to Chucky Cheese and playing Centipede and Millipede the doing the weekly grocery shopping at Kroger.

Also Fed-Mart had a great grocery store. Fed-Mart was on the hill on University just across the street from the Hilton.

Someone referred to Jewel on Texas in Bryan. It was originally opened as a Jewel-T. If you've ever been in an Aldi's where all the items are stacked on pallets and in cases this was Jewel-T. My folks would make a special trip from Sharpstown to go to Jewel-T because they had some items that were only sold there. One of those midwest chains who invaded for a while then simply sold out and went belly up.

You folks in CS don't know how good you've got it now to not be limited on your grocery choices like we were when I was in school.

Funny, "Jewel-T", in addition to sounding like "Jewel Tea" (Jewel-Osco's original name) sounds very much like Jewel Grand Bazaar, but they never opened outside the Chicago area.

With the "Family Video Center" next door at Kroger, I hypothesized that the local Kroger was a 1960's early superstore prototype.

About the Kmart grocery store, I had also correctly guessed that it was a Kmart Foods. Thanks for confirming it.

Weingarten's could've become Hobby Lobby (now a 99 Cent Store, which ironically is what replaced the Post Office Kroger) or possibly even TJMaxx.

As for what it sold out to be, it could've been Safeway, which probably then relocated to the Culpepper Plaza down Harvey, which became AppleTree in the early 1990s late 1980s.

As for AppleTree, like stated before, it was closed and eventually demolished for a Spec's.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

I'm doing research for my blog (College Station Roads & Retail) and it looks like Parkway Square (Kroger on Texas Avenue) had a rather large "anchor", which now serves as spaces for Harbor Freight Tools, Stein Mart, and King Dollar. Does anyone know if a large store was there previously?

(link)

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  • 1 month later...

Here's one more mystery: catty-corner to the Village Foods is the original Safeway, now with a bingo parlor and a church. This had to be an AppleTree at one point, but with AppleTree saddled with debt, why did they close that one and build a new store nearby? This is has to be the only built-from-scratch AppleTree.

Also, the Weingarten's near Post Oak Mall...it seemed to have opened after the Weingarten family sold out...did it operate as a Grand Union, briefly, before it moved?

And finally, did the Albertsons/Randalls have a second level with a balcony?

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Here's one more mystery: catty-corner to the Village Foods is the original Safeway, now with a bingo parlor and a church. This had to be an AppleTree at one point, but with AppleTree saddled with debt, why did they close that one and build a new store nearby? This is has to be the only built-from-scratch AppleTree.

I thought I read that Safeway moved then became AppleTree, I honestly don't remember and went shopping there during the transition. Evem if it was already AppleTree, I'd bet the process was so far along that they just went ahead and finished the new building. Call up Jim, the current owner, I bet he'd know some the history, or could get you in touch with someone who would know.

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  • 1 year later...

According to MyBCS.com, there was a "Mariel's" supermarket in the TJMaxx shopping center. Since Safeway was ALWAYS at Culpepper, this must have been what the Weingarten's transitioned to. Was it relatively upscale like the old Weingarten's was, or a dump?

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I worked at the Bryan Winn-Dixie for several years up until its closing. I can affirm to you that it closed June 2002, I recall going there as a kid for snacks with my parents in 1989-1990 as well. So at the latest it opened in the 80s. Also, I can tell you that the former Appletree on HWY 21 is now called "El Ahorro Supermarket", but prior to Appletree in the 80s and early 90s it was a Safeway. We bought our groceries at the HWY 21 Safeway/Appletree up until the Wal-Mart Supercenter opened on Briarcrest in the 90s.

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Safeway was attacked in the 1980s by "greenmailing", wherein which someone buys up a huge amount of stock, threatening to take it over, and then selling it back to the company at an inflated price, making a ton of money in the process. As a result, Safeway racked up a lot of debt and had to jettison lots of divisions, including the Texas division, which was bought up by the managers of the Texas division and renamed AppleTree Markets.

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  • 1 year later...

Confirmed that Mariel's was near Post Oak Mall, not Weingarten's. 

 

Safeway was in Townshire at a point in the past, plus downtown, Culpepper Plaza the old Weingarten's at the bend (the only Weingarten's in town--later moved to north Bryan), catty-corner to the current Village Foods (later moved to the current spot). AppleTree inherited those, shuttering the downtown one early on, with the other three hanging on. The Culpepper Plaza location closed in 2002. It's now Spec's and OfficeMax. The other two kept on trudging through, converting to other names in 2008 (VF) and 2009-10 (the other one)

 

H-E-B had Pantry locations in north Bryan, mid-Bryan, and College Station. These were opened in the early 1990s and closed over the years, with the Bryan one in 2004, north Bryan in 2011, and College Station in 2002. Tower Point did not replace a Pantry location, opened 2010.

 

Kroger opened at Manor East, then moved to the Texas Avenue in the mid-1970s, then moved out to the bypass in the 2000s. The first CS location (still open) opened circa 1981, then the Rock Prairie one opened in 2000.

 

Piggly Wiggly took over Brookshire Bros. at Redmond Terrace but died later. Piggly Wiggly was where Jacque's later was too (briefly a Jewel-T) and in the old Kmart Foods spot (in the late 1970s, a Lewis & Coker). 

 

That's all I can think of off the top of my head now.

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  • 2 months later...

I'm doing research for my blog (College Station Roads & Retail) and it looks like Parkway Square (Kroger on Texas Avenue) had a rather large "anchor", which now serves as spaces for Harbor Freight Tools, Stein Mart, and King Dollar. Does anyone know if a large store was there previously?

(link)

Is that the old Gold's Gym space?  I know it used to be in that shopping center, as did Champion Firearms.

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  • The title was changed to List Of Grocery Stores In College Station (Past & Present)

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