Auchan In Houston

[IronTiger]

Recently I was reading about Auchan and other French hypermarkets on Wikipedia. I know Carrefour had a few New Jersey locations, but not Auchan! Anyway, I'm a bit intrigued. How big were they? And what exactly did they sell (besides food?) And where were they located?

[editor]

It was out on the western part of Beltway 8. It wasn't really very good compared with other hypermarket chains like Meijer. It was pretty dirty and dark and run down. The largest part of it was the supermarket, but then there was a large portion that sold baby and children's clothes, and basic dry goods. The front part of the store was divided into a few smaller stores like a crappy jewelry store and a travel agency and a few other miscellaneous things. All in all, the place was pretty depressing. I'd go there every other month or so. The clientele was mostly Mexican and Asian and you could get a lot of fresh ethnic foods and fruits and vegetables because of this. You really didn't miss anything.

I've been to an Auchan outside Budapest, Hungary and it was pretty much the same as the one in Houston, except the clientele was Russians and Turks instead of Mexicans and Asians.

I've been to a bunch of Meijer stores in Ohio, and they're great. In some regions hypermarkets thrive. In others, they don't. I don't know why the Auchan died in Houston.

[IronTiger]

It was out on the western part of Beltway 8. It wasn't really very good compared with other hypermarket chains like Meijer. It was pretty dirty and dark and run down. The largest part of it was the supermarket, but then there was a large portion that sold baby and children's clothes, and basic dry goods. The front part of the store was divided into a few smaller stores like a crappy jewelry store and a travel agency and a few other miscellaneous things. All in all, the place was pretty depressing. I'd go there every other month or so. The clientele was mostly Mexican and Asian and you could get a lot of fresh ethnic foods and fruits and vegetables because of this. You really didn't miss anything.

I've been to an Auchan outside Budapest, Hungary and it was pretty much the same as the one in Houston, except the clientele was Russians and Turks instead of Mexicans and Asians.

I've been to a bunch of Meijer stores in Ohio, and they're great. In some regions hypermarkets thrive. In others, they don't. I don't know why the Auchan died in Houston.

I see.

The product mix sounds suspiciously similar to the H-E-B Plus stores, which are scattered throughout Texas (including one in Waco, though I'm sure there are some in Houston).

Side note: in 2003, H-E-B opened a store in Laredo with a small Payless ShoeSource inside. Haven't heard of anything like it yet.

Ed: Have you ever been to a bigg's in the Ohio area? I know my brother lives in Michigan, where he has access to Meijer. Lucky.

[sevfiv]

There was also one on the south loop near Long Dr. - where the FEMA DRC was. It's still for sale it seems ($9 million):

http://commercial.greatereastend.com/gee/index.cfm?fuseaction=getdetail&ln=184212

Regarding the closings:

Citing a sharp increase in regional competition over the past two years, the French supermarket chain said the competition put the brakes on any growth potential for the two hypermarkets — its only remaining U.S. stores — which are reporting losses.

The group said it now plans to pursue and boost growth by concentrating its human and financial resources in what it called high-priority development areas, such as Europe — including Poland, Hungary and Russia — and in Asia with China and Taiwan.

Auchan first opened its doors in west Houston in 1988 at 8800 West Sam Houston Parkway South. In September 2000, a second store was opened in southeast Houston at 6059 South Loop East.

http://houston.bizjournals.com/houston/stories/2003/01/06/daily8.html

[gnu]

When Auchan first opened it was far from depressing. It also had several chain restaurants inside as well as the little shops up front. i remember Taco Bell being in there and i think there was a Mc Donald's too.

There was nothing else like it in Houston then (1988). This was before the Super Walmarts and Super Targets and such. I think it just went down hill as the area transitioned and other "hypermarkets" opened.

The South Loop store was smaller than the West Belt store. It was also much less a novelty when it opened. I tried to shop there regularly for groceries but could never find a good selection for what i bought. I hated the meat selection most of all. And they routinely had only 2 checkouts of their 100 open.

[editor]

Ed: Have you ever been to a bigg's in the Ohio area? I know my brother lives in Michigan, where he has access to Meijer. Lucky.

Yeah, Biggs and Meijer compete directly in some markets. It's great for the consumer. For years both chains would try to beat each other on milk prices to lure people into their stores. I took a picture once when it got down to 49 cents a gallon. 49 cents! I pay almost five bucks a gallon here and I'm only an hour from freakin' Wisconsin.

As for differences between Biggs and Meijer, it was kind of like the difference between Wal-Mart and Target -- mostly perceptual. I shopped at Meijer simply because it was more convenient and the Kentucky store was cheaper because of lower taxes.

[Highway6]

I took a picture once when it got down to 49 cents a gallon. 49 cents! I pay almost five bucks a gallon here and I'm only an hour from freakin' Wisconsin.

Crazy.. think i only paid .99 for a half gallon at fiesta this morning. $5 for a gallon is ridiculous.

[IronTiger]

Crazy.. think i only paid .99 for a half gallon at fiesta this morning. $5 for a gallon is ridiculous.

I'm glad we don't power our cars on milk.

[brucesw]

When Auchan first opened it was far from depressing. It also had several chain restaurants inside as well as the little shops up front. i remember Taco Bell being in there and i think there was a Mc Donald's too.

There was nothing else like it in Houston then (1988). This was before the Super Walmarts and Super Targets and such. I think it just went down hill as the area transitioned and other "hypermarkets" opened.

The South Loop store was smaller than the West Belt store. It was also much less a novelty when it opened. I tried to shop there regularly for groceries but could never find a good selection for what i bought. I hated the meat selection most of all. And they routinely had only 2 checkouts of their 100 open.

I agree it wasn't that depressing at first, although I didn't care for the warehouse grocery store concept and still don't. I also remember early on the Express Check-out was a minimum of 35 items. Later they knocked that down to about 15 and opened more than one. I just never had the need to pick up some groceries, milk, produce, canned goods, a set of tires, a mattress, some clothes and a new TV all in the same shopping trip so I didn't get that all-in-one shopping thing. Some people did, apparently.

Years later I learned it had a very good cheese department with good specials, lots of unusual produce, always labeled in English, and a very good selection of beers, import and small brewers like Celis out of Austin, at the best prices anywhere. There was also a pretty good in-store bakery and I bought a couple of name-brand counter top kitchen appliances at excellent prices and a two-wheel utility cart at about 1/4 what it would have cost at HD. Their electronics tended to be off-brand names.

If you want to get an idea of how big it was visit the FoodTown in the same location, between Beechnut and Bellaire on the southbound BW8 feeder; FT occupies about half of the building that housed Auchan and the FT is a very big grocery store. I'd rather have the Auchan back.

I think the main thing that did them in was the big advertising budgets of Walmart and Target; I think they planned to add more stores in Houston which would have justified a bigger ad budget but they waited too late to make their move. A Super Wally World has gone in on the next block along the feeder and I'm surprised FoodTown has survived the competition; there's also a big HEB at Beechnut and a big Viet grocery store, too.

[GBryant]

I only went a couple of times when it first opened, but I remember having difficulty wrapping my head around how mind-numbingly huge the place was. I wish my memory of it was clear enough to compare it's size to a present-day Super WalMart or Super Target. My family and I were endlessly amused by the idea of a store sold groceries and tires in the same place. I'm pretty sure that I bought my first Walkman at the electronics store up front.

[IronTiger]

I agree it wasn't that depressing at first, although I didn't care for the warehouse grocery store concept and still don't. I also remember early on the Express Check-out was a minimum of 35 items. Later they knocked that down to about 15 and opened more than one. I just never had the need to pick up some groceries, milk, produce, canned goods, a set of tires, a mattress, some clothes and a new TV all in the same shopping trip so I didn't get that all-in-one shopping thing. Some people did, apparently.

Years later I learned it had a very good cheese department with good specials, lots of unusual produce, always labeled in English, and a very good selection of beers, import and small brewers like Celis out of Austin, at the best prices anywhere. There was also a pretty good in-store bakery and I bought a couple of name-brand counter top kitchen appliances at excellent prices and a two-wheel utility cart at about 1/4 what it would have cost at HD. Their electronics tended to be off-brand names.

If you want to get an idea of how big it was visit the FoodTown in the same location, between Beechnut and Bellaire on the southbound BW8 feeder; FT occupies about half of the building that housed Auchan and the FT is a very big grocery store. I'd rather have the Auchan back.

I think the main thing that did them in was the big advertising budgets of Walmart and Target; I think they planned to add more stores in Houston which would have justified a bigger ad budget but they waited too late to make their move. A Super Wally World has gone in on the next block along the feeder and I'm surprised FoodTown has survived the competition; there's also a big HEB at Beechnut and a big Viet grocery store, too.

You mean this building?

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Foodtown+Beechnut&sll=29.69029,-95.55625&sspn=0.017038,0.032401&ie=UTF8&ll=29.688183,-95.558181&spn=0.004259,0.0081&t=h&z=17

Cool. I think I've seen it (in passing) last January.

[avexhype]

I agree it wasn't that depressing at first, although I didn't care for the warehouse grocery store concept and still don't. I also remember early on the Express Check-out was a minimum of 35 items. Later they knocked that down to about 15 and opened more than one. I just never had the need to pick up some groceries, milk, produce, canned goods, a set of tires, a mattress, some clothes and a new TV all in the same shopping trip so I didn't get that all-in-one shopping thing. Some people did, apparently.

Years later I learned it had a very good cheese department with good specials, lots of unusual produce, always labeled in English, and a very good selection of beers, import and small brewers like Celis out of Austin, at the best prices anywhere. There was also a pretty good in-store bakery and I bought a couple of name-brand counter top kitchen appliances at excellent prices and a two-wheel utility cart at about 1/4 what it would have cost at HD. Their electronics tended to be off-brand names.

If you want to get an idea of how big it was visit the FoodTown in the same location, between Beechnut and Bellaire on the southbound BW8 feeder; FT occupies about half of the building that housed Auchan and the FT is a very big grocery store. I'd rather have the Auchan back.

I think the main thing that did them in was the big advertising budgets of Walmart and Target; I think they planned to add more stores in Houston which would have justified a bigger ad budget but they waited too late to make their move. A Super Wally World has gone in on the next block along the feeder and I'm surprised FoodTown has survived the competition; there's also a big HEB at Beechnut and a big Viet grocery store, too.

Yes, the Food Town now use to be Auchan. The building is very big. Now part of Food Town is a furniture store. There use to be a McDonalds by the entrance, then a small food court, with Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and a few other restaurants. The bakery department at Auchan was good, their food was always fresh. Food Town still has the ceiling lights auchan had, some rectangular type light. Very late 80 type lights. Its Nostalgia for me.

[brucesw]

You mean this building?

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Foodtown+Beechnut&sll=29.69029,-95.55625&sspn=0.017038,0.032401&ie=UTF8&ll=29.688183,-95.558181&spn=0.004259,0.0081&t=h&z=17

Cool. I think I've seen it (in passing) last January.

The B is close to where the HEB and Viet Hoa are at Beechnut and BW8; Auchan was halfway down the frontage road to Bissonnet.

BTW the Kuala Lumpur is closed and in the process of becoming Managua, our second Nicaraguan restaurant.

The picture in Avexhype's post is of the South Loop Auchan since the one on the west side faced downtown rather than having it in the background.

The FoodTown on the West Belt had a Pollo Campero right inside the door where the MacDonald's was but I've never seen it open. They still have a pretty good seafood department which is unusual for FoodTown.

[marmer]

Yeah, it was like a modern Super Wal-Mart or Super Target, but we didn't have anything to compare it to. It was mind-numbingly huge. It was also far away from where I lived in Montrose at the time and it wasn't worth going over there just to look around.

Those of us who are a "certain" age (ahem) can remember that it was a little weird to have groceries, especially perishables, and "hard" goods like electronics and furniture in the same store. Nowadays we're used to it but back then it was strange, like brucesw said.

[Dagnabbit]

Auchan had one thing that I would have liked to see spread to other grocery stores in town, it dealt with the shopping carts.

How many times have you been driving through a greocery store parking lot searching for that perfect space and find one only to be turned away because there were one or several shopping carts filling part of it?

That was never an issue at Auchan because in order to use a shopping cart you had to insert a quarter into a slot on the handle to release the cart from the cart in front of it.

So when you were done shopping, if you wanted your quarter back you had to return the cart to the cart return and after you pushed your cart into the cart in front of yours your quarter would be released.

[samagon]

I remember going to Auchan the opening weekend, there were stores like it all over Europe, and having relatives over in the Netherlands, we would visit regularly, there was a store there called Maxxis, which was the exact same thing, just smaller than Auchan was (at least the one on the beltway) so my parents were bully to go check this place out back in '88, and I recall that it was clean and well kept, it wasn't until a few years later in the mid 90s that the place went downhill.

I seem to recall that there was some kind of strike that had gone on as well? Anyone remember that and have any info on that? If I remember correctly, this was about the time that my mom stopped shopping there.

[editor]

Reading this thread jogged a memory for me -- I remember the seafood department on Friday's would bring in massive metal tubs full of wriggling mudbugs for weekend cookouts. They were huge -- maybe the size of a twin bed.

[IronTiger]

Reading this thread jogged a memory for me -- I remember the seafood department on Friday's would bring in massive metal tubs full of wriggling mudbugs for weekend cookouts. They were huge -- maybe the size of a twin bed.

You mean crayfish? I've never heard them referred to it that way (I've heard of crawdads, crawfish, and even "craydads") but not mudbugs.

What part of the country were you raised in?

[marmer]

I hear them called mudbugs all the time, and I'm from around here.

I know they're a delicacy and all, at least in certain contexts, but unfortunately for me, I think they're nasty.

[editor]

You mean crayfish? I've never heard them referred to it that way (I've heard of crawdads, crawfish, and even "craydads") but not mudbugs.

What part of the country were you raised in?

Where I'm from people don't eat crayfish; they're considered the roaches of the sea.

I picked up "mud bugs" living in Houston.

[IronTiger]

Hmm...well, I live in College Station, and no one calls them mudbugs.

Guess I still have a thing or two to learn about Houston.

Maybe they're in certain neighborhoods that people call them that (inner 610).

[rsb320]

Hmm...well, I live in College Station, and no one calls them mudbugs.

Guess I still have a thing or two to learn about Houston.

Maybe they're in certain neighborhoods that people call them that (inner 610).

More like the neighborhood of South Louisiana.

[AtticaFlinch]

Maybe they're in certain neighborhoods that people call them that (inner 610).

The only place inside 610 they're called that is Mudbug Hole (aka River Oaks).

Whatever you call them, don't refer to them as crayfish. That'll get some stares and an occasional "Y'ain't ferm aroun' here, is ya?".

[IronTiger]

The only place inside 610 they're called that is Mudbug Hole (aka River Oaks).

Whatever you call them, don't refer to them as crayfish. That'll get some stares and an occasional "Y'ain't ferm aroun' here, is ya?".

But crayfish is the scientific name for them. Now, what you should never, ever call them is "craydads". Even people in Louisiana will mock you for that.

[editor]

But crayfish is the scientific name for them. Now, what you should never, ever call them is "craydads". Even people in Louisiana will mock you for that.

Science is useful is preparing food. But cooking isn't science. It's art.

[IronTiger]

If Meijer was to test the Houston market, the South Loop building would make a fine place to build. And if that happened, it would warrant a trip down to Houston just to check it out.

[marmer]

What would Meijer get you that you couldn't get from Super Wal-Mart and Super Target? Sounds to me like a failure waiting to happen if they tried to move down here.

[AtticaFlinch]

What would Meijer get you that you couldn't get from Super Wal-Mart and Super Target? Sounds to me like a failure waiting to happen if they tried to move down here.

If you shop at Meijer, you get to say you don't shop at Target or Walmart.

[IronTiger]

And they can compete to knock prices down and get serious competition in town. After all, prior to 2003, Houston had FOUR hypermarkets (Auchan, Wal-Mart Supercenter, SuperTarget, and Kmart Super Center).

[Dan the Man]

And they can compete to knock prices down and get serious competition in town. After all, prior to 2003, Houston had FOUR hypermarkets (Auchan, Wal-Mart Supercenter, SuperTarget, and Kmart Super Center).

Was Phar-Mor also a hypermarket/superstore, or did they just carry health-related products? There wasn't one close to my house, so I never shopped there.