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As reported in the Chronicle: (link) It seems excessive, but then I feared this would happen when I watched all the customers head to HEB.

Maybe I am posting this in the wrong section, but I live in Meyerland and I have often wondered why we do not have a Super Walmart in the SW Houston/Meyerland area. We have a normal Walmart off of South Post Oak and 610 (which is always REALLY crowded), but not a Super WM. Anyone else think there needs to be one?

A while back, I started researching old Randalls locations more closely. It's fascinating...some really questionable locations in their history (mostly early 1990s--did you know that there was a Fiesta near FM 1960 and US-59 that Randalls bought but only ran for a few years?) but the mystery of Randalls #1 is still out there. Randalls began with renaming two Minimax stores with a third opening off Katy Freeway soon after (unsurprisingly, none operate as grocery stores today). From at least 1974 as per city directory to shortly after 2001, Randalls #1 was at 11071 Northwest Freeway. Problem was, Randalls did not recycle store numbers, but the strip center there did not exist in 1966 (the freeway definitely didn't, and it faces NW Freeway, not Hempstead Hwy.). An old article mentions it was really at "43rd and Mangum", which I think they meant 34th and Mangum, and there is indeed a small grocery store there. HCAD is no help here, but if my calculations are correct, was there actually a Minimax here prior to 1966 and a Randalls for a few years afterward?

Weslayan Plaza announcement: Goodbye Chuck E., hello Torchy http://www.instantnewsbellaire.com/weslayan-plaza-announcement-goodbye-chuck-e-hello-torchy/ Weslayan Plaza is going to lose a longtime family favorite, Chuck E. Cheese, but gain an outlet of the growing Torchy’s Taco chain, Instant News learned Monday (May 21). A spokeswoman for Regency Centers said Torchy’s is poised to open in the east section of the plaza in summer of 2019. There was no immediate word about whether Chuck E. Cheese will relocate in the Bellaire-West U-southwest Houston area, but InstantNews has contacted the chain’s corporate media relations department for a comment. UPDATE: A Chuck E. Cheese rep says the company will have no comment at this time, but Regency Centers has said the restaurant will close in September. Torchy’s began in Austin. Its menu of non-traditional taco combinations and sides for breakfast, lunch and dinner has expanded successfully into 11 Texas cities, with 14 locations in the Houston area alone, including one in Rice Village. The chain also has multiple locations in Oklahoma and Colorado. The new Torchy’s will be just a few doors down from the 30-year-old Weslayan Plaza family mainstay, Skeeter’s, which features tacos and other Tex-Mex and southwestern specialties but offers a broader menu.

Anchored by Randalls. Vanderbilt Square at 3003-3191 W. Holcombe Blvd Houston, TX 77025 https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/3003-3191-W-Holcombe-Blvd-Houston-TX/16840844/

OK, I know that the Mi Tienda, the Hispanic-oriented store at 1630 Spencer Highway that opened in 2006 was an H-E-B. Newspaper articles indicate that it closed in 2002 as an Albertsons and that H-E-B picked it up the same year. But what I'm asking is if it was ever a Randalls store. There's a Bizjournals article that talks about how Randalls sold three stores to Albertsons in 1997, those being the College Station store (closed 2011), a Round Rock store (presumably closed around 2006/2007), and a Pasadena store. The abandoned Albertsons at 7430 Spencer Highway down the road (appears to be closed for years) looks physically (from the top) the same style of other Albertsons in the 1990s, while the Mi Tienda site kinda looks like a Randalls facade (with the arch and curved window above) and from above too. However, HCAD says that the Mi Tienda store was built in 1997, the same year it was sold (ownership history not available). So if the Mi Tienda store was in fact the Randalls store (and evidence seems to point to it), that only leaves three conclusions. 1. Randalls opened here but only lasted less than a year, which is entirely plausible. 2. Randalls built here but never opened, selling the site to Albertsons. 3. HCAD is wrong on the date, as it sometimes is, and Randalls operated for more than a year (the least likely choice) I'm really leaning toward #1, but does anyone have confirmation?

So, I was re-ordering the pictures of the old Albertsons on my blog, which closed in 2011 but opened in 1991 as a Randall's. I realized that when the store opened, it did not sell beer or wine! I wondered if it was originally the coffee bar or the gourmet pizza counter of the original store, which got me wondering... Does anyone have any picture of Randall's in Houston before their sale to Safeway?

I know where the Randalls distribution center is, I pass it by every time I go to Houston. But there's something else I've noticed, too. On the last past several trips, I've noticed that Randalls trucks are going up Highway 6 north of Hempstead, which is unusual since the other Randalls/Tom Thumbs are in Dallas-Fort Worth or Austin (that's it), so the most logical decision would be I-45 or US-290. I eventually came to the conclusion that the Randalls trucks are going to Dallas-Fort Worth, since it would be easier to get out that way, going up TX-6 to Waco and I-35, rather than work their way up to I-45 through Houston. That seemed logical, and I didn't let it bother me anymore. But today, while waiting at a light just a few miles away from my house, I noticed a Randalls truck going north on Harvey Mitchell Parkway, the not-quite-limited-access road that goes around town. This made it even more confusing, if it was going to 21 to Austin, that's also a pretty rough journey, with some older, curvy roads, lots of lights, a few hard turns (even at FM 60 and FM 2818) and so forth. What the heck is going on? Is there some reason why they're taking seemingly the worse routes possible?

I remember reading on this website (forgot where) where someone mentioned a flagship of Randalls (I believe they said it was on FM 1960) had an upper level seating area. I always assumed it was like in H-E-B (the big suburban locations, not really the older original locations) how they have the upper level of offices in a corner of the stores. Was it like that? Is it still there?

FYI - The former Randall's location at Grand and Louetta is now fully leased up, they'll be adding a Planet Fitness and World Market. There's also a new post office going inside the Ace Hardware store.

Someone mentioned that Fiesta is now where a Globe Department Store used to be. Are Fiesta and Randall's mostly in Houston only? Over here, back in the 1980s when the old K-Mart store in Beaumont closed down, they opened a Fiesta in it, but it didn't last too long. I guess that there was no demand for Fiesta over here. There are no Randall's in this area, either. I guess there's a demand for those two stores only in Houston. As far as grocery stores go, over here there's a local chain called "Market Basket." All of the others are part of national chains. There's Kroger in Beaumont and in Orange. H.E.B. is in Beaumont, Orange, Port Arthur, Groves, Lumberton. But in reality the Wal-Mart Supercenters over here sell the most food. There's one in Orange, one in Beaumont, one in Lumberton, two in Port Arthur. Are there any Wal-Mart Supercenters over there in Houston? If there are, are they just as popular as Fiesta and Randall's are? Chet Cuccia

I notice that the Silverlake Randall's in Pearland is currently undergoing the new lifestyle remodel that has been talked about recently. I must say that I really like what they've done. I was a long-time Randall's fan but like many people, was turned off by what the stores had become under the Safeway regime. I notice that the new look has brought about better products, better customer service and more customers. I'm sure they had to make some changes with all of the competiton currently surrounding them as well as the planned HEB and Kroger stores. Surprisingly, I think they just might be able to compete as an alternative to the huge superstores.

Champions Village Shopping Center has about the same mix as Meyerland Village. The unique flavor of each spot is getting watered down.