Roly Poly Rolled Sandwiches

[IronTiger]

For as long as I remember, Roly Poly has been next to the College Station Kroger (not the Rock Prairie one). Does anyone remember this store? I never went inside it, but the sign is still there.

[skooljunkie]

I seem to remember this Roly Poly...never been to it though. I don't think I'd voluntarily eat at a place called that...I would have never eaten at Fat Burger had a friend not dragged me there! On a side note, I absolutely hate the Kroger shopping center at Southwest and Texas. What an eyesore. Massive 70s parking lots blow!

[Bryan Guy]

I seem to remember this Roly Poly...never been to it though. I don't think I'd voluntarily eat at a place called that...I would have never eaten at Fat Burger had a friend not dragged me there! On a side note, I absolutely hate the Kroger shopping center at Southwest and Texas. What an eyesore. Massive 70s parking lots blow!

I literally laughed when I read this. I'm a B/CS native. My parents were born and raised in Bryan and when I was about 5 we made the "big" move out to College Station. We lived in Southwood Valley on Van Horn in a new house my dad built. The Kroger center you mentioned was literally as far south as College Station went, retail wise, at the time. It was one of the cooler centers in town for the period. The Kroger used to have this big, glass entrance with a sunroof....totally early '80s retro. The center had a Chuckie Cheese in it for a while before the oil bust of the 80's killed the local economy. Do you know that that particular Kroger sold more kegs than any other grocery store in the US for a long time? Random fact but I guess b/c it was the furthest south grocery store in CS it was just the easiest target. They actually used to close the makeup/perfume counter (yes, Kroger used to have one) and sold kegs there after about 8:00....crazy times.

You bring up a good point though. No one in their right mind would've thought to plant trees in or landscape a parking lot back then. Glad that has changed a bit.

[IronTiger]

Well, mostly I wanted to bring up the Roly Poly, but the kind of area has intrigued me for the longest time. The parking lot is absolutely horrible and the only parking lot built on a hill. I remember when the car wash near Gold's Gym was some sort of abandoned burger joint and the Gold's Gym was a CarePlus. I remember large trees near KFC and (what was) the Eckerd. I remember Winn-Dixie. I remember the abandoned Royder's (now NailSpa). I vaguely remember something before Stein Mart, but I forgot.

The Kroger I liked the best. They kind of blew it when they remodeled. My favorite aspects were:

1) The tiny entrances at the right side with the large arrows. At least they were automatic.

2) The red stripe that ran the perimeter of the store. Oh, when I was a child, I loved it!

3) The fact that they printed fruit and veggie nutritional facts on the bags.

4) The corridor in the back of the store that was a one-way aisle straight into the dark, awesome milk section.

5) The fact that they hard these plastic milk mock-ups (and an orange juice one) to display prices.

The above two were changed around in the renovation, the dark milk section remains but it no longer has that "quiet, end-of-the-store" feel. The milk jugs were removed (I wish I could've gotten it before they threw it away) And finally...

6) The deli at the end of the store and the entrance to the video place. Although I never went through the corridor to either store (or ate at the deli) I was well aware of both and enjoyed the ramp down. It clearly showed that the Kroger was three feet below the end of the video store.

The sunken area was removed and the deli was converted into a bank of some sort. Oh well, at least I have memories...