Park III Theater At 1996 W. Gray St.

[isuredid]

Here is an even more obscure Theater. The Park III Cinema which was in the Kroger strip center on W. Gray. Very small theaters with very few seats. They showed mostly Repertory films before the R.O. took over that function. I remember a long run of Fritz the Cat at that theater in about 1972.

[IronTiger]

Here is an even more obscure Theater. The Park III Cinema which was in the Kroger strip center on W. Gray. Very small theaters with very few seats. They showed mostly Repertory films before the R.O. took over that function. I remember a long run of Fritz the Cat at that theater in about 1972.

 

Was that located ABOVE the Kroger? It looks like when I looked it up, there's shops and stuff above the Kroger (which used to be Safeway, and briefly an AppleTree--either a really fancy AppleTree or a dumpy AppleTree in a nice neighborhood)

[IronTiger]

Looking at the address it would have been further west towards McDuffie in the older part of the shopping center. Was that Kroger originally a Safeway? I only remember it as a Kroger.

Looking up the history of AppleTree, when they imploded in 1993 and sold off all their remaining stores, Kroger bought the 1938 West Gray store. Since AppleTree never opened a store of their own (even up until 1989 Safeway was still opening and remodeling stores), it had to be a Safeway at some point, however brief.

Kroger will take over 11 AppleTree stores later this week. On Saturday, Kroger will reopen four of the stores - 13642 W. Montgomery, 9325 Katy Freeway, 2300 N. Gessner and1990 Old Spanish Trail. On Sunday Kroger will reopen the stores at 1938 W. Gray,14900 N.W. Freeway, 1352 W. 43rd St. and 7068 FM 1960 E. On Monday Kroger will open the stores in Conroe, 239 West 20th St. and 2409 Bay Area Blvd.

[gnu]

Looking up the history of AppleTree, when they imploded in 1993 and sold off all their remaining stores, Kroger bought the 1938 West Gray store. Since AppleTree never opened a store of their own (even up until 1989 Safeway was still opening and remodeling stores), it had to be a Safeway at some point, however brief.

 

 

The Kroger (i.e. Henke and Pillot #8)  was originally at 1956 W. Gray.

The current location of Kroger at 1938 W. Gray was originally Weingarten's #6.

 

I think Safeway bought some Weingartens locations around 1980 but my memory is bad.

[IronTiger]

I think Safeway bought some Weingartens locations around 1980 but my memory is bad.

I believe that was when the Weingarten chain was sold to Grand Union. GU changed the logo to reflect theirs at the time and opened a few more stores, but was shedding more than opened. Safeway bought most of them in January 1984, including one in Bryan (it closed in January 1992 as an AppleTree). One even opened in College Station in November 1983 but it closed within two months.

(Thanks for backing me up otherwise)

[Purpledevil]

I didn't know that Grand Union changed the names of ANY Weingarten's. Studewood, W. 20th, W. 43rd, and Washington Avenue all remained under the Weingarten banner until they were all sold off in '84. At that point, Studewood became Clayton's, 20th and 43rd became Safeway, and Washington Avenue split in two, becoming Hi-Lo and Eckerd's.

Where the O'Reilly on North Main at North Freeway is, was an OLD Weingarten's that, IIRC, ceased being a grocer in the Grand Union take over. That one I'm a little fuzzy on. I know it never was another grocer after Weingarten's, but it may have been closed even earlier than I remember.