Howdy folks, and welcome back to HHR! Today we’re taking a quick look at Houston’s own “Grocerant”, Harvest Market. The Sienna location is actually the second Harvest Market we’re taking a look at. For those who didn’t check out the original article, and are wondering what a Grocerant is, essentially, it’s a combination Food Court and Grocery Store. Something that Kroger toyed with in Houston and other places back in the early 90s but never took off. Even local chain Fiesta implemented Food Court setups in their giant stores. Not to mention the prevalence of Radio Grills and McDonald’s in Wal-Marts. Harvest Market does seem to do a few things differently from their competitors, though. First, the food court is truly that, giving multiple options on where to eat, somewhat similar to Auchan’s Food Court in the front of their store. That being said, I do have reason to believe that all of the options are operated by Harvest Market, as opposed to individually run outlets. When I visited The Woodlands Harvest Market, I was shocked to find that the store was in a partially deconstructed state, and the food court shut down, as the owners shrank the store to become an “International Concept.” As of this posting Google Reviews indicate that no progress has been made on the Harvest Market in The Woodlands.
I figured visiting the Sienna store might paint a different picture. The operation seemed healthy from reviews online. The only issue seemed to be discontinuing the “Harvest Trolley” delivery service. However, visiting the store painted a somewhat barren picture. Recent reviews on the Sienna location paint a mixed picture, with some encountering the same spotty selection I noticed and others not bringing it up. The Katy Harvest Market, has since been renamed to “Market Town” and while photo evidence is spotty, reviews seem to indicate it has been slimmed down to mostly an international store as well. Harvest Market’s background is still a bit of a mystery to me, and there is one more location I have yet to really look into. However, from what I’ve seen so far, I’m not sure how much longer HM will continue operating in the Grocerant format. Hopefully, though, they’ll keep at least Sienna as a full-sized store, as this part of their neighborhood doesn’t have much competition.