Editor’s Note: Today’s post is a guest submission from HHR’s good friend Anonymous in Houston with the photos taken by Mike
It is quite hard to believe that the end of the year 2023 is near! This means, of course, that The Year of Kroger series here at Houston Historic Retail is concluding with this post. I’ll reflect on The Year of Kroger series at the end of this post, but first we’ll discuss the star of today’s post, Kroger HO-355 located at 1938 W Gray St Houston, TX 77019. Kroger HO-355 is one of Kroger’s most famous and distinctive stores nationally and so discussion of this store is a worthy way to close The Year of Kroger!
What would a Kroger post be without a Cost Cutters reference? In this case, Cost Cutters is unrelated to the Kroger itself as Cost Cutters is a chain of hair salons from the Regis Corporation which also owns the Supercuts and TGF brands.
The distinctive Art Deco look of this store is visible in this photo. This is certainly a unique Kroger store.
It is not unusual for early 20th century buildings to have a visible reference to their construction date. While 1938 might seem like a plausible construction date for this store given the Art Deco design and the fact that the River Oaks Shopping Center itself opened in 1937, this store was built in 1998. The 1938 reference is to the store’s address, 1938 West Gray Street.
It seems logical to have a giant nutcracker in the display of nuts.
We will see some nighttime photos of this store later in the tour, but this photo shows how the store looks with daylight coming into the store from the numerous upper windows around the front and right sides of the store. This photo was taken on a rainy, overcast day so there would be even more natural light on a sunny day.
It seems a bit odd to refer to a self-checkout as a robot!
Kroger HO-355 is in the Neartown section of Houston located just west of the center portion of Houston. Specifically, Kroger HO-355 is located in one of the most historic shopping centers in the United States, the River Oaks Shopping Center. The River Oaks Shopping Center is located next to River Oaks, one of the wealthiest and most glamorous neighborhoods in the Houston area. The River Oaks Shopping Center with with Art Deco architecture, formerly known as the River Oaks Community Center, opened in 1937 with an expansion in 1948, and was one of the first automobile-oriented shopping centers in the United States. The River Oaks Shopping Center is perhaps most famed for the iconic River Oaks Theater and for the upscale stores at the center such as being home to Houston’s Steinway Piano Gallery in current times.
The Art Deco theme continues on the right side of the store where the walk-up pharmacy window and online pickup areas are located. These photos were taken on a weekend so that might explain why the pharmacy window is closed. We also see the same upper windows we saw from inside the store.
This store used to say ‘Signature’ where the Pharmacy sign is now. When Kroger removed the Signature branding off their Houston stores a few years ago, the Pharmacy sign was moved from a location just to the left of where the sign is now. The right side of the store also used to have a Signature sign.
The Driscoll at River Oaks apartment building located in the middle of the River Oaks Shopping Center towers over the River Oaks Kroger in modern times, but that apartment building is a recent addition which opened in the last few years. The second Henke & Pillot #8 was located where that tower is now. Also, in this photo, we see the two-story shopping center annex next to the Kroger.
As we transition to the nighttime photos of this store, we see that the Kroger takes on a very different look at night!
You just never know what you’ll see in River Oaks!
Yes, that is a 1960s Austin-Healy Sprite, the sister car to the MG Midget, which drove in front of the Kroger while Mike was photographing it!
The River Oaks Shopping Center was also made famous in the early 2000s for being the subject of one of Lewis Black’s most famous comedy bits where he described the two Starbucks at the River Oaks Shopping Center across West Gray St. from one another at the time as being “the end of the universe”. Well, this blog post isn’t the end of the universe, but it will be the end of the The Year of Kroger series so maybe that is a fitting reference! One of the two Starbucks locations closed in 2020, but fear not, there are still plenty of places to buy Starbucks Coffee at the River Oaks Shopping Center as both the Kroger and Barnes & Noble at the center also serve Starbucks Coffee.
The River Oaks Shopping Center is famous for their Christmas décor and we see how that looks at the Kroger.
As we saw in October’s The Year of Kroger post about the KTRKroger, Kroger stores like to put garden products out at the front of the store.
Those who read September’s The Year of Kroger post about the Pearland Kroger might recognize this Kroger vestibule sign. Yes, we’re about to enter a store carrying Kroger’s Urban Mix décor package!
We saw the Austin-Healy Sprite outside the vestibule and now we see Coca-Cola’s Sprite inside the vestibule!
Coca-Cola products aren’t the only thing featured in this vestibule. Pepsi products are featured as well. A comment could probably be made about the Pepsi display blocking the water fountain! Anyway, we see how the black and white tile design from the outside of the store continues in the vestibule.
We are greeted by Santa as we step inside the River Oaks Kroger.
Although the current River Oaks Kroger opened in 1998, which is why we are celebrating the silver anniversary of the store, it is hardly the first grocery store at the River Oaks Shopping Center. In fact, it is hardly Kroger’s first presence at the River Oaks Shopping Center, directly and indirectly. Indirectly, Kroger’s history at the River Oaks Shopping Center dates all the way back to 1937 when ABC Stores operated a store at 2030 W Gray St, Houston, TX 77019. As chronicled by Mike in his extensive page about the history of Henke & Pillot, ABC Stores was bought by Henke & Pillot in 1941 and, thus, took over the River Oaks Shopping Center store where it became Henke & Pillot #8. Henke & Pillot #8 moved to a new spot in the River Oaks Shopping Center, 1956 W Gray St, Houston, TX 77019, in 1950. Kroger bought the Henke & Pillot chain in 1955 and this location became Kroger’s first direct presence at the River Oaks Shopping Center.
We see a fall season display from the Floral department and we also see the store’s sushi counter.
As we move towards the front left side of the building, we enter the power alley. Although this store is quite different from the Pearland Kroger since the Pearland Kroger started out as a Greenhouse store, this scene looks similar in terms of the location of the power alley and, of course, the Urban Mix décor.
This store has no shortage of Boar’s Head sandwiches!
This store also has no shortage of Antone’s sandwiches.
As we turn back towards the front left wall of the store, we see a couple of things of interest. First is the distinctive Urban Mix Floral department décor and service counter. We also see the upstairs deli seating area.
Given the value nature of Kroger’s new Mercado line of Hispanic products, it is quite strange to see them share space with Boar’s Head products.
The grocery competition at the River Oaks Shopping Center heated up when Weingarten bought the shopping center in 1971 and opened a new-build Weingarten supermarket, Weingarten #6, in 1972 at 1938 W Gray St Houston, TX 77019, the location of the current River Oaks Kroger. Kroger still had their now-dated location from 1950 at the River Oaks Shopping Center and this location persisted until 1978 when Kroger relocated the store out of the River Oaks Shopping Center to a new build location, Kroger HP-243, at 3300 Montrose Blvd., Houston, TX 77006. Kroger HP-243 is better known to locals as Houston’s ‘Disco Kroger’ which operated until January 2021.
It wouldn’t be a Texas Christmas without Collin Street Bakery pecan and fruit cakes!
Here’s a look at the Murray’s Cheese display. This Kroger was the first Houston Kroger to sell Murray’s Cheese. We also get a look at the colorful décor advertising the upstairs seating area.
We’re now moving towards the left rear of the store. This is the Produce area.
Here is one of the signature aspects of the Urban Mix décor package, the colorful Produce décor. Fortunately, this store was given Urban Mix just before Kroger changed their logo design so we get the Kroger logo most people prefer.
Given the expanded hot deli items at this Kroger, I kind of feel like I’m at a Fred Meyer or QFC! It is interesting to see all the different logos of the various Kroger banners.
As we start along the back actionway, the dairy case is directly next to Produce. We’ll see more ampersands as we continue the tour, but we are reminded here of the legacy of Kroger’s Main & Vine concept, as discussed in September’s The Year of Kroger post about the Pearland Kroger, which led to the Urban Mix décor package.
We must now return to the story of the River Oaks Weingarten to complete the River Oaks Kroger story. Weingarten #6 was a replacement for a previous Weingarten #6 located at 1601 Taft St, Houston, TX 77019 which opened in 1935 and lasted until 1970. As Mike as chronicled in his history page about Weingarten’s, Weingarten decided to leave the grocery business in 1979 while remaining in the real estate business. Their supermarket business was sold to Grand Union, but Grand Union decided to leave the Houston market at the end of 1983 and, thus, Weingarten #6 was, like many other Weingarten’s locations, sold to Safeway where it became Safeway #1102 in 1984.
As one would expect from an upscale Kroger location, this store has a large Live Naturally area. The fake wood looks very nice with the green used in the Live Naturally aisle.
In a rather unusual design for a Kroger store from this era, this store utilizes an aisle cut-through in most of the main center part of the store.
We’re still on the left side of the back actionway. Here, we see some local flair.
Next to the dairy case is an ampersand overload!
As we’ve seen at every Kroger we’ve visited during the The Year of Kroger series, this Kroger has added an extra shelf up top which makes the store feel rather cavernous. Also, we see that this store is using a floor from the Kroger Script décor package era. As we’ve seen in other tours of higher-end Krogers, it is not unexpected that this store is still carrying a proper vinyl floor rather than being converted to a concrete floor. The proper floor at this location does add to the classier, higher-end feel of the store.
We’re now moving towards the right side of the back actionway. This is where the meats are located. The Meat & Seafood service counter is in the back right corner of the store. Note the stained ceiling tiles in this part of the store. In general, this store has better maintenance than some of the other Kroger stores we’ve visited during The Year of Kroger series, but there are some stained and dirty ceiling tiles throughout the store. Also note the three different levels of the ‘wedding cake’ ceiling heights.
As we know from Mike’s extensive history of Safeway page and from November’sThe Year of Kroger post, however, Safeway themselves left town in 1987 and sold their stores off to what would become AppleTree. Safeway #1102 became AppleTree #1102, but as we know from Mike’s extensive history of AppleTree page, AppleTree’s fortunes were not good and they sold many of their locations, including River Oaks, to Kroger in 1994. Thus, for the first time since 1978, Kroger was back at the River Oaks Shopping Center with Kroger SW-608. Granted, the store that started out as a Weingarten’s was old and undersized by 1990s standards especially given the wealth and prestige of the River Oaks area. Thus, Kroger acquired additional land around their store and elected to temporarily close the River Oaks Krogweinway in 1998, demolish the building, and build a new 58k sq. ft. Kroger Signature store. The current River Oaks Kroger HO-355 opened on September 30, 1998.
Here is the aforementioned Meat & Seafood service counter. Note here, and in the previous photo, the supports for the fascia/soffit.
Now here is some local flair! It is so local that it is the River Oaks Theater from the very River Oaks Shopping Center where this Kroger is located! I wonder how many supermarkets have local flair from their own shopping center!
Like we saw in November’s The Year of Kroger post with the Hedwig Village Kroger, this Kroger does have some covered, and presumably unused, sections of the service meat display. Unlike the Hedwig Village Kroger, however, at least most of this meat counter is still used normally.
Here is some more endcap local flair! This looks a bit like the local flair we saw at the KTRKroger.
Here we see the Pharmacy and some short aisles with healthcare items. Most of the HBA items are in the main aisles. The customer service desk, which just peeks through in this photo, and Starbucks is just beyond the Pharmacy. It is quite unusual for the customer service desk to be anywhere other than the front of the store, but here it is in the front right corner of the store along the right wall.
This is the rear right wall of the store which has frozen foods and the newly implemented online order pick-up area. As we can see, Kroger has carved an online pick-up storage area behind the freezers. This is a rather unusual implementation of a pick-up area!
The history of Kroger Signature stores was chronicled in February and March’sThe Year of Kroger posts. We also discussed other higher-end Kroger Signature stores in previous The Year of Kroger entries, July’s post about the Galveston Kroger and October’s post about the KTRKroger near West University Place. The River Oaks Kroger is very much a higher-end store like the Galveston and West U. Kroger Signature stores given the wealthy demographics of the area. Although the River Oaks Kroger is a bit smaller than the 60k sq. ft. Kroger Signature store standard of the time, Kroger gave the River Oaks store expanded service departments. In fact, in 2010, the River Oaks Kroger was the first Houston-area Kroger to receive a Murray’s Cheese kiosk.
This photo is looking towards the front of the store from the Pharmacy area. There are a few things of interest here. First is the unique Urban Mix striping on the front wall. Second, note the high windows along the top of the front wall of the store. Finally, we can see the varying ceiling heights at this store. The front end and main actionway have a very tall ceiling necessitated by the mezzanine level at this store. The center part of the store has a lower ceiling, but it is still high and airy feeling.
As we saw at the KTRKroger, the River Oaks Kroger has some unique higher-end local items which most regular Kroger stores do not sell.
As mentioned earlier, HBA items are in the center aisles of this store as they are in most Kroger Signature stores of this size. The glowing cosmetics shelves look quite nice especially with the light reflecting from the vinyl floor.
The North Pole Santa is in. As for the South Pole Santa, I hear he likes to shop at the Galveston Kroger!
We’re back to the left front power alley once again to look at the deli case. Like at the Meat & Seafood counter, there is some blocked off space in this counter.
The River Oaks Kroger has a greater selection of hot deli food than most Houston-area Kroger stores.
It probably goes without saying that the most striking aspect of the River Oaks Kroger, and the reason why it is famous nationally, is the Art Deco exterior design which was made to match the design themes of the River Oaks Shopping Center itself. As we saw with the KTRKroger, Kroger was not afraid of giving their early Signature stores unique and surely expensive exterior designs. The interior design of the River Oaks Kroger, like the KTRKroger, is also a bit unusual in that it has a mezzanine deli seating area.
As one would expect at a higher-end Kroger, this location has an olive bar at the Murray’s Cheese counter.
The elevator going to the mezzanine dining area is located right next to the main entrance vestibule. As we see here, the Urban Mix elevator décor is pretty neat at least on the first floor!
While the use of ampersands in the rest of the store is rather awkward, at least the ampersand looks logical on this sign.
This interesting aspect of the Urban Mix front end décor is being obscured by the Primo water display. This signage has some qualities more associated with Kroger’s Artisan décor package, another one of Kroger’s more recent décor packages. Artisan generally does not get as positive of reviews as Urban Mix.
The secondary exit has the same Urban Mix ‘Thank You’ sign as the main vestibule exit.
Here is an overview of the store from the mezzanine. From here, you can really see the ‘wedding cake’ ceiling style with the differing heights.
As one would expect from a higher-end store, the River Oaks Kroger has a multi-tiered ‘wedding cake’ drop ceiling, albeit a tall one given the mezzanine area in the store, and the store continues to have a proper vinyl floor. The current floor at the River Oaks Kroger dates from the Kroger Script décor package era. Retail Retell’s Mid-South Retail Blog maintains a guide to the Script décor package. Like many Houston area Kroger stores, the River Oaks Kroger received the Kroger Bountiful/2012 décor package. However, Kroger elected to give the River Oaks store an early remodel in around 2019 to the Kroger Urban Mix décor package. This Urban Mix remodel coincided with the opening of the nearby Buffalo Heights HEB. The history of the Urban Mix décor package was discussed extensively in September’s The Year of Kroger post about the Pearland Kroger. The Urban Mix décor package is one of Kroger’s higher-end décor packages in current times and so it is fitting that it is used at the River Oaks Kroger.
Like at the KTRKroger, the mezzanine goes without flooring cover. While the KTRKroger refers to their mezzanine seating as being ‘The Patio’ and the Baytown Kroger referred to their former seating area as the ‘Have A Seat’ area, the River Oaks Kroger does not have a fancy name for their seating area. It is just called ‘Seating’.
This may not be obvious from here, but the windows on the mezzanine overlook the front of the store. The lighted star in the window is the one on the outside front of the store.
There aren’t too many supermarkets with coffee tables! It is just barely visible from here, but you can see the in-store Starbucks off in the distance downstairs. The customer service desk is just to the left of the Starbucks.
Here is a view over the front end of the store. We see some rather rotten ceiling tiles from this angle. Also, it is a bit of a strange look to see a fake palm tree upstairs and a white Christmas tree downstairs within the same view!
Here we see the less decorated upstairs elevator lobby and a TV for the seating area.
Perhaps no other supermarket décor package advertises the restrooms quite as well as Urban Mix! In addition to the large symbols on the wall, we also see the ‘dancing’ and pointing restrooms sign which is sometimes used at Urban Mix stores. We also see the in-store upstairs offices in this view.
In terms of nearby competition, the River Oaks Kroger is located only 3.3 miles northeast of the KTRKroger so the two stores share some competitors, but that is a ‘long’ 3.3 miles given the density of that part of Houston. The Studemont & I-10 Kroger is also relatively nearby with it being 2.2 miles to the northeast of the River Oaks Kroger. When one thinks of higher-end areas of Houston, one usually thinks of Randall’s. Although the KTRKroger competes with two relatively nearby Randall’s, Randall’s no longer has a strong presence in the River Oaks area since the location at 2075 Westheimer Rd, Houston, TX 77098 closed and became a downsized Target store. Mike has a post about this Targall’s store. That said, the Midtown Randall’s is only around 2 miles away from the River Oaks Kroger so it is an option for River Oaks customers, but that is also a ‘long’ 2 miles. HEB offers competition from Houston’s lone Central Market store, the Buffalo Market HEB, and the aforementioned Washington Ave. & Heights Blvd. Buffalo Heights HEB. Trader Joe’s is located in the nearby Upper Kirby area and Whole Foods Market has two locations in the Upper Kirby and Neartown areas.
Here is a view of the power alley from the mezzanine stairs. Perhaps that fake wood might fool someone into thinking it is real wood if it is a low-height installation of Urban Mix, but with such a large wall like we see here, it is obvious it is fake wood.
Here is an overview of the store from the mezzanine stairs.
Our final interior photo shows something which is a rarity in supermarkets these days, roll-up checkstands! In the 1990s and earlier, these types of checkstands were common at Kroger, Safeway, and higher-end supermarkets. The customer would just roll their carts up to the checkstand and the checker would pull the items right off the cart so that the customer did not have to inconveniently unload their groceries onto a conveyor belt. While the River Oaks Kroger no longer has the gated flip-up carts which were common when these checkstands were common, the roll-up checkstands are still a tremendous convenience for shoppers and I’m glad that they’re still around at this Kroger at least. The only other Houston-area Kroger I know of with these types of checkstands in current times is the Louetta & Grant Kroger in Cypress, but there might be other locations with them which I have not been to recently.
Here is a close-up of the details on the building.
Here is another wide look at the River Oaks Kroger at night with Christmas decorations.
There is no better way to close this series than with some nighttime Art Deco!
Given the traffic and parking challenges at some of these urban area stores, however, the River Oaks Kroger is a good option, if not the only viable option, for those who live near the store. Although the River Oaks Kroger has somewhat limited parking compared to a suburban Kroger, it does at least offer surface parking near the store building. Unfortunately, the walk-up exterior pharmacy window (the space is too limited for a drive-thru pharmacy) and the online pickup area on the east end of the store does eat up parking spots that would otherwise be valuable to those shopping at the River Oaks Kroger during busy times. Probably due to space constraints, and perhaps also to help the River Oaks Shopping Center’s upscale image, the River Oaks Kroger does not have a fuel station. That said, historically, the River Oaks Shopping Center did have gas pumps in the early days of the center.
Wrapping up The Year of Kroger
The Year of Kroger has been an exciting project here at Houston Historic Retail. I want to thank Mike for providing the wonderful photos for these The Year of Kroger posts and I also want to thank HHR guest blogger Billytheskink for providing August’s photos and post about the Dairy Ashford & Briar Forest Krogertsons. We certainly hope that these twelve posts from various parts of the Houston area, along with other Kroger-related posts made throughout the year such as Mike’s guide to the history of Henke & Pillot, have helped chronicle the history of Kroger’s presence in Houston.
Although The Year of Kroger is coming to an end and we will no longer have regularly scheduled posts about Houston’s Kroger stores, HHR will continue to cover Kroger’s interesting Houston-area stores and news as we do with other retailers. Indeed, 2024 will be an interesting year in Kroger’s history as we should get more clarity about the fate of Kroger’s attempted merger with Albertsons. HHR will be sure to track the merger news and what impact it may have on Houston’s Kroger and Randall’s stores.
Here is a list of posts from The Year of Kroger series:
We hope you have enjoyed this tour of the River Oaks Art Deco Kroger and The Year of Kroger series in general. If you have any thoughts or comments about the River Oaks Kroger, feel free to post a comment in the comments section below. We love to hear from our readers!
Wow, it looks like you saved the best store for last — this Kroger looks much classier than the ones I’m used to seeing, both inside and out! Probably the worst offense is the use of the cavernous aisles, but this place otherwise looks very presentable. The roll up checkouts are an added bonus!
Yes, I do think Mike and I saved the best Kroger for last. I know the fans of the KTRKroger and the Galveston Kroger might argue against that, but those two Krogers and this River Oaks Kroger are probably the best Kroger has to display here in Houston. The River Oaks Kroger might have looked a bit nicer when it was new, but it still looks upscale with Urban Mix decor except for a few areas where Urban Mix looks a bit strange in this installation like that large wall of fake wood in the power alley.
Kroger is still capable of presenting a higher-end store when they want to and when they keep the cost-cutter scissors away. I just wish there was a bit more consistency in the chain so that there are more River Oaks Krogers and fewer disasters like we see at other Krogers both here and in your area.
The roll-up checkstands are really awesome, it really is one of those small luxuries that is easy to appreciate these days since they are so rare!
Merry Christmas to Anonymous in Houston, Mike, and all the other HHR contributors and readers! I really enjoyed The Year of Kroger series and this was a great post to end it on. Anonymous, I hope you’ll continue to write posts for the blog as they are very enjoyable when paired with Mike’s photos!
Always love to see Urban Mix, and I agree, that elevator signage looks pretty cool (while the faux wood over the hot foods area looks pretty bad — that’s unfortunate). Thanks as well for the links here and throughout the year!
Merry Christmas, Retail Retell! Your Kroger decor guides were a key part to all of these The Year of Kroger posts! Thanks for that, the Urban Mix decor guide you did a few years ago is really neat with the image cards and all of that. I hope everyone has taken the time to check that out!
I’m glad we were able to cover a couple of Urban Mix stores during the TYOK series. I think it is the most exciting of the newer Kroger decor packages. You may have noticed that we skipped Artisan and Remix. That was at least partially intentional, lol.
This store was the perfect way to close out TYOK series. Besides that, it is a store we simply had to cover in this series, it has too much history and it is just too unique architecturally not to cover it! I think I can speak for Mike in saying that we really enjoyed covering this store on the blog.
I’m sure Mike and I will have some collaborative store tours in the new year. We don’t have anything solidly planned for now, but often our collaborative blog posts come together quite quickly so I’m sure something will come up especially given the potential for change at our local Kroger and Randall’s stores in 2024.
Have you ever been to the Kroger on Polk in Eastwood? Compared to the West Gray store, it’s an absolute dump! During the past two decades, the old historic area where it is located has been transitioning into a desirable inner-city residential neighborhood with property values to match. Over the years, area residents and city officials have begged for a larger Kroger with an more complete merchandise assortment and better management, but the Kroger powers-that-be obviously believe the current store is all we Eastenders deserve. Driving a couple of miles to shop at the next closest supermarket (an H-E-B) should not be necessary, but it is.
4000 Polk is certainly a historic location for Henke & Pillot/Kroger and the current version of that store is rather unique as a relatively untouched Superstore II-version Greenhouse store. Given that Kroger has not been particularly active in building new stores in any market, especially Houston, in recent years, I wouldn’t expect much to change there anytime soon. Kroger is starting a couple of construction projects in Dallas and that is their first activity in Texas in quite a while so maybe there is some hope, but I wouldn’t count on anything at the current time.
I think that store would benefit from Kroger putting in a proper floor at that location like they did at the Telephone Rd. location and the Texas City Kroger which was the subject of April’s The Year of Kroger post. The Texas City location is even older, though a lot bigger, than 4000 Polk and the flooring looks quite nice as compared to the tile-scarred concrete at 4000 Polk which makes the store look rather decrepit.
4000 Polk is one of those stores where I know the locals don’t like it, but people not from that area like knowing that there is a vintage Greenhouse Kroger like that still hanging around! If it is any consolation, 4000 Polk isn’t the lowest rated store in Google’s user reviews out of the different Krogers we toured for The Year of Kroger series. That (dis)honor goes to Cypress Station, the subject of February’s post. That said, it is my understanding that Cypress Station is undergoing a remodel so at least it is getting that.
Wow, it looks like you saved the best store for last — this Kroger looks much classier than the ones I’m used to seeing, both inside and out! Probably the worst offense is the use of the cavernous aisles, but this place otherwise looks very presentable. The roll up checkouts are an added bonus!
Yes, I do think Mike and I saved the best Kroger for last. I know the fans of the KTRKroger and the Galveston Kroger might argue against that, but those two Krogers and this River Oaks Kroger are probably the best Kroger has to display here in Houston. The River Oaks Kroger might have looked a bit nicer when it was new, but it still looks upscale with Urban Mix decor except for a few areas where Urban Mix looks a bit strange in this installation like that large wall of fake wood in the power alley.
Kroger is still capable of presenting a higher-end store when they want to and when they keep the cost-cutter scissors away. I just wish there was a bit more consistency in the chain so that there are more River Oaks Krogers and fewer disasters like we see at other Krogers both here and in your area.
The roll-up checkstands are really awesome, it really is one of those small luxuries that is easy to appreciate these days since they are so rare!
Merry Christmas to Anonymous in Houston, Mike, and all the other HHR contributors and readers! I really enjoyed The Year of Kroger series and this was a great post to end it on. Anonymous, I hope you’ll continue to write posts for the blog as they are very enjoyable when paired with Mike’s photos!
Always love to see Urban Mix, and I agree, that elevator signage looks pretty cool (while the faux wood over the hot foods area looks pretty bad — that’s unfortunate). Thanks as well for the links here and throughout the year!
Merry Christmas, Retail Retell! Your Kroger decor guides were a key part to all of these The Year of Kroger posts! Thanks for that, the Urban Mix decor guide you did a few years ago is really neat with the image cards and all of that. I hope everyone has taken the time to check that out!
I’m glad we were able to cover a couple of Urban Mix stores during the TYOK series. I think it is the most exciting of the newer Kroger decor packages. You may have noticed that we skipped Artisan and Remix. That was at least partially intentional, lol.
This store was the perfect way to close out TYOK series. Besides that, it is a store we simply had to cover in this series, it has too much history and it is just too unique architecturally not to cover it! I think I can speak for Mike in saying that we really enjoyed covering this store on the blog.
I’m sure Mike and I will have some collaborative store tours in the new year. We don’t have anything solidly planned for now, but often our collaborative blog posts come together quite quickly so I’m sure something will come up especially given the potential for change at our local Kroger and Randall’s stores in 2024.
Have you ever been to the Kroger on Polk in Eastwood? Compared to the West Gray store, it’s an absolute dump! During the past two decades, the old historic area where it is located has been transitioning into a desirable inner-city residential neighborhood with property values to match. Over the years, area residents and city officials have begged for a larger Kroger with an more complete merchandise assortment and better management, but the Kroger powers-that-be obviously believe the current store is all we Eastenders deserve. Driving a couple of miles to shop at the next closest supermarket (an H-E-B) should not be necessary, but it is.
Yep, the Kroger at 4000 Polk was the subject of May’s The Year of Kroger post: https://houstonhistoricretail.com/2023/05/03/4000-polk-houstons-90-year-old-henke-pillot-kroger-location/
4000 Polk is certainly a historic location for Henke & Pillot/Kroger and the current version of that store is rather unique as a relatively untouched Superstore II-version Greenhouse store. Given that Kroger has not been particularly active in building new stores in any market, especially Houston, in recent years, I wouldn’t expect much to change there anytime soon. Kroger is starting a couple of construction projects in Dallas and that is their first activity in Texas in quite a while so maybe there is some hope, but I wouldn’t count on anything at the current time.
I think that store would benefit from Kroger putting in a proper floor at that location like they did at the Telephone Rd. location and the Texas City Kroger which was the subject of April’s The Year of Kroger post. The Texas City location is even older, though a lot bigger, than 4000 Polk and the flooring looks quite nice as compared to the tile-scarred concrete at 4000 Polk which makes the store look rather decrepit.
4000 Polk is one of those stores where I know the locals don’t like it, but people not from that area like knowing that there is a vintage Greenhouse Kroger like that still hanging around! If it is any consolation, 4000 Polk isn’t the lowest rated store in Google’s user reviews out of the different Krogers we toured for The Year of Kroger series. That (dis)honor goes to Cypress Station, the subject of February’s post. That said, it is my understanding that Cypress Station is undergoing a remodel so at least it is getting that.