The Food Town location at 8800 West Sam Houston Parkway in the former Auchan closed just over a week ago. The closure was announced, but it was a bit unexpected by the Houston retail community. HHR visited the store last week to investigate what was going on with the space. When Auchan closed in 2003, Grocers Supply Co. purchased and subdivided the building, with about half the space going to Food Town. As far as Food Towns go, the store was nicer. It came in around 60k Sqft. putting it on the larger side of their lineup, and even featured a full-service seafood department, something I have not seen at any other Food Town. Much of the front end of the original Auchan layout was left behind, with the mall portion continuing to operate to this day, even with the major anchor closed. A bit of investigation with some of the vendors led to the news that the space is rumored to become the new home of Jusgo, a Chinese supermarket currently located a few blocks away. Jusgo started in Houston in 2011, replacing a short-lived independent market, Best Fresh, which had remodeled a legacy grocery space formerly known as Diho. Jusgo was a quick hit in the area, and almost as soon as it opened, it outgrew its space. In 2013, in what appears to be a partnership, Jusgo opened a second location in Plano, again taking over another grocer, Asia World Market. In 2017, a second DFW location was planned, but it would end up opening under the Z Tao banner. This would allow their second Houston area location, Sugar Land, which opened in 2019, to be the first store they could design from the ground up. This store in a former Target, which had been an Incredible Pizza and Gatti-Town in the interim, was subdivided with Jusgo constructing a small mall in front of the store. Word on the street is that this may also be the plan at their new West Belt location. While Jusgo has not announced its move yet, it would likely close the original location due to its proximity. Keep tuned to HHR for updates on the store!
gordon’s grocery would fit inside the auchan building
It is sad to see this Food Town close. I always viewed it as being a bit of a flagship Food Town. Unlike the other nicer Food Towns which are reusing the decor of another grocer, usually Albertsons, the decor at this Food Town was probably more Food Town than Auchan. Still, there was plenty of Auchan legacies left around to enjoy.
There is another Food Town just down the street from the Auchan at Kirkwood & Bissonnet and also another Food Town at S Braeswood & Fondren, both of these being former Albertsons, so it isn’t like Food Town is abandoning this area. That said, Food Town is now down to 29 locations. Their store count trend isn’t trending in the right direction and I have a suspicion there might be another closing here soon (that’s all I’m going to say about that for now).
Jusgo will fit in well at the old Auchan. If anything, they might draw bigger crowds than Food Town does in modern times. I think there will still be plenty of grocery shoppers heading to the old Auchan building.