Howdy folks, today’s post is going to be a short one. Honestly, I didn’t plan on doing posts this week in honor of Spring Break. However, time is of the essence as the Kroger at the northwest corner of Kuykendahl and FM 2920 will close in about a month. The store opened in April 2003 and managed a good twenty-three-year run before succumbing to what was likely a management decision. The store led a rather unremarkable life, with its biggest interesting factoid being that the store once held a Klein Bank & Trust branch. The store was largely on its own when it opened in 2003, except for Walmart and a few other strip center developments, this area was dominated by Kroger, and they still reign King here. There are four other Kroger locations less than 5 miles from this one. However, HEB is quickly encroaching, and they have the advantage of time on their hands. Kroger chose to build here likely, on the tip that FM 2920 was a potential candidate for the future Grand Parkway. However, this never came true, and by the time HEB decided to build its nearest location, most of the area had developed out. Ultimately, this closing is no great loss to Kroger’s store base in Houston. However, until we see more than just plans for new Houston stores, this is another lap for HEB against Kroger.
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Very rarely ever went to this location, but the one at Louetta and Kuykendahl was/is in even worse shape IMO. A very dumpy store with no character, but I suppose that applies to most Kroger stores.
Your description of Kroger’s decision process is a little off. Actually, Albertson’s built this store (and several others in the Houston area). Within a few years Albertson’s decided to leave the Houston market and sold the stores to Kroger.
Sounds like Kroger did the same thing here that Walmart did to it’s Willowbrook location, squeezed itself out with too many nearby newer locations.
It is interesting that this store got a relatively recent remodel to the Artisan decor package. Say what you want about Artisan, but the fact that this location got a recent remodel might indicate that a lease hike was unexpected and/or Kroger was trying to do what they could to try to make this location competitive before pulling the plug on it. Given some recent shopping center trends, the former is certainly a possibility.
It is interesting to see Artisan in one of these early 2000s Signature store locations. It certainly looks better here than at the FM 1960 W & N. Eldridge Grocery Palace Krogertsons I did a guest post here at HHR in the summer of 2024, maybe aside from the excessively plain white front end, a common problem with Kroger Artisan. The Artisan decor has a bit more pop and looks a bit less cheap on the reduced wall sizes of these Signature stores thanks to the 1980s-1990s knock-off Randall’s wedding cake ceiling design than at stores with large, flat walls like where Artisan is usually installed.
Also, the combination of Artisan and a mostly Millennium-era floor is interesting. There is certainly a bit of a decor mix from the late 1990s and early 2020s here! It certainly beats having the vinyl pulled up and leaving a tile scarred concrete floor behind, a most unfortunate fate suffered by the Wirt & Westview Kroger.