Author: Anonymous in Houston

Pearland’s Kroger Has an Unexpected History of Innovation

Here is a closer look at the Kroger logo in the vestibule. It may or may not be obvious from this sign, but the natural wood looking sign is a ‘sign’ that this store is carrying a décor package which contains elements initially designed for an organic grocery concept.

Editor’s Note: Today’s post is a guest submission from HHR’s good friend Anonymous in Houston with the photos taken by Mike Now that we’re well into The Year of Kroger series here at Houston Historic Retail, there are two categories which describe most of the stores we’ve featured so far in The Year of Kroger. One category of stores are those which had new or rare features such as the Kroger Signature stores we featured in February and March’s The Year of Kroger posts. Another category are stores which featured some kind of expansion at some point over the years. …

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Randalbertsons: It’s Your Boomerang Albertsons Store Because The Locals Rejected Food Lion

As far as Houston Albertsons stores go, this location had a slightly more unique front façade than most. This might help hide the Albertsons origins of this store at first glance, but many of the classic Albertsons features such as the glass bricks and the cart alleyway exist here to give away the origins of this building.

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 has been 21 years since Albertsons left Houston in 2002, but longtime Houston Historic Retail readers know that Albertsons’ legacy is still strongly felt at various retailers around town. Perhaps this is most strongly felt at various Food Town stores where, as Albertsons Florida Blog has pointed out, ‘It’s Your Town’ looks a lot like ‘It’s Your Store’. Mike has done various recent posts about Food Towns operating in former well-preserved Albertsons such as the North Belt Food …

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Randalls’ Very Successful 1980s Store Format Is Still A Success In Galveston

It is a busy day at the Galveston Randalls!

Editor’s Note: Today’s post is a guest submission from HHR’s good friend Anonymous in Houston with the photos taken by Mike Loyal readers of Houston Historic Retail might remember the Galveston Randall’s being mentioned in July’s The Year of Kroger post about the Galveston Kroger. This HHR post is an extension of that post as we’ll be taking a closer look at the Galveston Randall’s, Randall’s Food Market #31 (Randalls Food & Drug #1031 using the current Randalls numbering system) located at 2931 Central City Blvd, Galveston, TX 77551. Randall’s #31 opened in the second half of 1984 at a …

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Krogering is a Vacation in Galveston

The Galveston Kroger sits right along the beach. It is easy to see why beach tourists head to the Kroger.

Editor’s Note: Today’s post is a guest submission from HHR’s good friend Anonymous in Houston with the photos taken by Mike Welcome to the summer vacation edition of The Year of Kroger! There is no better place in the Houston area to make a vacation-themed post to start the second half of The Year of Kroger series than on Galveston Island. With that in mind, grab some sunscreen because we will be touring the Kroger Signature store, HO-302, located at 5730 Seawall Blvd, Galveston, TX 77551. Galveston County is no stranger to Houston Historic Retail. In fact, this month’s The …

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Vintage Ads: Compact Disc Arrived at Houston Retailers 40 Years Ago

"A qualitative leap into the world of super fidelity...." Foley's price for this JVC CD player was a bit on the high side even for 1983 given some of the other options presented here, but those other CD players didn't promise 'super fidelity'! Houston Chronicle, October 4, 1983

Editor’s Note: Today’s post is a guest submission from HHR’s good friend Anonymous in Houston In 1983, the home entertainment options most American households had were quite limited compared to modern times. Most homes had televisions in 1983, but most people could not do much more than receive local broadcast TV channels on their TVs at that time as cable/satellite TV was still trying to establish itself. There were video games and other home computers in 1983, but the video game industry was facing many issues at the time and the future of video games were unclear in 1983. While …

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Here Everything Was Remarkable: Remembering The Jones & West Randall’s

The windows of the grand entryway looked quite grand at night!

Editor’s Note: Today’s post is a guest submission from HHR’s good friend Anonymous in Houston with the photos taken by Mike Richardson I must say that it has been a while since I’ve had a guest post here at Houston Historic Retail which has not been about a Kroger store! That said, today’s post is related to March’s The Year of Kroger post about the Kroger Signature store at the corner Jones Rd. and West Rd. in the northwest Houston suburbs. As I mentioned in that post, Kroger built that Signature store to compete against the established Randall’s store, Randall’s …

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Over 50 Years Later, Baytown’s Kroger Family Center Is Still One Of The Houston Area’s Most Unique Kroger Stores

Kroger Family Center stores in the 1960s and early 1970s had unique designs from their regular Kroger counterparts. The arches here are an example of that while the 1960s stores, like the one in Orange, have more of a zig-zag pattern. Also, check out that ‘Welcome’ sign which is part of the Banner décor package! These are normally inside the store, or in the vestibule, but here it is on the outside of the store.

Editor’s Note: Today’s post is a guest submission from HHR’s good friend Anonymous in Houston with the photos taken by Mike In April’s The Year of Kroger post here at Houston Historic Retail, we took a look at the Texas City Kroger, the second oldest still-operating Kroger building in the Houston area. If you think that store is unique, we have a special treat for you today. As promised in February’s The Year of Kroger post about the Cypress Station Kroger Signature store, we will take a look at a Houston-area Kroger Family Center store here in The Year of …

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4000 Polk, Houston’s 90+ year old Henke & Pillot Kroger location

This image shows how much natural light makes it into the store through the Greenhouse. These are certainly much brighter stores via natural light than most modern supermarkets. This view also provides another look at the vending machine area. We can also see the customer service desk at the front of the store. We’ll get a closer look at the customer service desk later in the tour.

Editor’s Note: Today’s post is a guest submission from HHR’s good friend Anonymous in Houston with the photos taken by Mike Welcome to the latest installment of The Year of Kroger here at Houston Historic Retail! After three consecutive months of looking at early examples of Kroger Signature stores, this month’s The Year of Kroger post will take us to a Kroger that is the opposite of a Signature store. Those who have read the previous installments of The Year of Kroger, especially the one about the Texas City Kroger last month, will surely be aware of Kroger’s long history …

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The Texas City Kroger’s Golden Anniversary

From the outside at least, it would be hard for one to guess that this supermarket is 50 years old!

Editor’s Note: Today’s post is a guest submission from HHR’s good friend Anonymous in Houston with the photos taken by Mike This month’s installment of The Year of Kroger will be an anniversary celebration. 2023 is the 140th anniversary of the formation of Kroger, but that isn’t the Kroger anniversary we will be celebrating in this post. Instead, we will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Texas City Kroger located at 3541 Palmer Hwy, Texas City, TX 77590. Those who have been following HHR recently will know that Texas City retail, and Galveston County retail as a whole, has …

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Powerful Kroger Signature Stores Gain A Power Alley

Here’s another look at the power alley, but this time we see the Bakery as well. Note that even with the compact installation of Bountiful, the power alley does still have some of Bountiful’s ‘basket’ signs. Also note the checkerboard flooring tiles. Some of those bakery display carts would have been replaced with tables and chairs back when this store was new and still had the fast food food court.

Editor’s Note: Today’s post is a guest submission from HHR’s good friend Anonymous in Houston with the photos taken by Mike In last month’s The Year of Kroger entry, we explored a very early Kroger Signature store built in 1993, the Cypress Station store. In this month’s The Year of Kroger post, we will explore another early Kroger Signature store, Kroger HO-311, the Jersey Village/Steeplechase store located at the intersection of Jones Road & West Road in the northwest suburbs of Houston. While the 1993 and 1994 Kroger Signature stores have more in common than they are different, we will …

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