https://www.springhappenings.com/ra...ea-stores-including-the-woodlands-and-spring/ I remember this thread from 05 http://bbs.clutchfans.net/index.php?threads/randalls-closing-15-stores.103211/page-2 Now they've been closing a ton of stores over the past few years again. Very few Randalls left around Houston these days. Their prices were never special and I still can't believe they refuse to get self checkout registers but there are some things I buy there that I don't find at other stores(or are better than at other stores). Anyone have any insight into the closures? Are they just trying to downscale slowly as they eventually close out every single Randalls in the area?
I think bad business strategies/deals, and marketing in general. There's still one kind of along my route. Every now and then they have crazy sales on rare toiletry and grocery items for a supermarket, and some unlikely beers, the only reasons I ever go there. But it does feel like they're going down.
Randalls has never been a staple in Houston and for there to even be some still standing in the area, is surprising.
I'd guess 2 things - #1: Walmart venturing into groceries has eaten into all tradional grocery chains all over the country. #2: The HEB-ification of the Houston area. HEB has blown up in Houston in the last 10 years. Clearly the market is getting tighter. All the Kroger's inside the loop thar used to be 24 hours now close at midnight. Randall's is actually centered in Houston. 42 total Randall's stores, 26 of them in Houston. The first store was in Houston, and the HQ is in Houston. They are now owned by Albertsons, who also owns Tom Thumb who has an uncomfortably similar logo. My guess is if they were only Randall's, they'd keep on fighting for market share, but as a subsidiary of a national chain, the corporate bosses are content to let them shrink if that's what the market dictates.
I can’t recall ever stepping 1 foot inside a Randalls my entire life, nor do I know anyone who shops there for me it’s HEB, sometimes Walmart (often don’t like going there because a lot of them are dirty), and occasionally Target
When I last lived in the Houston area (over 15 years ago), we would avoid Randalls because they were clearly the most expensive neighborhood grocery store. Not sure if much has changed since then. Here in the Portland area, Fred Meyers (Kroger) fits that same mold...except on occasion, their sales prices on certain things are better than everywhere else.
They prices are ridiculous. They refused to adapt to the ever changing marketplace and now they’re dying a slow death.
I frequent one because it is SO close, but I rarely buy anything that isn’t on sale. Love me some HEB, but the one closest to me is always a madhouse. People are so aggressive. I like the Randall’s vibe because I can be the lone aggressive shopper.
I go to a Randall’s occasionally if I forget something because it’s super close but I drive 10 times further away to HEB when I’m actually buying groceries. Randall’s is exactly the same as it was in 1995 and that’s why HEB has come in and demolished them. I think depending on what you’re buying and what’s on sale they can match HEB prices but the selection is far far behind. The particular one I go to is understaffed and frequented by seniors. If you pop in for milk expect to wait in one of two lines that are open and at least one person writing a check.
The one over by montrose is a ghost town. Like Kroger if they have something on sale it can be the best price around. They only have about a third of the things Kroger does on sale though. Kroger and Randalls had a very similar business model for a long time but Kroger has tweaked it enough to survive. Randall’s is like stepping into a time machine.
I think the national trend is to be a cost leader like Walmart or HEB, or to be high end like Whole Foods.
These are my takeaways for both kroger / randalls (they are indistinguishable to me) Produce too often looks bad, too many times have I seen a ridiculous amount of spoiled/damaged produce. Not clean, dirty floors, dirty bathrooms. Overall for the entire store, often unkept, items out of placed / kicked over or on the floor Interiors are old Not always great employees. I had a super weird encounter with a Kroger employee, an overweight sloppy looking 20 year old with a pony tail agressively ran up to me and said "HEY hey stop" and then said "just a joke hahahaha" and walked away. Dude seemed to have some sort of mental disorder.
The Randall's "Signature Store" at Woodway and Voss was the first big fancy grocery store in town, late 80's. Randall's was everywhere for a long time (then Safeway bought them, and there was another chain-store-brand...Apple?something?), then Kroger moved in, and then HEB, Whole Foods and at that point Fiesta's got better and Randall's got worthless.
Were you at the Kroger on Montrose? I watched a guy try and pull a "slip-and-fall" there...first thing he did was get a glass quart of olive oil off the top shelf and smash it in the aisle...then he pretended to fall...then he bled all over that place because he was rolling in glass and then he asked for the ambulance because the guy's got glass shards all over his back, and front. All this while I'm standing at the end of the aisle, stoned, watching the sh!tshow.
It happens. It’s a family run business and usually those sink or swim with changing generations. Also: -Bad management -Lack of innovation (food pickup/delivery) -Failure to recognize changing demographics -Increased competition from HEB, Aldi, Whole Foods
Beginning of the end was when they sold out to Safeway in 1999. When it was family-owned, it was actually the best Grocer in Houston.
