I n February, Randalls announced the impending closure of its store at Sage Road and San Felipe Street in Houston. The news came less than a year after the Houston-born grocery chain shuttered its location at West Bellfort Avenue near the 610 Loop. After these and other recent closures, the near-60-year-old grocer is down to 26 Texas locations, a far cry from when it once boasted more than 110 stores statewide.
What happened to the grocery store that once commanded a significant presence in Houston? What has happened to Randalls?
History of Houston-born Randalls
The first Randalls opened in 1966, the product of a partnership between businessmen Robert Randall Onstead, R.C. Barclay, Norman N. Frewin and T.A. Morgan. The grocer soon became a chain by the start of 1970. Courtesy of Houston Historic Retail, a 1985 Houston Chronicle article by Judith Crown noted the chain had overtaken Safeway as the No. 2 grocer in Greater Houston by percent share of grocery sales in the five-county area (Kroger was no. 1).
“The comparison between the two chains is striking because Safeway has 75 stores in the five county area—more than twice as many as Randall’s,” Crown wrote. “But Safeway executives point out their stores are smaller—they estimate that almost 80 percent of Randall’s stores are more than 40,000 square feet, while only 20 percent of Safeway stores are that large.”…