SCORING THE STUDEMONT KROGER 
The blogger grocery store reviews are in! Or at least one of them, for the just-opened Kroger south of the Heights at 1440 Studemont. Former Stop & Shop cashier Viula finds helpful price scanners, a few extremely wide aisles (and a few especially narrow ones), some discolored lettuces, some very shy salsa, and strange logic in the organization of orange and orange-y juices: “Not life shattering or even really news worthy outside of the fact that I am writing about what a disorganized mess this supermarket seemed to be,” she writes. “But it’s counter-intuitive and makes a mundane task more frustrating than it should be.” In sum, she pronounces: “Eh.” Next up — if anyone publishes one — blogger reviews of the Kroger’s same-opening-day neighbor, the new Washington Heights Walmart? [The Heights Life; previously on Swamplot] Photo: The Heights Life
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A steady stream of movie-minded customers — many bearing their lengthy wish lists of titles to snag — hit today’s preview of Audio Video Plus’s closeout sale. And learned that storefront operations at the shop at 1225 Waugh will be pretty much ceasing. But not entirely: Sales will continue from the location via the internet and randomly occurring open house days TBD, a store manager declared on Friday. Meanwhile, the rarely full parking lot is getting a bit more of a workout, as are the film collectors racing through the still-stocked aisles and vying for remaining packaged and rental copies of the “Movies and More” touted on a banner above the entry. The preview continues 11 to 7 Saturday.
- Previously on Swamplot: Audio Video Plus on Waugh is Clearing it Out
Photos: CALwords
There’s a new red sign stretched above the fading film posters in the storefront windows of Audio Video Plus at 1225 Waugh. It reads “Closeout Sale.†The Mecca for movie buffs has been closed for the last few days. Today, the heavy shutters securing the store’s entryway were drawn tight and the parking lot was even more empty than it usually is during business hours. The coming event, referred to as a “Customer Preview” sale in a note taped to the storefront, is scheduled for this Friday and Saturday, from 11 to 7. Is this the end of the line for the longtime specialty renter-retailer, or just a little flushing of the VHS archives?
From an upper floor to the east, looking toward Downtown: Piers are in and some column rebar bundles are up already for the BLVD Place building fronting Post Oak Blvd. (the street just beyond the construction site in the photo). According to plans posted online, an underground parking level with room for 260 cars will fit below the 48,500-sq.-ft. Whole Foods Market, with more parking behind and above the grocery-store space on 2 additional levels. Also going into the building at the corner of San Felipe St.: other retail, restaurant, and office spaces.
- BLVD Place coverage [Swamplot]
Photo: Swamplot inbox
STUDEMONT KROGER MATCHES WALMART’S OPENING DATE 
October 26th is gonna be a busy day for the once-industrial zone south of I-10 just west of Downtown. Sure, it’s Halloween candy-hoarding time. And you’ll have 2 large new venues for it. It’ll be opening day not only for the Walmart SuperCenter at 111 Yale St., but for the new 79,000-sq.-ft. Kroger less than a mile away at 1440 Studemont. [Previously on Swamplot] Photo of Kroger under construction: Swamplot inbox
HOUSTON’S FIRST-EVER INNER LOOP WALMART OPENS NEXT WEEK 
“Hundreds of blue shopping carts area already lined up in the parking lot” of the “Washington Heights” Walmart SuperCenter at 111 Yale St. and Koehler, reports Charlotte Aguilar. When will customers start lining up? Sometime in advance of the scheduled October 26th opening. That’s 2 Fridays from today. If you’re bringing the family in an SUV or pickup, though, you might want to avoid crossing the Yale St. bridge just south of I-10. It’s now restricted to vehicles under 6,000 pounds. Walmart says it’s routing all supply trucks elsewise as well. [The Leader; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Charlotte Aguilar
SPROUTS FAR OUT 
The Sprouts Farmers Market grocery chain’s long-awaited Houston-area landing will begin with 3 outside the Beltway locations next year. Sprouts scout Ed Page of UCR MoodyRambin Page says leases have already been signed for a 25,300-sq.-ft. spot at the southwest corner of Cinco Ranch Blvd. and Peek Rd.; for a 29,000-sq.-ft. store at FM 529 and Hwy. 6 in the Copperfield Village Shopping Center; and for a 28,000-sq.-ft. location off the Tomball Pkwy. at Spring Cypress Rd. in the Spring Cypress Village shopping center. Page tells reporter Shaina Zucker leases are being negotiated for several other sites. The southwest organic-friendly chain swallowed up competitor Sunflower Farmers Markets earlier this year. [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot] Photo of Colorado store: Sprouts
COMMENT OF THE DAY: HOW THE OTHER HALF WILL EARN A LIVING “I really don’t care for any of the businesses coming in or their business models, but I’m really happy about the hundreds of jobs that will be created once they’re here. If these are the only companies with the capital to expand these days, well, that’s unfortunate, but at least someone‘s growing. That’s where most of the people—the ones that can’t afford the Rice Military townhouses, anyway—on this side of I-10—you know, the non-Heights side—work to feed their families and pay bills, etc., or where all the kids being raised over here will get their first job. Not everyone can work at Wabash or the comic book store.” [Jason C., commenting on Where the Walmart Golden Arches Will Rise]
WHERE THE WALMART GOLDEN ARCHES WILL RISE 
The first sign that there’ll be a McDonald’s in the “Washington Heights” shopping-center development at Yale St. and Koehler . . . has appeared outside the Mickey D’s 2 miles away on Washington near I-10, notes the Swamplot reader who snapped this photo there. Where’s the new location? If you’re looking too hard, you might miss it: 111 Yale St. is the address for the Walmart currently under construction; that means you should be able to find your burgers and fries inside the store when it opens. [Previously on Swamplot] Photo: Swamplot inbox
UNBAKING A LONELY STRIP CENTER SPOT 
Saddled with a “terrible” location — a lonely strip center on Barker Cypress Rd., halfway between Katy and Cypress, year-old Ranch Bakery is taking to Kickstarter to raise funds to — break its lease? No — start up a food truck, explains owner John Homrighausen. It’ll be a souped-up delivery truck with “a giant pair of longhorns for the front & a horn that plays ‘The Eyes Of Texas,'” he promises. The spot at 5431 Barker Cypress is good for his catering company, Homrighausen explains, “but an unfortunate one for a retail store.” He hopes to lure fans of kolaches and Big John’s King Kong Ding Dongs to donate a total of $19,965 towards the effort by the end of the month. [Kickstarter, via Eater Houston] Photo: Ranch Bakery
It was inevitable that construction of the new East End Line would change the face of Thunderbolt Motors & Transmissions. No more head-in parking out front means customers may have a hard time replicating the closing image of the business’s (locally) famous teevee commercial, 2 versions of which feature a blonde urban-cowgirl type in a Caddy convertible waving her hat in the air as she pulls her (presumably backed-in) convertible onto Harrisburg from one of those spaces.
The 1977 original is shown above. In the commercial’s more recent remake, the head-in parking at 6847 Harrisburg is easier to make out:
The retail tenants at the bottom of the Americana Building at 811 Dallas across Travis St. from Macy’s downtown have just about cleared out, reports a reader: Popeye’s, the Travis Food Store, and Zero’s Sandwich Shop (pictured at right) are already gone. Fast Signs has a sign up saying it’s moving soon. Subway is still open, but the reader reports hearing that its lease has been bought out. When the James Coney Island on the ground floor of the 15-story office block shut down 2 years ago after 35 years in the same location, a spokesperson complained to KHOU 11 News that the restaurant had been forced to close “because their building is falling apart, but the landlord won’t fix it.”
Photos: Boxer Property (top); Swamplot inbox (below)
Construction of the complex’s overall expansion isn’t quite finished yet, but a new section of the resale shop at the Memorial Assistance Ministries in Spring Branch will open officially for the first time this weekend anyway. And oh, by the way, says the group’s marketing manager, in advance of that the shop at 1625 Blalock Rd. north of Long Point is actually open already. The new section adds 4,000 sq. ft. of retail space to showcase more of the used clothing and household stuff people keep donating. Another 4,200 sq. ft. was also added to the warehouse area to sort through it all. New totals: 14,000 sq. ft. for the store, plus 8,400 sq. ft. in the warehouse. The program’s executive director says the store typically generates enough income to fund MAM adult education programs and other assistance for more than 800 families.
The new store space, designed by Kirksey, is at the northern end of the complex’s original building (in the front at right in this new photo):
Here’s a parking-lot view — what you’d see from Yale St. — of a 125,000-sq.-ft. strip development planned for the site of San Jacinto Stone, immediately north of the Washington Heights Walmart going up just south of I-10. San Jacinto Stone measures its stoneyard at 4 acres; the proposed 8-acre development taking over for it appears to include a few adjacent properties to the north, including frontage along the new I-10 feeder road and White Oak Bayou.
A MIX OF RESTAURANTS AND RETAIL ON POST OAK 
“When we first opened and the bar was so crazy, there were girls giving men their cards trying to take them to the restroom. It was so out of control that I had to close the restaurant early. I had to ask them to leave. I didn’t know there were all friends. This older woman, about my age, came up to me and said ‘you don’t know who you’re dealing with. You can’t ask us to leave.’ I said, who are you? She said, ‘I take care of these girls.’ I said, you have to leave. I thought, oh my gosh. This is a big business. I didn’t know all these random girls all knew each other. . . . They all work together. I still have customers on Thursday nights that are mad at me for getting rid of The Show. That’s what they call it. They said ‘Mimi, we had a fun time on Thursdays. We were fishing.’ I said, ‘what do you mean fishing?’ He said, ‘It’s called catch and release.’ I said, I don’t know with some of these girls if you could release them, because they looked very serious. It was wild. They would say something like ‘Let’s go down the street to shop,’ because they wanted to go to Hermès. I’m so naïve. I thought, oh you’re going to Hermès, that’s amazing. My husband doesn’t ever take me there. I didn’t get it. It’s merchandise instead of cash gifts.” — Mimi Del Grande, hostess and co-owner of RDG + Bar Annie in BLVD Place. [Eater Houston] Photo: BLVD Place
