COMMENT OF THE DAY: WE’RE DROWNING IN GROCERY STORES HERE “I love [Trader Joe’s] but [the] last thing I want is another grocery store within a 2-3 mile radius of my home in Montrose. Kroger @ West Gray, Kroger @ Montrose, Fiesta @ Dunlavy, HEB @ Dunlavy, Whole Foods @ Kirby, Whole Foods @ W. Gray, Rice Epi @ Westheimer/Weslayan, Central Market @ Westheimer/Weslayan, Randalls @ Westheimer/Shepherd . . . did I miss anyone? Let’s put it somewhere were it is needed like in the Heights. I would gladly drive there to shop at TJs!” [MVB, commenting on A Trader Joe’s in the Alabama Theater?]
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Agreed! HEB + Kroger @ Buffalo Speedway & Bissonnet? Randalls @ Louisiana?
Send TJs to EaDo!
I would love to see a Trader Joe’s in the former Alabama Theater space. From everything I’ve read this is a very small footprint of a store with select specialty goods. There is plenty of parking in the back lot. I use to shop at the old Whole Foods. It was a bigger store with large crowds and I was always able to get a parking space no matter the time of day.
I’m with Mel! Somewhere close to the Third Ward. Believe it or not, there are people who would like some produce and organic items in that neighborhood.
I guess Montrose needs a new nickname to reflect the great population of grocery stores. Swamplot contest anyone? haha
Agreed, AMD. I’d love to see it there. Who cares how many grocery stores there are.
It’s a food oasis.
Parasites, cannibalizing their own sales…
We need a good new grocery store in the Oak Forest area…we’re in very short supply!! If you live in between the Kroger on 43rd & the one on 11th, your ice cream will melt before you get it home and in your freezer regardless of which store you go to!
Let’s try a little experiment. Google Trader Joe’s store images and let me know how many of those stores are in repurposed historic buildings and how many are in essentially the same new build retail box architecture that every other grocery store uses. Trader Joe’s will do what any other retailer would do under the circumstances, they will purpose build. It’s cheaper and gives them absolute control over what they want.
@LaLa – There’s a food city & HEB on 18th and a Randalls on 34th … not to mention Fiesta. While I love Oak Forest, I think it would do better in the Heights.
@northside girl, LaLa said a “new” grocery store- have you been to the HEB on 18th??? it looks like it hasn’t been cleaned in decades! The randalls on 34th is nice when its parking lot is not the scene of a robbery- you can’t go there at night! At least I don’t! Oak Forest FTW- but I would be happy with trader joe’s in the heights as well!
Galena Park is a food desert! No grocery store (and I do mean grocery stores not minimarts) for a city of over 10,000 within the city limits. You have to travel 2.5 – 3.5 miles to a store on I-10.
I agree, the best place for a Trader Joes is the Heights! It would be well received. The fiesta there is great but it needs some SERIOUS renovation, I think 11th street somewhere would be a great place for a Trader Joes. ;)
While I’d love to have a Trader Joe’s in the Heights (the old Kroger/Walgreen’s strip center at Yale & W20th would be perfect), how would they get around the blue laws? One of the best things about Trader Joe’s is their selection of wines and artisan brews.Just askin’.
I think this location makes more sense than the heights. it is surrounded for miles in each direction with affluent high density housing (for houston, at least). also, many folks from outside of the area travel to that part of town for various reasons.
the heights and oak forest offer neither of these.
I’d agree with sending it to the Third or Fifth Ward. While you’re listing off your grocery stores, think of how many are in that area. Clearly “needed” is being used very loosely.
TJ’s has very specific demographic requirements if anyone has bothered to check into that. How many parking spaces behind the old Alabama theater? They require a minimum of 60 DESIGNATED spaces…and traffic counts are huge too. They have very specific criteria/high expectations for the surrounding potential customers as well…I am a heart of the Heights dweller and really dislike my neighborhood shopping choices…would love to see HEB (a nice one like at Bunker Hill) come into the neighborhood, but highly unlikely. Doubtful that TJ’s will enter the area either…the demographics wont support it. (But wherever they build it…i will go to there from time to time!)
OH and in the grocery store tally…did you guys forget the Kroger coming online on Studemont just south of I-10?…I’m Kroger’ed out.
The Heights has the largest Kroger in Houston at Shepherd & 11th. We have a secondary Kroger on 20th. We have a wonderful neighborhood sized Fiesta on Studewood @ 14th and the big mamma jamma Fiesta on the north side of Shepherd. We also have Revival Market for the more gourmet among us. We hardly need another supermarket. All 4 quadrants of the neighborhood are covered for food.
I bet the West End would love a TJs instead of a crappy Walmart. That would be a start… Otherwise, if people will drive from Montrose to the Heights for TJs, what would stop them from going East (except they’d have to pass the Phonecia downtown) or just a bit farther north to Garden Oaks? Don’t push another food store on the Heights because you don’t want it in your neighborhood but still want the convenience of driving to it.
Supposedly the Fiesta at 14th and Studewood is for sale. Maybe that’s a good Trader joe location. Supposedly Kroger looking at the area near Arne’s ? Kirby /Shepherd too packed most of the time and horrible on weekends. Too much traffic on small streets. The Timbergrove – Cottage grove area could use another grocery store.
Actually, the Fiesta on 14th has undergone a lot of changes/improvements. The “for sale” sign is gone. Either Weingarten sold the property to someone who was willing to keep the Fiesta or they woke up and actually saw that this store is welcomed by the neighborhood and took it off the block. In either case, the store is better than ever. While I welcome TJs, I’d really rather spend my money at a market that is Texas based than Germany based.
“While I welcome TJs, I’d really rather spend my money at a market that is Texas based than Germany based.” Hear, hear!
I would love for Trader Joe’s to locate at 14th and Studemont. It was for sale, but it was taken off the market, in hopes the real estate market would improve. So, my understanding is, it has not been sold. But, if they choose high traffic areas, this wouldn’t be it. Too bad they can’t beat out the Kroger supposedly going by the Arne’s. We don’t need another Kroger.
@TheHeightsLife:
I believe the Fiesta on Studewood negotiated another 10-15 years on their ground lease, and Weingarten shelved the plans to sell the land. I think the tale was in Swamplot a year or so ago.
I like the place, and I shop there because I live literally one block away, but I’ve watched it considerably upscale the merchandise over 10 years, while making better use of the space. More and better wine/beer, a much larger (vertical) meat/deli/dairy cases, etc.
Southeast side, please!
I am not a fan of the 14th St. Fiesta. It is stinky, the parking lot is nasty, they ran off Mam’s Snoballs from the eastside parking lot that was and continues to be an eyesore to Studewood and a boon to crime. Trader Joe’s would be a welcome replacement. That store needs a total gutting and repaving. Same with the 18th St. HEB. And all the fuss over the Walmart.
I do think the Alabama Theater would be a great place for a Trader Joe’s. In Monterey, CA, the TJ is 3 doors down from the Safeway and both are doing well.
While the Montrose is “drowning” with supermarkets, the near East End are experiencing a “drought”.
I love Studewood Fiesta! It’s my quick stop grocery store– I don’t do my grocery shopping there, per se, but it is where I go to pick up a few items in between trips to WFs and Bunker Hill HEB.
What was in the 14th St. Fiesta location before it was Fiesta? Anyone remember?