Houston’s (and America’s) first Walmart grocery store named and designed to cater to Latinos shut its doors at the end of last week. Supermercado de Walmart opened 5 years ago in Spring Branch in a converted 39,000-square-foot Neighborhood Market-style store at 7960 Long Point Rd., amid a fanfare of mariachi music and a smorgasbord of free food and drink samples. Those days are long gone: A reader sends in a pic (at right) of the far more offhand sign taped to the glass door.Â
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Back in February, Walmart shut down its lone similar experiment in warehouse clubs: its only Más Club, a remix of the Sam’s Club membership store at 8711 North Freeway in Houston. The company has made no big announcement with the closing of the Supermercado store. The only other Supermercado de Walmart was in Phoenix; that store appears to have closed as well.
Upon closing, the Long Point Supermercado apparently donated 7 tons of its remaining inventory to the food pantry at Houston’s First Baptist Church.
- Wal-Mart will end Más Club experiment [Houston Chronicle]
Photo: Swamplot inbox
It was between and close to a larger Kroger (better sale prices) and a larger Fiesta (much better selection for its target audience). It had good produce and good prices, but a limited selection. I didn’t go there often, but it seemed to be getting less busy.
Let me guess… demolishing it to build more poorly designed David Weekly Homes, KB Homes? Cram as many houses as they can into that 39,000 sf lot?
@Julie S that lot is much bigger then 39,000 sqft. The store is 39,000 sqft.
Good for them for donating to the food pantry. Now, lets hope the Baptists feed a lot of Houston’s hungry folks for free.
Good. I find this disgusting, patronizing, and racist. If I was Hispanic, I’d be offended that Walmart thought the normal “American” Walmart wasn’t a fit for me. Oh yeah, that’s right. I need a special Mexican version.
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Next up: “BlackMart – Walmart for blacks!” “JewMart – Walmart for Jewish”.
I don’t know if it’s racist but it’s definitely patronizing. It reminds me of Fox News Latino. That’s a real website.
Cody, it’s not so much a “Mexican” version, but immigrant populations use a lot of different things that “American” Walmarts typically do not have. Have you ever been inside this Walmart? Also, HEB has Mi Tienda which is very popular w/ the Hispanic population. The first comment hit the nail on the head as to why it failed…
What Cody says is true for many hispanics, including myself.
It’s annoying when companies open these special stores, especially when they incorporate stereotypical finishes like loud and bright paint colors.
Why can’t they open regular versions of the stores with expanded “Hispanic” foods sections?
Ditto Cody, Progg, and mapsguy. I hope the last two decades of patronizing will start to ebb. We are more than the color of our skin or our country of origin.
If Wal-Mart had simply spent more money revitalizing the Neighborhood Market with a brighter parking lot at night and more selection, it would probably still have a profitable location on its hands instead of trying to specialize to area demographics that would have just appreciated a better store. It doesn’t seem like this was a “supermercado” for 5 years, but I stopped shopping there due to the prices getting jacked up compared to when it was a Neighborhood Market. It was great that they carried more Hispanic items, but they had a poor selection of basic groceries even compared to their Wal-Mart in-store groceries. The location only seemed to serve the poor families from the nearby apartment complexes or people who didn’t have a car to drive to Fiesta. The Kroger South of Long Point on Wirt doesn’t really attract the poorer people from the area despite having decent prices- Long Point is still the unofficial dividing line between the poor and rich in Spring Branch. I’d guess the Hispanic families feel more comfortable shopping at the Fiesta which is about the same distance North as the Kroger is South.
I think the real story behind the closing has to do with the property being sold. The “word on the street” is that it was sold, as well as the Cancun Apartments @1855 Wirt Rd. The two properties are adjoining. A high dollar apartment complex or condos are slated to be built there. There have been many properties sold on Long Point recently. Across Long Point from Walmart, the Todo Todo Auto Repair has been sold and now sits vacant. Weekly Homes bought the Flea Market on Long Point @ Hillendahl. The Pine Chase apartments are gone and high dollar homes are going up. Take a look at Westview Terrace and Pine Terrace. Both of those neighborhoods are going crazy with new construction. Although they are south of Long Point, they are still zoned to the same schools as the neighborhoods to the north. A new neighborhood is being built at 7706 Hammerly at the old Condon Nursery site. There are 2 new houses being built in Ridgecrest. The one at 8205 Montridge is listed on HAR for $418K, the other is on Western @ Westcrest and isn’t on HAR.com yet. At this point, redevelopment is pushing across Long Point. This property has been under-valued for so long, but I believe it’s day has come. Fingers are crossed!!!!! : )
That’s great news for the area, and let’s face it. their are too many blighted apartments on that street. I know one of Cody’s renovation projects is just down the street off of Long Point, not directly on it- I’m curious how that project is doing. I know there are decent homes North of all that, albeit old ( I haven’t been down in that neighborhood lately so I don’t know how it’s been doing since I had a relative who lived there from the sixties to about a decade ago.)
CYA!
John C: our spring branch property off long point is doing great. It was a broken down mess when we bought it. But it’s all fixed up and looking good now. If you haven’t seen it for a few years, go take a look. I have some drone footage floating about too if you’re google savvy :)