Kroger Family Centers

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wnetmacman
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Re: Kroger Family Centers

Post by wnetmacman »

That is excellent information! Turns out Longview and Marshall are 959 and 953, respectively. I was not aware of the numbering scheme. I only know the numbering schemes for Kmart and Walmart. Walmart is simple; until they started numbering 5000 stores out of sequence, they were largely chronological. Kmart depended (much like Kroger) on store type.
Scott Greer
KrogerTexas
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Re: Kroger Family Centers

Post by KrogerTexas »

The old Houston and Dallas Divisions (Now the Southwest Division) used pretty much this numbering system. There is a few crossovers and stores numbered out of the system, but they are few. The old Houston Division was 034, and stores were HP-997. HP standing for Henke Pillot. Dallas was 035, and I think their prefix was D. Kroger reuses numbers in divisions, so that is the reason for the prefix. Now the prefix is SW. We used to get mail for other Kroger's in different divisions with our same store number.

0-99 - Stores built in the Henke Pillot era. None currently active. Houston
100-200 - Stores built in the from the 70's to the late 80's. Houston
300 - Typically a Signature Store. However this did not start until 1992 with #307 so there were/are stores in this range are that not Signature Stores.
400 - Dallas Stores
500 - Dallas Stores
600 - Apple Tree purchased stores.
700 - Albertson purchases stores.
800 - Not used
900 - Family Centers.

Once again there are a few exceptions, but they are rare. There is also gaps in the numbers. When property was purchased it was assigned a number, sometimes the store was built, sometimes it was not, or build at a later date so having a younger number than an older store.
pseudo3d
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Re: Kroger Family Centers

Post by pseudo3d »

The one in College Station was called "Family Center" for a while even though it never was. Later on, a video store annex was built onto it called "Family Video Center", same font (I'm sure I mentioned it before), but it later closed. This annex wasn't at the same height of the store, it was about four feet up and accessed with stairs or a ramp. I think it originally was a Chuck E Cheese.

As for store numbers, did they carry over replacement stores? At least one AppleTree Kroger bought was replaced within a few years, and Wal-Mart carries over their store numbers (but Kmart did not) with newer, larger stores.
KrogerTexas
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Re: Kroger Family Centers

Post by KrogerTexas »

No, store numbers do not carry over or recycled. When property is bought or leased it is assigned a store number at that time and it keeps that number though the life. If the property is sold or not used and let go, I think that assigned store number can be recycled. It has to do something with accounting. However where possible a similar number is used. When #12 closed and demolished (I think it was the last Henke Pillot store) the replacement was #312. When #276 was closed and the replacement built across the street it was #376.
pseudo3d
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Re: Kroger Family Centers

Post by pseudo3d »

KrogerTexas wrote:The old Houston and Dallas Divisions (Now the Southwest Division) used pretty much this numbering system. There is a few crossovers and stores numbered out of the system, but they are few. The old Houston Division was 034, and stores were HP-997. HP standing for Henke Pillot. Dallas was 035, and I think their prefix was D. Kroger reuses numbers in divisions, so that is the reason for the prefix. Now the prefix is SW. We used to get mail for other Kroger's in different divisions with our same store number.

0-99 - Stores built in the Henke Pillot era. None currently active. Houston
100-200 - Stores built in the from the 70's to the late 80's. Houston
300 - Typically a Signature Store. However this did not start until 1992 with #307 so there were/are stores in this range are that not Signature Stores.
400 - Dallas Stores
500 - Dallas Stores
600 - Apple Tree purchased stores.
700 - Albertson purchases stores.
800 - Not used
900 - Family Centers.

Once again there are a few exceptions, but they are rare. There is also gaps in the numbers. When property was purchased it was assigned a number, sometimes the store was built, sometimes it was not, or build at a later date so having a younger number than an older store.
I know at least one store in The Woodlands as well that was clearly still a Greenhouse store and became a Signature Store later--and the facade was kept! Usually they don't do that. Speaking of the Family Center, I did manage to procure a picture of the Bryan Family Center when it opened in '77: the brown panel exteriors are definitely original, and were kept when it was turned into a fake Greenhouse.
KrogerTexas
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Re: Kroger Family Centers

Post by KrogerTexas »

The store in the Woodlands on Rayford Sawdust was a greenhouse that was remodeled into a Signature Store before being replaced farther east with a new store. That store was bigger in square footage than most greenhouse stores in the division.
KrogerTexas
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Re: Kroger Family Centers

Post by KrogerTexas »

Just to update the numbering system, it seems like some of the Marketplace stores are using numbers in the 0 to 99 range in the Southwest Division.
pseudo3d
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Re: Kroger Family Centers

Post by pseudo3d »

The College Station location at Texas Avenue is a 900-series store, it was called the "Kroger Family Center" for years but never came to be and was basically built as a Greenhouse...I think I read that it was supposed to be a full Family Center but switched at the last minute to a traditional food-n-drug store.
wnetmacman
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Re: Kroger Family Centers

Post by wnetmacman »

Swinging back to the original topic......

I found two more:
Lincoln, IL. Looks like it's a lumberyard now, but spent time as a split CVS/Kroger store. Here's the map:

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.1576609 ... 64!6m1!1e1

Looks like the tilt walls were a little different here, and that it was a smaller store.

La Porte, IN. A hardware store now. This store has a little significance in the history of Walmart; Sam hired Jack Shewmaker out of this store to come work for him. Jack was coming in as a store-level manager at the time; he rose to be President just prior to David Glass, who he switched jobs with just prior to his retirement.

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.6008782 ... 56!6m1!1e1

This brings the total up to at least 22 verified stores.
Scott Greer
pseudo3d
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Re: Kroger Family Centers

Post by pseudo3d »

When did Kroger even adopt the store numbering? I found an old directory that listed the Kroger at Jones Road and FM 1960 (long gone, I believe even before they bought out the Albertsons across the street) as a "No. 1711". Was this the original Houston division store numbering?
pseudo3d
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Re: Kroger Family Centers

Post by pseudo3d »

Found a former Family Center! It was in Victoria TX (an area Kroger has long been gone from), now a health department. It looks like it closed around the time the Family Center stores were being phased out and converted to regular Kroger Food & Drug stores, 2805 North Navarro Street. I had been trying to guess what it was. Kmart was my first guess, but there was another former 1960s/early 1970s Kmart down the street with more features. Woolco and Treasure Island were my other guesses. It looked almost the same as the header on the Pleasant Family Shopping blog post. http://pleasantfamilyshopping.blogspot. ... roger.html

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid= ... 7153&hl=en

EDIT: Further digging reveals it closed in November 1986 and became a Furr's in December 1986, and in May 1988 became Pay Less Foods, a local store owned by Paul and Peggy Warren (I can't find when Furr's closed). In August 1992, Handy Andy purchased Pay Less and started to remodel it, rebranding in September of that year. In November 1993, Handy Andy went out of business, beginning liquidation sales. The name of Dr. Pattie Dodson Public Health Center happened when the health department moved into the building in 1997. The newspaper implies the Handy Andy name had been kept on the building until then.
pseudo3d
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Re: Kroger Family Centers

Post by pseudo3d »

So another bit of information, it looks like the Corpus Christi Kroger Family Centers (I was going to write "KFCs" as an abbreviation but decided against it for obvious reasons) were sold to Furr's and they rebranded them as "Bag-N-Save". This is cited in this 1988 article, after the Victoria Kroger Family Center closed its doors.
KrogerTexas
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Re: Kroger Family Centers

Post by KrogerTexas »

The Family Center in Victoria had been around for a long time. It was probably built in the late 60's or early 70's. The Victoria store sale was one of the stores included along with all the stores in the Valley and Corpus to Furr's in the mid 80's.
KrogerTexas
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Re: Kroger Family Centers

Post by KrogerTexas »

Kroger has been numbering stores for a very long time. Within the company the store is prefaced with the division code or division letter(s). Houston is division 034, and the letter code is: HP. So store #995 would be known within the company as 034-995 or HP-995. There more than likely is more than one store within Kroger sharing a store number so the division code keeps them apart. (it did not always work as I remember getting mail for stores in different marketing areas with our store number and having to send it back). I don't know where the #1711 came from but it is not a Kroger number.
Ephrata1966
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Re: Kroger Family Centers

Post by Ephrata1966 »

Hey... it just occurred to me that both Kroger and TG&Y experimented with stores called "family center" during the same period and in the same regions. Which chain did it first? I'm surprised the two companies didn't fight with one another over exclusive rights to this phrase.

There used to be a Kroger in Spring, Texas that opened in 1974 and closed in 2013 that presents me with a mystery. An Academy Sports & Outdoors store is now at this spot, but Bing Maps view still shows the Kroger as being open. There was a Burke's Outlet next to the Kroger that I think is still open, but I could be wrong. The Kroger had a greenhouse facade when it closed, but I would have to assume that it was added in a remodel sometime in the 80's because the Kroger superstore design was being used in 1974. I think it was 1977 when the first greenhouse made its debut. It seems so strange to me that Kroger replaced lots of the earlier, smaller greenhouse stores with larger greenhouse stores in the 80's.

Can somebody look at this store in Bing Maps (address: 1461 Spring-Cypress Road, Spring, TX) for me and take a guess as to what style this Kroger began life as? It had a greenhouse facade but also some very non-greenhouse-like features. I had gotten the feeling it was originally a superstore (it had a Kroger "cube sign" in the parking lot that all the superstores had) but it kind of resembles a Kroger Family Center that would have been downsized (Burke's Outlet occupies what would have been the space Kroger gave up)... ironically though, if the Kroger indeed was a superstore instead, then I'm guessing that the Burke's Outlet is a former TG&Y (which may or may not have used the "family center" name itself).

On a similar note, it's strange that Kmart started using the "Big K" name in the 90's right after Walmart had seemingly reached its peak and had thoroughly invaded Kmart territory, but yet the first big milestone in the history of Walmart (then known as Wal-Mart) was its acquisition of a chain called Kuhn's Big K in the early 80's. The Kuhn's acquisition marks the point when Walmart decided to get serious about competing with Kmart and other once-mighty chains (including TG&Y, which having started in Oklahoma, was a chain that Walmart definitely started to overtake during the 80's).
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