CultureMap Exclusive

Your first look inside the controversial Heights Walmart: Boasts Saint Arnoldbeer & kayaks

The Walmart SuperCenter on Yale Street didn't get started without its hiccups.
Photo by Whitney Radley
Checkout kiosks are ready for opening day.
Photo by Whitney Radley
The Heights-area Walmart store has stocked dozens of bicycle styles tocapitalize on the surrounding "active community."
Photo by Whitney Radley
Though the SuperCenter is opening just six days in advance of Halloween, it hascapitalized on the holiday.
Photo by Whitney Radley

Though the Heights-area Walmart didn't receive the warmest initial welcome, the city's first urban store is set to open at 111 Yale Street on Oct. 26 with 300 associates and a phalanx of community members rallying in support — national anthem courtesy of the Harvard Elementary School choir and custom Walmart yell from the Reagan High School cheerleaders included.

Now the only thing standing between the store and complete neighborhood harmony is the Yale Street bridge and its ever-decreasing load limit. Store manager Jeff Randall assures, however, that all of the grocer's drivers and vendors know not to cross it.

Randall, a Houston native with a disarming smile and a trademark part-time-bagger-to-management ascension story that Walmart is known for, gave CultureMap an exclusive tour around the store to point out the energy-efficient qualities and the local features.

This inner-Loop store is trying its best to cater to the Heights set, offering a gluten-free section and stocking beers from St. Arnold Brewing Company and Karbach Brewing Co.

Among the green attributes? Ample skylights with a system that automatically adjusts the indoor lights as outdoor brightness varies; motion-sensored lights everywhere from the restroom to the frozen food aisle; landscaping with drought-tolerant plants and an efficient drip irrigation system; a thorough recycling program; and a slab floor made from recycled materials like concrete and fly ash.

This inner-Loop store is trying its best to cater to the Heights set, offering a gluten-free section and stocking beers from St. Arnold Brewing Company and Karbach Brewing Co.

Its market-understanding attempts stretch past the grocery aisles, too: In the sporting goods section, there are three different types of kayaks (meant for traversing the nearby bayou) and dozens of body styles of bicycles (for riding the surrounding trails).

Houston Dynamo and Houston Texans T-shirts hang in the clothing section, and Randall is working with local schools to stock their merchandise as well. Walmart has also reached out to vendors based in the Heights to get local products onto the store's shelves.

A grand opening ceremony will take place on Friday morning.

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children don't come cheap

This is how much the cost to raise a child in Houston increased in one year

Photo by Jimmy Dean on Unsplash

It costs more than $24,000 to raise a child in the Austin area in 2025.

A new national study has revealed it now costs $472 more to raise a child in the Houston area than it did last year.

SmartAsset's report "Cost of Raising a Child in Major U.S. Metros – 2025 Study" compared data from MIT's Living Wage Calculator to determine the annual costs for raising a child in 2024 and 2025 across the 48 biggest metropolitan areas in the U.S. Factors that contributed to each metro's total included the cost for childcare, additional housing costs, food, transportation, medical costs, and "other necessities."

In 2025, it will cost $21,868 annually to raise a child in the Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlandsregion, the report found. That amount has risen 2.21 percent since 2024, when childrearing in the Houston area cost $21,396 a year.

Houston only has the third-highest costs for raising a child out of the four biggest Texas metros, and even though that cost has increased slightly in the last year, it's still on the low end nationally. SmartAsset said Houston is the 8th most affordable U.S. city, ranking 41st (out of 48) in the overall ranking of metros where the cost of raising a child is the highest.

"The cost of raising a child can change quickly, making it important for budding families to keep an eye on trends in their locale," the report said. "Between 2024 and 2025 alone, the average projected annual cost of raising a small child changed by a range of -15 percent to +22 percent, depending on the metro area."

Boston-Cambridge-Newton, Massachusetts led the nation with the highest annual cost for raising a child, totaling more than $39,000, up from $37,758 in 2024.

Costs for raising a child in other Texas metros
Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos is – unsurprisingly – the most expensive Texas metro for raising a child, with costs surging nearly eight percent from 2024. It now costs $24,188 to raise a child in the Austin area, compared to $22,406 the year before.

There's better news for families in San Antonio. The San Antonio-New Braunfels area clocks in as the fifth most affordable U.S. metro in the study. In 2024, it cost $21,014 to raise a child in the Alamo City, but in 2025, it costs 0.33 percent less, at $20,945.

This is how much it costs to raise a child in San Antonio, according to SmartAsset:

Cost of childcare: $9,123
Housing costs: $3,232
Food costs: $1,644
Medical costs: $2,590
Transportation costs: $3,090
Civic costs: $474
Other costs: $791

Raising a child in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington now costs $22,337 per year, which is only $411 more than it did in 2024.

childcare costs reports smartasset families houston the woodlands pasadena