The Grocery Wars
Whole Foods takes over a Randalls: New massive grocery store set for Memorial
As Whole Foods continues to expand throughout the Houston area, the grocer's Memorial outpost is moving into some new digs full of grocery history. The Austin-based company plans to build a completely new Memorial Whole Foods on the site of the former flagship Randalls grocery store at 1407 S. Voss.
Opened in 1993, the Woodway Whole Foods recently has felt like a sort of quickie-mart version of its larger, more glamorous siblings across the region.
While it's nice to be able to whip through the store during off-hours, high traffic times could be an absolute beast when you're just looking for some heirloom tomatoes and a bag of Barbara's double chocolate Snackimals. (Written from experience.)
Located at the Woodway Collections shopping center alongside Carrabba's and Buffalo Grille, the new purpose-built Voss Whole Foods will dwarf its predecessor with more than twice the amount of available floor space.
Swamplot notes that the old flagship Randalls building is already approved for demolition.
"We're actually getting ready to celebrate our 20th anniversary at this location in October," Whole Foods store team leader Marc Pittenger tells CultureMap. "News of a new store with all the latest and great is pretty exciting."
Pittenger says that officials hope to open the Voss building by late 2015. Details of the project remain hazy, but he expects the forthcoming branch to be on par with its massive upscale counterparts in Montrose and Katy.
