Kroger in Lafayette LA

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pseudo3d
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Kroger in Lafayette LA

Post by pseudo3d »

I recently discovered a list of grocery stores in Lafayette from the 1990s which revealed that there had been three Delchamps in Lafayette LA at one time. That's not too surprising...one of them was on Ambassador Caffery, which became a Bed Bath & Beyond after closure, and one was at 120 James Comeaux Rd. A third store existed at 200 West Willow Street in a former Kroger Greenhouse, and not a first generation one (where the "greenhouse" was in the center and the walls curved in slightly toward it), one built in the early 1980s at about 45,000 square feet. What year did Kroger pull out of Lafayette, and why didn't this go to A&P like the Baton Rouge stores did? Was this the only store? (There appears that there was an older Kroger downtown, but this was replaced by the Greenhouse)
wnetmacman
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Re: Kroger in Lafayette LA

Post by wnetmacman »

Let me break this one into three.

First, Kroger left Lafayette around the same time they left Opelousas (1st gen center Greenhouse) and Baton Rouge,roughly 1984.
pseudo3d wrote:I recently discovered a list of grocery stores in Lafayette from the 1990s which revealed that there had been three Delchamps in Lafayette LA at one time. That's not too surprising...one of them was on Ambassador Caffery, which became a Bed Bath & Beyond after closure, and one was at 120 James Comeaux Rd.
So in Lafayette, Delchamps actually operated in 5 different locations, but never more than 3 concurrently. The Ambassador Caffrey store initially opened next to a then Kmart at 3557 Ambassador Caffrey. That store is now Big Lots. When Delchamps went to the SuperMarket push (as opposed to the Super Store model), they moved down to a then new center immediately adjacent (and connected) to Ambassador Row called Courtyards at Ambassador Row. *That* store is now Bed, Bath and Beyond.

120 James Comeaux Road was also built next to a smaller 7000-series Kmart, but later on, in 1980. Kmart outlasted this store by 2 years. It was originally built as a Super Store, but was later expanded to a SuperMarket. There was a definitive ceiling drop in this building, which was vacant for 10 years, but is now occupied by a private vocational school and a technology company.
pseudo3d wrote:A third store existed at 200 West Willow Street in a former Kroger Greenhouse, and not a first generation one (where the "greenhouse" was in the center and the walls curved in slightly toward it), one built in the early 1980s at about 45,000 square feet. What year did Kroger pull out of Lafayette, and why didn't this go to A&P like the Baton Rouge stores did? Was this the only store? (There appears that there was an older Kroger downtown, but this was replaced by the Greenhouse)
200 West Willow was indeed the final Kroger built in Lafayette. I don't have a build date, but it was closed by 1984. Canal Villere may have operated in this store for a while, then Delchamps moved their first generation store from around the corner at 2007 NW Evangeline Thruway. That store opened in the late 70's with Woolco, which itself became Wal-Mart upon Woolco's closure. The store remained Delchamps until 1998-1999, when it was closed. It is now a church.

Other Lafayette Kroger stores:
Initially opened as a smaller Henke's Family Center, 454 Heymann Blvd. It was later operated by National as a Canal Villere, which became Piggly Wiggly. That store closed, and was sold to a local operator in around 2004-05. It is known as Champagne's Market.
Possibly also opened as a standard Henke's was 102 Heymann Blvd. It was built as a standalone store in the late 60's. In 1976, a shopping center was built around it, with a Piccadilly Cafeteria covering the front entrance. A superstore was built at the back of the center at that time. Most of the original store is occupied by Dollar Tree. The superstore is Harbor Freight Tools and a golf shop.
And finally, the Kroger Family Center downtown at Jefferson and Cypress, which was closed for the Willow store.

A&P had already left Lafayette by the time Kroger pulled out.

I would really loooooooove to see that publication you got. I can shed a whole lot of light on all of them.
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pseudo3d
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Re: Kroger in Lafayette LA

Post by pseudo3d »

wnetmacman wrote:Let me break this one into three.

First, Kroger left Lafayette around the same time they left Opelousas (1st gen center Greenhouse) and Baton Rouge,roughly 1984.
pseudo3d wrote:I recently discovered a list of grocery stores in Lafayette from the 1990s which revealed that there had been three Delchamps in Lafayette LA at one time. That's not too surprising...one of them was on Ambassador Caffery, which became a Bed Bath & Beyond after closure, and one was at 120 James Comeaux Rd.
So in Lafayette, Delchamps actually operated in 5 different locations, but never more than 3 concurrently. The Ambassador Caffrey store initially opened next to a then Kmart at 3557 Ambassador Caffrey. That store is now Big Lots. When Delchamps went to the SuperMarket push (as opposed to the Super Store model), they moved down to a then new center immediately adjacent (and connected) to Ambassador Row called Courtyards at Ambassador Row. *That* store is now Bed, Bath and Beyond.

120 James Comeaux Road was also built next to a smaller 7000-series Kmart, but later on, in 1980. Kmart outlasted this store by 2 years. It was originally built as a Super Store, but was later expanded to a SuperMarket. There was a definitive ceiling drop in this building, which was vacant for 10 years, but is now occupied by a private vocational school and a technology company.
pseudo3d wrote:A third store existed at 200 West Willow Street in a former Kroger Greenhouse, and not a first generation one (where the "greenhouse" was in the center and the walls curved in slightly toward it), one built in the early 1980s at about 45,000 square feet. What year did Kroger pull out of Lafayette, and why didn't this go to A&P like the Baton Rouge stores did? Was this the only store? (There appears that there was an older Kroger downtown, but this was replaced by the Greenhouse)
200 West Willow was indeed the final Kroger built in Lafayette. I don't have a build date, but it was closed by 1984. Canal Villere may have operated in this store for a while, then Delchamps moved their first generation store from around the corner at 2007 NW Evangeline Thruway. That store opened in the late 70's with Woolco, which itself became Wal-Mart upon Woolco's closure. The store remained Delchamps until 1998-1999, when it was closed. It is now a church.

Other Lafayette Kroger stores:
Initially opened as a smaller Henke's Family Center, 454 Heymann Blvd. It was later operated by National as a Canal Villere, which became Piggly Wiggly. That store closed, and was sold to a local operator in around 2004-05. It is known as Champagne's Market.
Possibly also opened as a standard Henke's was 102 Heymann Blvd. It was built as a standalone store in the late 60's. In 1976, a shopping center was built around it, with a Piccadilly Cafeteria covering the front entrance. A superstore was built at the back of the center at that time. Most of the original store is occupied by Dollar Tree. The superstore is Harbor Freight Tools and a golf shop.
And finally, the Kroger Family Center downtown at Jefferson and Cypress, which was closed for the Willow store.

A&P had already left Lafayette by the time Kroger pulled out.

I would really loooooooove to see that publication you got. I can shed a whole lot of light on all of them.
Interesting that Kroger used both the Family Center and the Henke name way out here. Kroger did use "Henke's Family Center" fairly early on when the Family Center name was getting started but must have switched to the Kroger Family Center name sometime in the 1970s (wonder how many other of the Texas Family Center stores were Henke's Family Center). As an aside, the Family Center name seemed to be used in areas with little to no Kroger presence, resulting in a lot of stores in smaller towns and less so much in larger towns (at least that was my impression).

Anyway, the list. It's from a site called MarinersGuide.com, which has unfortunately no longer accessible without archive.org. It was designed to be a resource for boaters and had restaurants and shop listings for a number of U.S. cities (I think the criteria was near lakes or oceans). The fascinating thing is that it's all from the mid-1990s (original resource unknown), so there's lots of stuff that predates the Internet. Stuff that was already dead and gone by 1998. The listing for Lafayette specifically is here, note that it still has three Albertsons stores, lists the Real Superstore as a Schwegmann (I don't think it was branded as such?), and five Piggly Wiggly stores (including aforementioned 454 Heymann). The rest of the site has interesting things for Lafayette (like if you wanted to know where the Burger Tyme restaurants were) and a number of other cities (not Baton Rouge, but does include New Orleans). The cities covered are spotty--there's Temple and Waco but not Killeen, Corsicana but not College Station, New Orleans but not Baton Rouge, etc. (It's nice if you want to find all the former Schwegmann supermarkets in N.O.)
wnetmacman
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Re: Kroger in Lafayette LA

Post by wnetmacman »

A couple of items of note:

Adrien's Supermarkets. Adrien's still operates one store (they had as many as three concurrently) on West Congress, but another operated at the time of this list at 3540 Pinhook. That store looks and is laid out similarly to a Delchamps, but I've never been able to find evidence of it anywhere. Our libraries here are, well, lacking. Also, the Plaza Village listing is most likely an office, because that's a house.

Breaux's Super Check Mart at 4800 Johnston is now Dwight's Restaurant, and has been since before that time.

Not supermarkets, but all of the Circle K stores listed still operate in those locations as Circle K.

None of the 5 listed Piggly Wiggly stores survive. 3826 Moss and 2017 W. University (former National) are Shoppers Value Foods. 454 Heymann is the aforementioned Champagne's, 819 Simcoe is in a really bad part of town and is a beauty supply store, and 208 W. Willow is near the Delchamps/Greenhouse Kroger.

If this listing is from 1995-1996 or so, the Schwegmann listing for The Real Superstore would be correct. They kept the signage, but were known and about to rebrand as Schwegmann before the stores closed outright. Lafayette was very popular prior to the buyout. My inlaws could almost see that store from their home. As a side note, the theatre shooting we had in Lafayette almost 2 years ago is at the same address; The Grand Theatre tore the Superstore building down to build their theatre.

Winn Dixie only lists 3803 Moss, which would date this near 1995 or so. The three additional stores were all opened in 1997 at 2240 Ambassador (Shoppers Value), 4510 Ambassador (closed and vacant since 2005), and 2723 W Pinhook (most recently a church, but now vacant). 2240 Ambassador replaced a WD in Scott at 5525 Cameron, which was vacant from 1997-2007, but is now a PW under a different operator, and 2723 Pinhook replaced a WD at 1879 W. Pinhook, a current Office Depot.
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Re: Kroger in Lafayette LA

Post by pseudo3d »

I am aware that the list is not 100% accurate (there were some oddities in trying to look up things in Houston). Looks like Caffery Center (4510 Ambassador Caffery) had a K&B Drug in the center as well which if it was built in 1997 didn't last too long before it became Rite Aid (which it is today).

So for Kroger...I don't know when they merged Houston and Dallas the first time but I'm guessing the scale-back from Louisiana was part of it (unless New Orleans was never part of the division).
wnetmacman
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Re: Kroger in Lafayette LA

Post by wnetmacman »

pseudo3d wrote:I am aware that the list is not 100% accurate (there were some oddities in trying to look up things in Houston). Looks like Caffery Center (4510 Ambassador Caffery) had a K&B Drug in the center as well which if it was built in 1997 didn't last too long before it became Rite Aid (which it is today).


The 2240 Ambassador store also had an adjacent K&B, which almost immediately became Rite Aid as well.
pseudo3d wrote:So for Kroger...I don't know when they merged Houston and Dallas the first time but I'm guessing the scale-back from Louisiana was part of it (unless New Orleans was never part of the division).
Kroger has never operated in New Orleans or any of the suburbs on the East or Westbank areas in Orleans and Jefferson Parishes. The closest stores were in Baton Rouge, Gulfport/Biloxi, Lafayette and Morgan City. A Dallas/Houston merge wouldn't have involved the area in any way.
Scott Greer
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Re: Kroger in Lafayette LA

Post by Groceryfan »

The former Adrien's Supermarket at 3540 Pinhook in Lafayette may have been a former Delchamp's. The Shopper's Value Foods in Baton Rouge was a former Delchamp's store and the shopping center has a similar layout to the former Adrien's in Lafayette.

Shoppers Value Foods
https://www.google.com/maps/@30.3930685 ... 312!8i6656
wnetmacman
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Re: Kroger in Lafayette LA

Post by wnetmacman »

Groceryfan wrote:The former Adrien's Supermarket at 3540 Pinhook in Lafayette may have been a former Delchamp's. The Shopper's Value Foods in Baton Rouge was a former Delchamp's store and the shopping center has a similar layout to the former Adrien's in Lafayette.

Shoppers Value Foods
https://www.google.com/maps/@30.3930685 ... 312!8i6656
Jones Creek was Delchamps, but Pinhook was not. Delchamps was just off Pinhook on James Comeaux Road next to Kmart. That store dated to 1978, and was too close for 3540 to make it. The 3540 building was built for Adrian's, who also had another failed store in a former Weingarten building on Johnston. After Adrian's, the store became Piggly Wiggly for a while before closing.
Scott Greer
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Re: Kroger in Lafayette LA

Post by KrogerTexas »

The Lafayette stores were closed along with all the stores in Baton Rouge area (excluding Lake Charles, Alex and Shreveport area) stores in a contract dispute in the early 80's. The Lafayette and Baton Rouge stores were part of the Houston Division.

In the 80's Houston and Dallas were separate marketing areas with Vice Presidents who answered to a Texas President. Both marketing area maintained completely separate offices with store support staff. The only common thread for the two divisions at that time was the Texas President and accounting for both divisions was done in Houston. In the late 80's the Texas President was eliminated and the VP's were made presidents answering to a Senior VP in Cinci. The office in Dallas was sold and the staff reduced to a handful as most of the office functions were moved to Houston. A few years later the two marketing area were combined (for the first time) into the Southwest Division which has since been dissolved back into two separate divisions with a new division office opened in Dallas.
wnetmacman
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Re: Kroger in Lafayette LA

Post by wnetmacman »

KrogerTexas wrote:The Lafayette stores were closed along with all the stores in Baton Rouge area (excluding Lake Charles, Alex and Shreveport area) stores in a contract dispute in the early 80's. The Lafayette and Baton Rouge stores were part of the Houston Division.
The stores that closed included Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Opelousas, New Iberia and Morgan City. Only one store in Baton Rouge and one in New Iberia currently operate as supermarkets. The Baton Rouge store actually is in the town of Central, and is called Oak Park Market. It spent many years as an A&P Sav-A-Center, and is the most modern. The New Iberia store was a Family Center, and is now half Bowling Alley, half independent with a pretty low reputation.

Of the two then open Lafayette stores, one is now a church. The other is now part Harbor Freight Tools, part golf shop. Opelousas is a civic center for the city, and Morgan City is a new car dealer.

I know for sure that one Baton Rouge store is abandoned. Another is an indoor race track. Not sure if there were more, as I don't have a listing.
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pseudo3d
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Re: Kroger in Lafayette LA

Post by pseudo3d »

I collected these from an 1983 ad. It's possible one more was built before pull-out in I believe 1985 but it's unlikely.

http://www.groceteria.com/board/viewtop ... 628#p20628
wnetmacman
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Re: Kroger in Lafayette LA

Post by wnetmacman »

pseudo3d wrote:I collected these from an 1983 ad. It's possible one more was built before pull-out in I believe 1985 but it's unlikely.

http://www.groceteria.com/board/viewtop ... 628#p20628
I believe, as we've discussed here before, that they were pretty much done after this list. I'm pretty sure the Lafayette and Central greenhouse stores were the last two; they were built with the same, late design. Kroger was looking for a way out by that point, and stopped investing in the area.
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Re: Kroger in Lafayette LA

Post by BatteryMill »

pseudo3d wrote: 09 Sep 2017 19:06 I collected these from an 1983 ad. It's possible one more was built before pull-out in I believe 1985 but it's unlikely.

http://www.groceteria.com/board/viewtop ... 628#p20628
https://www.upi.com/Archives/1983/11/22 ... 438325200/
Kroger left Baton Rouge November 1983, FYI.

I do wonder when they left Lafayette, meanwhile.
wnetmacman
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Re: Kroger in Lafayette LA

Post by wnetmacman »

BatteryMill wrote: 05 Dec 2022 17:49
pseudo3d wrote: 09 Sep 2017 19:06 I collected these from an 1983 ad. It's possible one more was built before pull-out in I believe 1985 but it's unlikely.

http://www.groceteria.com/board/viewtop ... 628#p20628
https://www.upi.com/Archives/1983/11/22 ... 438325200/
Kroger left Baton Rouge November 1983, FYI.

I do wonder when they left Lafayette, meanwhile.
Lafayette was on a different contract even than Opelousas 18 miles north. The two Lafayette Kroger stores closed in 1988 along with New Iberia and Morgan City. All four were purchased by National/Canal Villere. Arnould Blvd. immediately ceased being a supermarket. Willow at Evangeline Thruway held on first as Canal Villere (via National) then Delchamps until 1999. Arnould Blvd is split between Harbor Freight and Golfballs.com, while Willow is Philadelphia Christian Church. The New Iberia store still operates partly as a supermarket, partly as a bowling alley. The Morgan City store belongs to Courtesy Automotive.
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Re: Kroger in Lafayette LA

Post by BatteryMill »

wnetmacman wrote: 05 Dec 2022 18:00 Lafayette was on a different contract even than Opelousas 18 miles north. The two Lafayette Kroger stores closed in 1988 along with New Iberia and Morgan City. All four were purchased by National/Canal Villere. Arnould Blvd. immediately ceased being a supermarket. Willow at Evangeline Thruway held on first as Canal Villere (via National) then Delchamps until 1999. Arnould Blvd is split between Harbor Freight and Golfballs.com, while Willow is Philadelphia Christian Church. The New Iberia store still operates partly as a supermarket, partly as a bowling alley. The Morgan City store belongs to Courtesy Automotive.
It was in 1986 per an article.

On another note, the article in the link curiously did not include the Morgan City, New Iberia and Shreveport-area stores as part of the location count in Louisiana. Perhaps those were closed for some time, or was it just an error?
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