Groceteria.com

I am completely new to this chain. When did it start? Where were some of their stores? Sounds like it disappeared in 1985, the same time as Nichols Discount City.

Eagle Supermarkets was Lucky Stores entry to the Houston market, using the same name as the Eagle Food Stores based out the Quad Cities area of IL/IA. Its fate was similar to Safeways entry to Houston, though much shorter lived. For a short period they were fairly successful, giving Kroger and Safeway problems, during the timeframe that Weingarten's was still the leading Houston grocer and Randall's was in growth mode in the region. I believe the plug was pulled on Eagle in the 1984 timeframe, several years before Lucky's was sold to American Stores. Kroger didn't really gain its current position in Houston until the early 80's after Weingarten folded(another cog in the Grand Union saga) and didn't really acheive its current dominance until the aftermath of Apple Tree's meltdown and Safeway acquiring Randall's to re-enter the market.

I believe many of the H-E-B Pantry stores were former Eagle Supermarkets.

The H-E-B Pantry stores were a mishmash of previous generation stores. I think that the list included Lewis & Coker and Safeway/AppleTree among them. Probably some Minimaxes as well. A few were new-builds.