Randall's

Randall's Food Markets

Type	Grocer, Subsidiary of Albertsons
Industry	Retail
Founded	1966 (51 years ago) (1966)
Headquarters	Westchase, Houston, Texas
Number of locations	45
Key people	Paul McTavish, Division President; Leslie Nelson, Vice President Finance; Ronnie Brennan, Vice President Marketing
Products	Bakery, dairy, delicatessen, frozen foods, grocery, meat, pharmacy, produce, seafood, snacks, liquor
Parent	Albertsons
Website	randalls.com

Randall's Food Markets operates 45 supermarkets in the Houston and Austin areas under the Randalls and Flagship Randalls banners. Randall's today forms the nucleus of the current Houston division of Albertsons and is headquartered in the Westchase district of Houston. The office served as the headquarters of the independent Randall's company before its takeover and later the Texas division of Safeway. The Randall's distribution center was in unincorporated Harris County, Texas and now is serviced by the Tom Thumb distribution in Roanoke, Texas in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex.

Most stores include fresh seafood, floral, cosmetic, bakery and film processing departments. The premium Flagship Randalls and Flagship Tom Thumb stores have increased their take-out departments to provide fresh made pizzas, pastas and barbecue. Many locations even offer bank branches, ATMs, coffee shops, one-hour photograph processing, drive-through pharmacy windows, fueling stations and full-service counters where a customer can purchase lottery or movie tickets, pay utility bills and car license renewals.

Randalls Food Markets was founded by Robert Randall Onstead, R. C. Barclay, and Norman N. Frewin in Houston, Texas, on July 4, 1966, with the purchase of two existing grocery stores. The first Randall's opened in 1966. The company's fourth store opened in 1970, and by the end of the decade the company owned 15 stores and had established itself in the market. In 1980 Randall's had 8% of the Houston area grocery market, making it the fourth largest grocer there. By 1985 the company was the second largest grocer in the five-county Greater Houston area, with 17% of the sales in the market. By 1990 the chain had expanded to 42 stores. In 1991 Randall's earned over a billion dollars in revenue, making it the fastest growing company in Houston.

In the 1990s Randall's expanded into Dallas, Fort Worth and Austin. Cullum Companies, owner of 62 Tom Thumb and Simon David stores in Dallas, Fort Worth and Austin, became part of the Randall's family in 1992, doubling the company's size with more than 115 stores statewide. The Tom Thumb logo was changed to one similar to Randall's, but the Tom Thumb name was retained. Already in Austin with the Tom Thumb name, Randall's added its own name to the market in January 1994 when the company bought 12 AppleTree Markets stores (ironically a grocer formed with former Safeway locations as a result of Safeway leaving Texas in 1988). Nine of the 12 AppleTree Markets and all seven Tom Thumb stores were converted to the Randalls banner, giving the company a significant presence in the Texas Hill Country. The remaining three AppleTree stores were closed. Though the Simon David would remain open until December 1996, after which it became a Saks Fifth Avenue. After many customers lamented the loss of Austin's only Simon David, Randall's decided in 1998 to make its Bee Caves store a Flagship Randall's supermarket, the first in the city and the eighth in the chain.