Everyone who has lived in Houston over the past 40 years has shopped at a Randall’s grocery store. Robert Onstead, the co-founder of that grocery store chain, died Wednesday morning while on a trip to Italy.
After Mr. Onstead and his original partners started Randall’s in the early 1960’s, the chain grew steadily through the next three decades and became the premier grocery store chain in the Houston area during the 1980’s (remember those great Randall’s “Flagship” stores?). But then, in the early 1990’s, Randall’s hometown character began to change when it acquired the Dallas-based Tom Thumb grocery store chain and a dozen AppleTree grocery stores in Austin. While that expansion made Randalls one of the largest Texas grocery companies, it also foreshadowed a change in the way Randall’s did business.
By the time Mr. Onstead sold his the Randall’s chain of 117 stores to Safeway for almost $1.5 billion in 1999, Randall’s was beginning to reel under the competitive pressures being exerted by other grocery retailers in Randall’s key markets. Now, Randall’s is becoming an afterthought in the Houston grocery wars as Wal-Mart, Kroger and increasingly H.E.B. take over turf that Randall’s previously dominated.
But Randall’s had a great run, and it was largely due to Mr. Onstead’s vision and leadership. Houston’s business community will miss him.