This page was its own article for a long time but in 2025 I decided to make it a sub-page of University Square.
In the late 1960s, Skaggs Drug Companies and Albertson's Inc. teamed up to develop a supermarket called "Skaggs Albertsons", which combined the expertise of Skaggs (drug stores) and Albertsons (supermarkets) as one full 60,000+ square foot supercenter, developing them in markets where neither had stores, like North Texas, Florida, San Antonio, or College Station, Texas. (This is what a typical Skaggs Albertsons would've looked like). In the mid-1970s the companies went their own way, with Skaggs keeping the College Station store (now renamed to Skaggs Supercenter (though it seems the Skaggs Albertsons name stuck around for several years afterward). In 1979, Skaggs Drug Cos. purchased American Stores, a supermarket chain that operated ACME supermarkets on the East Coast and Alpha Beta on the West Coast. With this Skaggs took the American Stores name, and officially rebranded in November 1979 as Skaggs Alpha Beta.
In 1991, American Stores rebranded the Texas division of Skaggs Alpha Beta as "Jewel-Osco" (its Chicago division) both as cost-cutting and the fact that they were forced to sell Alpha Beta as part of a messy lawsuit following their acquisition of Lucky Stores. A year later, these stores were sold to their old partner Albertsons, which quietly renamed the stores. American Stores kept the name of Jewel-Osco, that continued to be used on their New Mexico division and the stores in the Chicago area.
In October 1997, Albertsons purchased Randalls at 615 University Drive East; a month later the University Square location closed. They clearly regretted that decision—less than three years later, plans were in the works to reopen the store.
In May 2000, Albertsons filed plans with the city to reopen the store as Albertsons #2797. This time around, the Albertsons would have gained a fancy "Albertsons University Market" branding and come complete with a Starbucks and "J.A.'s Kitchen", a deli concept (JA stood for Joe Albertson) that Albertsons played around with for a short while in some stores (from what I can tell, it was just the regular deli usually placed in smaller stores or drug stores).
Why this never got off the ground was related to the fact that American Stores, still dealing with the financial effects of the Lucky merger, had dropped in stock value enough for Albertsons to buy them out entirely, which introduced another can of worms as Albertsons struggled to integrate them into the company. Bryan got a new store, somehow...but it was this merger and its aftereffects that caused the last three stores to close. In 2012, demolition began on the vacant store.
Other shots, taken January 2011...
Too bad that was never the case, and the site is now a fenced-off grassy area, returned to simply potential.
A much older version of this post was originally posted on Safeway and Albertsons in Texas. Post last updated January 2025 for major update.
