Groceries Gone Wild

You can almost feel the panic in Beaumont grocery stores as the gleaming, mammoth H.E.B. on Dowlen Road inches closer to completion.
The guts of the existing Kroger down Dowlen from where the H.E.B. is going up have been rearranged and gussied up. A sushi bar, olive bar and a Starbucks have been added, and much of the store has been remodeled. The magazine and book racks have been placed in the middle, accented by fancy-looking wood. The wine department has been rearranged, although I haven't been able to tell yet whether the stock has been expanded. It certainly looks bigger.
Meanwhile, similar work has taken place at the Market Basket near the intersection of Texas 105 and U.S. 69. The produce and medicine areas certainly look a lot bigger. Wooden floors have been added. The store looks more modern, casting off its mom-and-pop image.
And, of course, the wine section has been spruced up. I suppose a fancy-pants wine section creates a sense of sophistication for the entire store.
The new 125,000-square-foot H.E.B., whose bells and whistles will include a seafood department, organic food section, tortilleria, sushi bar and, of course, a big ol- wine department (reported 2,000 varieties), will open next month.
On one hand, I'm concerned that the new H.E.B. might run other grocery stores out of business or perhaps put them in the position of having to downsize, scrimp and cutback because they couldn't compete.
On the other hand, the competition certainly will benefit customers, giving them more choices as well as better prices.
Maybe there's plenty of room in Beaumont for more groceries.
The game of grocery one-upsmanship reminds me of the mall wars of the 1980s.
Growing up on Houston's west side, we had Memorial City Mall. Between us and the mall was an area known as Town and Country Village, which had unconnected businesses such as a grocery store, a pizza place, an Oshman's, a Joske's, a farmers market and a few other places.
One day, much of that was razed, and the gleaming, fancy Town and Country Mall was built, nearly sucking the life out of the good ol' Memorial City Mall.
Town and Country was the quintessential 1980s mall. It looked modern and had all those superduper stores.
But the scrappy Memorial City Mall didn't give up. Over the years, it hung in there, remodeled, picked its market fights, scored some essential anchor stores, added a killer merry-go-round and children's play areas, enlarged the food court and survived.
Today, the long-gone Town and Country Mall is just a greasy spot, replaced by a mostly unconnected collection of restaurants, retail stores, offices and other businesses. In effect, the area kind of went back to the way it was before the mall craziness began.
Meanwhile, the Memorial City Mall is bigger and better than ever.
The new H.E.B. surely will siphon customers away from the competitors, but with the way things are going and growing in Beaumont these days, it could be a good thing in the short and long runs.