Sprouting Soon

First Sprouts Farmers Market in Bastrop takes root soon

A Sprouts Farmers Market in Corpus Christi touts its Texas produce.

A new grocery store is making its Bastrop debut. Sprouts Farmers Market is opening its first store in town at 655 Hwy. 71, Ste. 101, on Friday, March 6, with specials running throughout the weekend to introduce Bastrop residents to the store's offerings.

Opening day kicks off with a ribbon-cutting at 6:45 am, with doors opening 15 minutes later. After that, weekend deals will include a free tote for the first 200 shoppers on Friday and Saturday, plus a free rose for the first 400 guests on Friday, as a gift from Falcon Farms Floral in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Shoppers can also sample products in the store through Sunday.

To wrap it up, shoppers with a Sprouts Rewards account can get 20 percent off their purchase throughout the weekend. The discount can also be applied online using the code BGO20. Plus, anyone can sign up online to win a $500 Sprouts gift card with their first and last name and email address. No purchase is necessary to enter.

Until now, the closest Sprouts stores to Bastrop were in Austin. The chain from Phoenix, Arizona, has four locations in Austin proper, plus four more in Cedar Park, Round Rock, Georgetown, and Kyle.

Sprouts is popular among shoppers who seek out healthy and sustainable products. However, it's not just for specialty products; customers can pick up everything from prepared foods to produce, bulk ingredients and candy, supplements, and beauty products. A standing deal on Wednesdays offers sushi made in-store for $5, and build-your-own and grab-and-go sandwiches start at $4.99 no matter when they're sold.

Outside the store, Sprouts maintains relationships with local and regional farmers. In Bastrop, that includes South Tex Organics and J&B Farms. It also ensures that items that can't be sold but remain edible and rich in nutrients by donating them to the Central Texas Food Bank through Sprouts’ Food Rescue program.

Sprouts Farmers Market in Bastrop will be open daily from 7 am to 10 pm.

sprouts farmers market openings grocery health wellness

life after 65

4 Central Texas cities rank as best places to retire in 2026

City of Temple, Texas - City Government/Facebook

Temple is the best place to retire in Central Texas, and it ranked 13th statewide.

Texas retirees on the hunt for the right place to settle down and enjoy their blissful retirement years will find their haven in four Central Texas cities in 2026: Temple, Georgetown, Austin, and Killeen.

A new study conducted by the research team at RetirementLiving.com, "The Best Cities to Retire in Texas," compared the affordability, safety, livability, and healthcare access for seniors across 31 Texas cities with at least 90,000 residents.

Wichita Falls, about 140 miles northwest of Dallas, claimed the top spot as the No. 1 best place to retire in Texas.

The senior living experts ranked Temple as the 13th best place for retiring Texans to live, and Georgetown was only two spots behind as No. 15.

Temple, located about 70 miles north of Austin, ranked higher than any other Central Texas city due to its affordability, livability, and for its healthcare access for seniors. The city only lacked in the safety category, ranking No. 17 out of all 31 Texas cities on the list. Georgetown, however, ranked as the second-safest Texas city for retirees.

Georgetown is no stranger to making such lists. In 2024, the suburb appeared as the No. 6 best Hill Country town to retire. It's a highly sought-after suburb for newcomers to the Austin area, and the widely popular grocery chain H-E-B recently opened its third store in the city to accommodate its growth.

Besides enjoying the historic downtown square, retirees can also enjoy visiting the award-winning speakeasy Brass Peacock or upcoming ramen restaurant Haji Moto. Georgetown is also famously known for its iconic Red Poppy Festival and the Two Step Inn country music festival.

Meanwhile, Austin proper ranked as the 24th best Texas city to retire in, and Killeen ranked 25th on the list.

Three Central Texas cities that retirees won't find on RetirementLiving's list are Leander, Round Rock, and Pflugerville. These three booming Austin-area suburbs all ranked among the top 100 best places to retire by U.S. News & World Report in 2025, but were excluded from this 2026 list.

The top 10 best places to retire are in North Texas
This may not be surprising to residents living in Dallas-Fort Worth, but seven of the Lone Star State's top 10 best retirement locales are located in the North Texas Metroplex: Carrollton (No. 2), Plano (No. 4), Garland (No. 5), Richardson (No. 6), Arlington (No. 7), Grand Prairie (No. 8), and Irving (No. 9). Pasadena, a suburb of Houston, ranked as the third-best place to retire in Texas, while the Rio Grande Valley city of McAllen ranked 10th.

RetirementLiving said Carrollton has one of the lowest property and violent crime rates per capita in Texas, and it ranked as the No. 5 safest city on the list. About 17 percent of the city's population is aged 65 or older, which is higher than the statewide average of just 14 percent.

Other North Texas cities that were named among the best places to retire include McKinney (No. 16), Lewisville (No. 20), Denton (No. 22), and Frisco (No. 23). Meanwhile, Fort Worth ranked as the 28th best place to retire, and Dallas was 29th.

rankings retirement austin temple georgetown killeen