Clear Lake as a city has an interesting history, the 30,000 acres were pieced together by a wealthy businessman to build a ranch on. However, by 1938 the ranch would be sold to Humble Oil company after crude oil fields were found. While Humble began to pump oil from some areas, most of the land sat vacant until 1962, a year after NASA announced plans for the Manned Spacecraft Center. Humble Oil, announced their plans to use the Clear Lake land to build a planned community. They would do so under their Friendswood Development Company, who had already been working …
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Deseret Industries Houston: When the Osmonds met Goodwill
Thrifting is ubiquitous in Houston. There are people who make their entire livings going to thrift stores, and reselling merchandise they find there. Outside of business prospects, many of us enjoy thrifting simply for the fun of it. You never really know what you’re going to find with a megalopolis worth of donations, in a repurposed retailer. I’ve thrifted a good amount of vintage electronics in my day, including a great deal of video games. However, my focus as of late is more retail based signage, memorabilia, glassware, etc… However, these are the exact types of things that other thrifters …
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SpEckerd either way you’ve gotta show ID to buy stuff!
Houston has a preponderance of former drug stores. Many have found new uses, and seemingly just as many continue to sit vacant. The vast majority of these failed pharmacies come from overbuilding over the past 20 or so years. The issue wasn’t specific to Houston, as evident by the recently announced CVS closures, but it sure had an early start here. Most of it began around 2003 when CVS entered the Houston market, their desire to expand was met by with a swift response from Walgreens who planned an expansion in Houston of their own. With CVS, and Walgreens both …
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HEB’s Failed Concept store in Northwest Houston
Houston has been a stable market for H-E-B for many years now. While the early years were a bit touch and go at certain times overall HEB could be considered one of the more stable grocers in the Houston area. Even towards the end of the Pantry Foods era HEB’s success in Houston was measurable. It came to the point where the company felt brave enough to open a “concept store” here in town. Located at 6960 Barker Cypress Rd, Houston, TX 77084, this Pantry Foods was a “late bloomer” not opening until 1998. However it seems HEB hoped that …
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Safeway, to David’s, Come in Gerland’s, Do you read me? This is Food Town!
Howdy Folks, in preparation for Thanksgiving we’re taking a look at somewhere you’ve probably stopped this week, a grocery store! Specifically we’re talking about 1455 Wilcrest Dr, Houston, TX 77042 which as of 2021 is a Food Town. However, it has been at least 3 other grocers over the past 47 years. The location originally opened in 1974 as a new build Safeway for Houston’s rapidly developing Briar Forest neighborhood. At the time, the Westchase area was still being built out, but would quickly prove to be one of the hottest new markets in town. By the late 70s, Weingartens …
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Online shopping at Gerland’s and other unique Houston grocers from 1989-90
Editor’s Note: Today’s post is a guest submission from HHR’s good friend Anonymous in Houston Houston was an interesting place in around 1989 and 1990. The economy, both locally and nationally, was a bit sluggish at the time. Locally, the area was still recovering from the problems facing the oil and gas industry throughout most of the 1980s. Given these problems, one might expect the local supermarket scene to be rather troubled as well, but that was not at all the case. Perhaps the most famous Houston supermarket story of 1989 was Boris Yeltsin’s famous visit to a Clear Lake-area …
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There’s news round the corner! Gas Station coming to Former Walgreens Highway 6 and Westheimer
Howdy Folks, and welcome back to some retail news at the corner of Highway 6 and Westheimer. It seems that two shopping centers, at the crossroads, are coming closer to 100% occupancy again for the first time in nearly 20 years! This intersection has long been considered to essentially be a no-mans lands in terms of retail. Beyond West Oaks Mall’s initial success which is long gone, the two power centers sitting catty corner both managed to maintain decent tenancy, but have more recently struggled. With the Village at West Oaks (Northwest Corner) losses included longtime anchors Barnes & Noble …
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Weingarten Realty’s Annual Reports, a look into our not so distant retail past
Howdy folks, how many times have you encountered the word “Weingarten” in your life. If you’re a native Houstonian, then you probably know the name, to say the least. Houstonians of a certain era, will obviously remember the J. Weingarten grocery store chain. One of Houston’s first true supermarkets, starting out in the 1930s, Weingartens experienced an explosive growth post World War II. The family, who had initially only built freestanding grocery stores, quickly jumped on the property development bandwagon. By the 1960s the Weingarten Realty Corp was operating grocery stores in Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas, along with the shopping …
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Safeway, Walgreens, and Kmart One of West Houston’s best preserved shopping centers
Howdy folks, and welcome back! It should be no secret by now, that I have a bit of an obsession with Safeway/AppleTree. While I don’t really remember Safeway’s presence in Houston, I do have lots of distinct memories of AppleTree. In learning about AppleTree, I’ve also learned lots about Safeway. One fact, I didn’t originally know, was that most Safeways in Houston were built with an adjacent Eckerd location. It seems that the deal allowed Safeway to have a strong smaller tenant as a guaranteed neighbor, and as a bonus early Safeway locations weren’t built with pharmacies, so Eckerd would …
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This Week in Demolition: The Final House on this side of River Oaks!
This Week in Demolition, we see the final house on the South side of San Felipe, along with the last Demolition Post, for now at least. Let’s start with the house, which was originally constructed in the late 30s. However, by 1963 it had been converted to commercial use. One of the first tenants was a Bookstore named The Bookman, run by David Dorman. Eventually morphing into an Art Gallery, it was holding general purpose “junk sales” by the 1970s. However, by the 1990s the house had been converted back into purely residential use. The house was not the only …
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