Houston Historic Retail

Howdy folks, and welcome to Houston Historic Retail. Today we’re visiting a new place for the blog, but a spot with a special place in my heart, the 99 Cents Only Store. Today’s location is actually a new one for me. Located at 10787 Jones Rd, Houston, TX 77065, this store space in the Steeplechase Center was originally filled by Sav-On Drugs, opening in 1982, and later Walgreens, which took over the stores when Sav-On left Houston in 1984. The location was a bit too large for Walgreens’ needs, so it was subdivided, turning a portion of the space into …

Gordon Food Stores, Houston’s newest grocery chain, opened another store this week—the new location at 5300 N Braeswood Blvd, Houston, TX 77096, is located in Braeswood Square. The company opened its first four area locations back in March. GFS is a mix between a traditional grocer and a food service distributor. While they may not carry every grocery item an individual wants, larger households and small businesses can shop GFS quite easily. I visited the newest store and chatted with the manager about GFS’ entry into Houston. One of the first things I was curious about was the lack of …

Editor’s Note: Today is this blog’s eighth birthday and the week of my own birthday! If you like HHR you can easily help keep me going in one of two ways. First, please consider following, liking, and sharing my content on Facebook. Social media is not something I use excessively, but it helps bring new readers, especially those interested in local history. Second, please consider donating to HHR. I don’t run ads, have a corporate sponsor, or anything like that. This setup runs at a monetary loss because I have the desire to keep documenting this history. However, growing readership …

Howdy folks, and welcome to Houston Historic Retail! Today we’re looking at a “Baby Beaver Buc-ee’s.” The Buc-ee’s Taxonomy splits the classification of stores by size and actually doesn’t originate on HHR. Most people who know Buc-ee’s know them for their massive travel center stores, which have gone nationwide in the past few years. However, this isn’t how Buc-ee’s got their start. Readers closer to the Gulf Coast, may remember the earliest incarnations of Buc-ee’s from the 80s and 90s. A handful of stores throughout Lake Jackson and Freeport some purchased from competitors by ‘Beaver’ Aplin. Early on, little set …

Howdy folks, and welcome back to Houston Historic Retail. Today we’re taking time for a sad topic, the slow and agonizing death of Fuddruckers. The downfall of Fudds is not new content here on HHR. My first hint that something was seriously wrong at the chain goes all the way back to 2018 and the failure of the chain to re-franchise a popular West Houston location before shutting it down. My naivety of the conditions of Luby’s Fuddruckers at the time led me to believe that Fudd’s may have stood a chance if they could pare down locations and focus …