Resolving to have a Resolution

When the new year rolls around, it invites a certain amount of reflection. Unfortunately, I’m a procrastinator. Which means I didn’t really think of a New Year’s resolution until the end of January.

This reflection led me to realize that this blog is no longer and unmonitored subproject of mine. Rather, I have at least a couple of regular readers linked via click-throughs from other blogs. So I wanted to extend a thanks to everyone who not only reads my blog, but especially to those who return to check for updates. I know they are somewhat sporadic, but I do can only work on this website as my schedule allows. If you’re looking for a slightly more modern way to check for updates, I ask that you give Houston Historic Retail a like on Facebook. I’m going to resolve to have more regular updates on Facebook to make up for the occasional downtime here.

In the mean time, please enjoy another edition of Random Retail!

Over Christmas, I was invited by a friend to visit Mobile, AL. I happened upon this Golden Arches McDonald’s by accident, while trying to visit a “Dirt Cheap” location across the street.

Most of the photos, I took, were spur of the moment. Anything I hadn’t seen before that caught my attention. I’m not sure if the McDonald’s was an original Golden Arches that was remodeled, but the building had the long layout most modern stores have.

Near our hotel was a Winn-Dixie. While they never made it to Houston proper, they maintained a few locations South of town.

I can’t ever recall having stepped foot inside a Winn-Dixie. They had a measurable Texas presence, albeit focused more towards Dallas. This location was very near our Hotel, in a suburb of Mobile known as Tillman’s Corner. The area is quite low income. This particular store features a “Dollar Shop” Which was just an extremely wide aisle, with shelving removed, selling this at a Dollar price point. Honestly, if I wasn’t in dire need of some ibuprofen, I likely would not have bought anything there. Despite their location, and obvious target demographic with the Dollar Shop, most items were extremely expensive.

This Rite Aid was recently closed, due to the failed merger of Walgreens and Rite Aid.

Rite Aid is another chain that I have never been to. As far as I know, they never made it into Texas. There were many former Rite Aid locations in Mobile. I believe that all were purchased by Walgreens after their failed merger. Many locations are in the process of being remodeled. However, Walgreens already had a presence in Mobile. Meaning there were some duplicate locations which were closed.

Despite it’s updated Walgreens signage, this still looks very much like a Rite-Aid.

 

This staggered checkout, looks almost like a Walgreens out of the late 70’s or Early 80’s.

 

I do miss Krystal, they have been in and out of Houston a few times. Never really catching on here.

You better believe, I did stop and get some delicious steamed hams, pardon me, steamed sliders. This proved to be a more difficult endeavor than you would think. Requiring a trip to a second location, as this one had run out of buns. Then arriving at the second location, only to find it highly understaffed to handle the rush caused by the bun shortage.

There are many former Stuckey’s locations throughout the South. They can be identified by their distinct architecture.

Trying to fit in a stop by Frostop on the way to Mobile meant that I wasn’t able to really make nay other retail based stops on the drive-in. On the way back, I decided I wanted to try and seek out a Stuckey’s I hadn’t been to before. I had the perfect spot in mind. A newly opened location, converted from an independent C-Store with Exxon gasoline. A while back I had a discussion of, What makes a Stuckey’s a Stuckey’s with my friend Zap Actiondowser. We found that new Stuckey’s locations were being built. I had noticed a billboard in Louisiana touting this location as Stuckey’s return to the state.

In reality this store was just an Exxon, which sold some Stuckey’s branded merchandise, hot “food”, and trashy souvenirs.

 

Gator Heads are common at places that sell souvenirs in Louisiana. The only other Stuckey’s I have a memory of going to is in East Texas, and they had them too.

 

For the most part the prepackaged Snacks looked like normal gas station fare. Not everything was Stuckey’s brand though.

 

I was tempted to buy a Stuckey’s Mug. I was split between the old-fashioned one, and the billboard one. In the end, my indecisiveness led me to not buying one.

 

Located in an unassuming strip center, the original Raising Cane’s is easy to miss.

One other stop I made we made was the original Raising Cane’s location. It’s located in a small strip center just outside the North Entrance to Louisiana State University. Reflecting its LSU heritage the outside of the building is adorned in Gold and Purple, and the interior features luxurious tiger skin seating.

I really liked this Chicken Fingers sign. I’m not much of a drinker, so I would totally hang this in a man cave as opposed to a Budweiser sign. Not pictured was a modern “Open” neon sign.

 

The old Wolf Bakery Sign sits out in the open. This is featured in modern Cane’s locations via a Cane’s mural in the same theme, and a small plaque explaining the inspiration.
To round it all out I wanted to include a picture of the North Main Sears from while it’s still around.

4 comments

  1. Thanks for the shoutouts. I had a similar experience with an alleged Stuckey’s in Tennessee a couple months back. It was advertised as a Stuckey’s, but was basically a modern-ish Marathon station with a few pecan logs on the shelf when I got there.

    There are quite a few Rite Aids hanging on here in Metro Detroit, even one across the street from a much newer Walgreens.

  2. Winn-Dixie did at least make it to College Station and Bryan, which are just 90 miles away. They were able to make it in Dallas mostly due to the acquisition of Buddies, but they had no such acquisition in Houston (the competitive nature of the grocery market would’ve eventually driven them out either way).

    Based on flooring, I would guess the Rite Aid was a replacement store to a K&B, which was based out of New Orleans and Rite Aid acquired in the late 1990s.

    Krystal’s presence in Texas was a very limited affair from the mid 2000s to the early 2010s. There was one on FM 1960, one in Waco, and one in Beaumont, none of them lasting for more than a few years or gaining additional locations.

    Seems like the Stuckey’s I’ve seen are mostly “store-within-a-store” gimmicks and not “real” Stuckey’s in their distinctive large (for the time) stores. There was one Stuckey’s inside an Exxon in Italy, Texas, made all the more unusual as there’s a McDonald’s in the same complex and (get this) a motel on the upper level. As of 2004 in Wichita Falls, there even appeared to be a combination 7-Eleven/Stuckey’s!

    The Sears is on North Shepherd, not North Main (I would know, it’s less than a mile from where I live) and was still shining yesterday even as the possibly final bankruptcy hearing began.

  3. Nice! Glad I can keep up with this blog. I’ll be happily waiting for your next entry 🙂

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