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 certain GFS products, specifically their Private Label Potato Chips. I have shopped at GFS a few times in Ohio and had the chance to try the delicious chips they stock. The manager explained the lack of this was due to using a different vendor (C&S in Texas vs. Spartan-Nash up North), although plans were being made to carry the full complement of store-brand items eventually.
Another question was actually posed by a customer while I was speaking with him. Taking the place of Kosher-Friendly Belden’s, did the store carry any Kosher items? The answer was yes; the store not only carries Kosher items but, in a first for GFS, has denoted on the shelf edges which items are Kosher. He also mentioned that there was the future possibility of adding more kosher items, depending on availability. Finally, I asked him what was different about the Houston stores compared to the rest of the chain. He explained that Houston’s stores were built with a newer concept than what I had shopped in Ohio a few years back. This features expanded produce, a new gourmet popcorn department, and exclusive to Houston a Tortilleria. According to permits filed, GFS has plans for stores in Galveston, Humble, Pasadena, and one more in Houston on Griggs Road.
From the photos at least, this appears to be the best example of a GFS Store in Houston. Sure, the store looks nothing like the old Belden’s, which is a bit of a shame, but GFS did put some work into this building. It appears they even poured new concrete so that the old 50+ year old Weingarten’s concrete would not be visible. While I’m not a fan of concrete floors, at least these concrete floors look as good as they could possibly look. Aside from that, the store does have a bit more of a supermarket look to it than some of the other GFSes we’ve seen.
The produce looks quite fresh and appealing here, but the per item pricing on produce is way off-Target…or maybe I should say on-Target. That is the problem, lol.