Howdy folks, and welcome back to Houston Historic Retail! Today we’re taking a look at 5219 FM 1960 W, Houston, TX 77069, a Randalls we last checked in on just over a year ago. Last year’s check-in was a full store tour written by Anonymous in Houston. He goes into great detail about the store and how it has changed over the years. Today though, we’ll examine a more specific aspect of this store’s history, …
Read moreYear: 2023
Fuddsdate: Two Houston Fuddruckers closed for repairs
Howdy folks, and welcome back to Houston Historic Retail. Since just before the break up of Luby’s, I’ve been following the slow decline of Fuddruckers. Things have not been going great for the chain, as covered in the last couple of updates. Photos from recent trips to company-owned stores paint a picture that food quality has somewhat recovered. The “skinny fries” temporarily served at some locations have been replaced with steak fry-style potatoes, reminiscent of …
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Retail News: Two Dick’s House of Sport enter as Field & Stream exits Houston
Dick’s Sporting Goods debuted two new “House of Sport” locations in Houston this week. A soft opening was held last week at both the Baybrook and Katy locations, expanding existing Dick’s Sporting Goods into adjacent spaces formerly held by Dick’s Field & Stream outdoors stores. Dick’s announced earlier this year that they were discontinuing the Field & Stream brand and would put their focus on the new House of Sport concept. The chain has had …
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Krogering is a Vacation in Galveston
Editor’s Note: Today’s post is a guest submission from HHR’s good friend Anonymous in Houston with the photos taken by Mike Welcome to the summer vacation edition of The Year of Kroger! There is no better place in the Houston area to make a vacation-themed post to start the second half of The Year of Kroger series than on Galveston Island. With that in mind, grab some sunscreen because we will be touring the Kroger …
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Retail News: El Rancho Supermercado has new ownership
El Rancho Supermercado, which operates 8 locations throughout the Houston area, has new ownership, as reported by Winsight Grocery Business last week. The Garland-based Hispanic grocer was purchased by “Heritage Grocers Group” a company managed by Apollo Global. The chain entered Houston in 2018, shortly after Albertson’s agreed to purchase a share of El Rancho’s operations. The agreement with Albertsons was intended to help provide operational and property-based opportunities. Some of the programs we saw …
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Vintage Ads: Compact Disc Arrived at Houston Retailers 40 Years Ago
Editor’s Note: Today’s post is a guest submission from HHR’s good friend Anonymous in Houston In 1983, the home entertainment options most American households had were quite limited compared to modern times. Most homes had televisions in 1983, but most people could not do much more than receive local broadcast TV channels on their TVs at that time as cable/satellite TV was still trying to establish itself. There were video games and other home computers …
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Buh-Bye 7Pie & What happened to Church’s Chicken?
Everywhere you look in Houston, there are empty buildings. Even in a crunch for real estate as a city, we’re constantly cycling tenants, primarily commercial tenants in less prosperous areas. If you’ve done any driving around the surface streets of our fair city lately, then you’ve likely noticed at least a few vacant fast-food restaurants. Chances are they’ve all been or at least mostly have been Church’s Chicken locations. The downfall of Church’s Chicken all …
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Talking about Homeland, AppleTree’s cousin from Oklahoma
Editor’s Note: This post was inspired by a request for information on the history of AppleTree’s “cousin” from Oklahoma, Homeland. The requester, Sing Oil Blog, has provided a companion post reporting on a Homeland-owned store in Georgia. Howdy, folks, and welcome back to HHR. Today we’re looking at the history of a much more successful cousin of AppleTree, Homeland. Their history begins way back in 1929 when Safeway entered Oklahoma by acquiring a Tulsa-based chain, …
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Here Everything Was Remarkable: Remembering The Jones & West Randall’s
Editor’s Note: Today’s post is a guest submission from HHR’s good friend Anonymous in Houston with the photos taken by Mike Richardson I must say that it has been a while since I’ve had a guest post here at Houston Historic Retail which has not been about a Kroger store! That said, today’s post is related to March’s The Year of Kroger post about the Kroger Signature store at the corner Jones Rd. and West …
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Retail News: What’s in the plans for West Oaks after nearly 40 years?
Update: West Oaks Mall Management contacted HHR with the following statement: Anchors, including Dillards, The Outlet, Fortis College, and Crazy Boss, remain open. In addition, there are inline retailers and restaurants that remain open. These stores have active leases and customers, and access to these stores and restaurants is not restricted. Any questions regarding this mall should be directed to [email protected] Earlier this week, West Oaks Mall shut down interior access to their few remaining …
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