Howdy, folks, and welcome back to HHR. Today, we’re visiting a former Finger Furniture showroom, which has been serving as what is likely the largest Value Village in the Houston area for a good 20 or so years now. This store at 9500 Jensen Road opened as a Finger showroom in 1962. At the time, it was out in the suburbs of Northern Houston, a rapidly growing area. While homes had already been constructed further North, this property was previously farmland before the Finger family became involved. By this point in the Finger’s history, they were already well known for furniture and electronics and had a handful of locations around town. However, their Northside stores were some of the oldest and smallest in the chain, so this new store was needed to keep up with rapid growth. Once this store opened, the other two, located at 2211 N Main and 6111 Jensen, would shut down once they sold their remaining merchandise. When this store opened, it was state-of-the-art, and the sides facing the roads were all covered in glass and brightly lit. With huge displays up next to the windows on both floors, it was a showpiece for a growing community. It featured a split-level design with a small lobby on the main level and the option to proceed upstairs or downstairs. When this first opened, the second floor was completely open, allowing for additional display space to be seen from the lobby. The manager of this new store was Lee Blum, who had been with Fingers for years, starting as a janitor. After a few years as manager here, he opened his own store named Lee Blum’s Furniture, and his family still operates a store under the Blum name as of this article. For years, though, he operated a location directly in competition with this Fingers branch until closing around 1985. Fingers would only last a few more years, closing around 1988.
In 1995, Value Village opened in the former furniture store and has held the space ever since. In the interim years, tracking exactly what happened is difficult. However, I’ve found listings for a handful of businesses that operated in the early 90s, giving the impression that the space may have been somewhat subdivided. Tenants included a furniture store, multiple jewelers, clothiers, a 99 Cent Store, and even a quick service restaurant. It seems that if only for a few short years, the former furniture store served a purpose closer to a mall than its original intent. My research indicates that the exterior coverings were added while Finger still occupied the building, and I believe some interior changes were made during the mall days. Still, much has survived from day one, giving this store a unique look and feel. In my opinion, this is a worthy visit for anyone interested in retail history, or honestly, even if you’re just a fan of Value Village. This is the largest location I’ve ever been to, and the selection was much wider than I expected, including a wide collection of furniture harkening back to the days of Finger.
I do like that this store has a janky cart selection, something many of the big thrift chains lack. I noticed that most of the carts have Value Village stickers over the handles – looks like a quick way to hide the logo of the original retailer without having to file it off. The ones with the long, shallow baskets I know are from ALDI Foods.
Value Village is actually an Ohio based company, so they sourced a bunch of Aldi carts years before Aldi got here, and have been using them since. The other carts are “strays” from nearby stores.