Mi Tienda was Pasadena Plaza

Hola, y bienvindios a Houston Historic Retail! Today, we are finally getting to Mi Tienda, HEB’s smallest banner. If you’re a regular HEB shopper, you might recognize the Mi Tienda name without ever being at one of their stores. Mi Tienda has evolved from just a banner into an entire brand, and I feel it is a worthy entry into the HHR blog. However, before discussing the store, let’s discuss the site’s history. Located at 1630 Spencer Hwy, South Houston, TX 77587, this store is on the corner of major retail crossroads. Long before HEB ever had an inkling they wanted to compete in Houston, developers were divying up this land by the 1950s. The spot held by Mi Tienda, was originally Pasadena’s first mall, Pasadena Plaza. A small mall by modern standards, the location was chosen because of how population was shifting South from old Pasadena down toward the Gulf Freeway. The mall hosted a JC Penney, Henke & Pillot (later Kroger), Palais Royal, and many other small shops in between. This development would attract other retailers along Spencer Highway, namely Montomgery Ward directly across the street, the Houston area’s first Handy Dan Hardware catty corner, and a Kmart just on the other side of the mall. This area did bustling business all the way through the 80s, when the long planned Pasadena Town Square Mall finally came to fruition. PTS would begin to gain tennants who wanted the “full mall experience” and Pasadena Plaza would slowly fade away. However, in 1996 Albertsons would announce plans to redevlop the mall, and by summer 1997 their plans would be underway. Rather than try to redevelop the mall around a new grocery store, Albertsons would only retain a small sliver of the original mall land, on the direct corner of the intersection. Most of the land would be sold to apartment developers, although smaller portions would become a hotel, strip center, bank, and restaurant. The demolition of the mall, and construction of the store occured at a fevered pace, and within only about six months Albertsons was ready to make its debut.

By this point, Pasadena had already been a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood for years, and the store’s intial advertising certainly played into this. Beyond using Spanish as the primary advertising language, this would be a pretty normal Albertsons stores. It featured a gas station and C-Store in the parking lot, and just like any other Albertsons was geared towards middle class shoppers and up. It wasn’t one of the worst performers in Houston, but it would close in the spring of 2002 along with the rest of Albertson’s Houston stores. In a quiet deal HEB would scoop up a handful of closed Albertsons stores, including this and the El Camino location, only a few months later. The deal was meant to help HEB bolster its presence, and in Houston specifically transition away from the Pantry Foods concept. After a few months of “rennovations” the store would reopen as HEB September 20th, 2002. HEB changed little from the Albertsons days beyond swapping out the decor, and demolishing the C-Store (but keeping the fuel pumps.) This store would soldier on with poor sales, and was likely at risk of closing, until a plan was developed to reorient the store with a Hispanic theme and name, Mi Tienda. The team at HEB spent over a year remodeling the store, adding new service departments like the Cremeria, and updating old ones like the Bakery/Panderia. The product mix would be updated, carrying the “basic essentials” of an HEB, and adding in many more Hispanic oriented products. The decor, store layout were all updated, with a “patio” added to the front and the store reopened one more time in late 2006. Mi Tienda was declared a success by the community, and the company with HEB adding a second location to Houston’s North side in 2011. While development in the Houston market has been sparse, Mi Tienda has ballooned in Mexico with HEB operating 11 locations across three states there. Despite what your feelings about HEB may be, for anyone interested in retail history, this is a store worth visiting.