Welcome back to Houston Historic Retail folks, today we have some very sad news and a photo dump of a very odd store. It Looks like the final end is in sight for Thompson’s Antique Center and no unfortunately this is not an April Fools joke. After their surprise going out of business sale last December, things looked up for the antique mall. A new location had been announced via Facebook, the former Louis Shank’s …
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My name is Mike and I am the founder of the Houston Historic Retail! I have been running this site since 2015. For more information check out the About page!
Rising water might scare Walgreens, but Dollar Tree doesn’t seem to mind
Howdy folks, and welcome back to HHR! Today, we’re heading back to a familiar topic: drugstores in Houston. Recently we took a look at a couple of “Speckerd’s” locations, and a Walgreens now selling Skechers. However, today’s former pharmacy falls into a slightly different category. This is a Walgreens that didn’t just close without a replacement, but rather this store relocated nearby. While I don’t have anything to explicitly back this up, the proximity to …
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Fuddruckers goes Krogering, Trying out Kroger’s new ghost kitchen
Howdy folks, and welcome back to Houston Historic Retail! When I started out this blog, I had one intention, I wanted to cover retail-focused content about my fair Bayou-City. This blog actually started all the way back in 2015. One thing I never had intentions of doing was becoming a food critic. I don’t have the palate or the expressive vocabulary needed to accomplish this I like fast food and small words. That being said, …
Read moreRetail News: Circle K Quietly disposes of 4 Houston locations to newcomer Prime Spot
Strange things are afoot at a few Houston area Circle K locations as they begin to rebrand as Prime Spot. The brand is a new one, with their operations mainly consisting of wholesaling fuel prior to this point. Circle K made its reentry into Houston during a 2018 conversion spree, after purchasing the CornerStore chain of C-Stores in 2016, which had recently been spun off by Valero. Many of these Corner Store locations came from …
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Blue Ridge Blight, a 42 year old Kroger only open for 7, finally has a promising new future
Fort Bend County is not an area one generally associates with urban blight. Most folk’s exposure to the county is driving along the highways, which mostly pass through relatively affluent areas. While there are some pockets, of less valuable properties, it’s nothing compared with what you might see driving the highways of Houston. To most, it would seem that truly decrepit areas don’t exist within the boundaries of Fort Bend, but this is far from …
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Weingarten’s Food Fair is over, now it’s Lewis’ Food Town
Weingarten is a grocer I never knew, They were gone by the time I was born but oddly were still held in high regard. The chain folded in 1983, after a buyout in 1979. While many put the blame onto an over-eager chain wanting to expand but incompetent in running stores in unfamiliar territory. While this is partly true, the issue was in fact much broader and stems from a little-known origin story, which is …
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Exxon left this On the Run, now it’s time for Star Stop’s story
Howdy folks, and welcome back to HHR. Today we’re taking a break from the norm, and talking about Star Stop. Now that’s a name that doesn’t come up well… anywhere really, and if you don’t recognize it I don’t blame you. The company operates ~115 gas stations and C-Stores, mostly in and around Houston, with a small presence in San Antonio and Austin as well. The stores are mostly former chains that have been snapped …
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Amazon to shutter two brick and mortar locations in Houston as part of company wide closures
As part of Amazon’s restructuring of their retail arm, two Houston area retailers will soon close their doors. Amazon Books and Amazon 4-Star will be phased out of Amazon’s brick-and-mortar operations. Each store has one branch in the Houston area. With Amazon Books at Baybrook Mall, and Amazon 4-Star in Deerbrook Mall. This will leave Amazon’s physical presence in Houston to only Whole Foods. Prior to the writing of this article, the Amazon-associated retailer I …
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James Coney Deserted Island, a Meadows Place Story
Update 4/27: For those on the Google crusade of trying to figure out why this location closed, it seems the property is being redeveloped as Cabo Bob’s an Austin-based taco house (Thanks Gruffbear!) If this has been helpful to you, consider following me on Facebook or other platforms for more regular updates! Howdy folks, and welcome to Houston Historic Retail. Today we’re checking out a James Coney Island, which truly is, on an island. Let’s …
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Handy Randalls, the store that killed an HEB still here 50 years later
Howdy, folks, and welcome back to Houston Historic Retail! Today we’re taking an in-depth look at one of Houston’s former Handy Andy stores. If you’re not in the know about Handy Andy, let me give you a little background. They were a grocer based out of San Antonio who expanded to Houston in the 1970s. During the initial phases of their expansion, things went quite well with the Becker family, who owned the stores, building …
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