Author: Mike

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!

Venture tried to tackle the Houston market 30 years ago, and failed

Howdy folks, and welcome back to Houston Historic Retail. Today we’re discussing the long-departed Venture Department Store on the 30th anniversary of entering Houston. Rarely have things gone worse for a chain than Venture’s disastrous expansion into Texas. A story that’s often misconstrued; while Venture’s time in Texas did ultimately lead to their demise, the pieces which led to the company’s drastic decline were laid years prior. So let’s start off with a bit of …

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What’s going on at the ex-Randalls in Clear Lake?

Howdy, folks, and welcome back to HHR. Today we’re taking a quick look at a Randalls, which I never had a chance to explore! This store, located at 2323 Clear Lake City Blvd, Houston, TX 77062, was a quiet closure at the start of 2020. An HHR reader, and former Randalls employee, believed that these cuts were performance-based, possibly in anticipation of the then not know Kroger-Albertsons merger. Randalls closures over the past few years …

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How Seattle & Campbell’s Soup helped shape the history of Whataburger in Houston

Howdy folks, and welcome back to Houston Historic Retail. Today we’re talking about Whataburger and how their acquisition of a Pacific Northwest Burger chain’s Texas operations led to some of their more iconic Houston restaurants. Before we switch gears to talking about the outsiders, let us spend a minute talking about Whataburger’s history in town. The first Whataburger opened in Houston in 1957 on OST. At the time, Whataburger did not use the iconic A-Frame. …

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The homegrown history and future of Timewise

Howdy folks, and welcome back to Houston Historic Retail. Today, we’re checking in with Houston’s most prominent homegrown C-Store chain, Timewise. Just over a year ago, Shell Oil Co. completed its purchase of Landmark Industries (the parent of Timewise). Since the acquisition, there have been plans to sell off 64 locations, which seem to be bound by contract to sell Exxon fuel. New England-based Global Partners announced their plans to pick up these stores a …

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I was tipped off of the remodel by an HHR reader

Randalls remodel brings up a 1980s Flagship past, and possible futures

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, …

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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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The Baybrook Mall Dick's House of Sport

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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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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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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A Homeland using the ‘arched support’ design, also seen in the Texas stores, including Houston. Photo: Google Street View

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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