Editor’s Note: Today’s post is a guest submission from HHR’s good friend Anonymous in Houston Usually when Mike or I start researching a potential blog post here at Houston Historic Retail, we have to dig deep into historical archives to find useful historical information to present here on the blog. This blog post is quite unique in that the subject, Houston Jewelry & Distributing, is a company which has embraced their history and they have …
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Sears Willowbrook fills out their space, and how did it end up a Hometown any way?
Howdy, folks, and welcome to Houston Historic Retail! Today we’re back at everyone’s least favorite stomping grounds… Zombie Sears! With the recent closure of failed Pasadena Hometown Sears Conversion still looming over its head, things look somewhat bleak for a company that continues to close stores only months after opening. Despite all the tears shed for other locations of a retailer, which probably could have survived had they not “merged” with Kmart back in 2005. …
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Retail News: Ollie’s Bargain Outlet starts to emerge in Friendswood
Deep Discounter, Ollie’s Bargain Outlet first laid its eyes on the Texas market in 2018 with the opening of a distribution center. The next few years saw Ollie’s popping up mostly in former Toys ‘R Us locations throughout the country, a few in Texas. By early 2021, the retailer had already opened a branch in Clute and was starting work on their first location in Houston. The Jones Road Ollie’s would open in November of …
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Vintage Ads: Finding Bargains at North Oaks Mall and Elsewhere in 1989
Editor’s Note: Today’s post is a guest submission from HHR’s good friend Anonymous in Houston Longtime readers here at Houston Historic Retail might remember our Vintage Ads series of posts. It’s been a while since we’ve posted a new Vintage Ads post so it seems like a good time to make a new installment in the series. This installment of the series will look at retail ads from the August 16, 1989 issue of the …
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The Final Chapter of Sears in Pasadena, as Hometown Store in Pasadena Town Square Mall prepares to close
Well folks, welcome to the closing chapter of a failed experiment. Sears is killing off one of their Hometowns in a Mainline store. Seemingly pulling off the opposite of “fat guy in a little coat” was not enough to justify keeping a tiny piece of the what was the final Sears in Houston open. If you’ve been following Houston Historic Retail, we’ve covered the Pasadena Town Square/Marcoplaza Mall Sears from reopening in November to a more …
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A Tour of Tomball Retail in 2000 and 1965
Editor’s Note: Today’s post is a guest submission from HHR’s good friend Anonymous in Houston Loyal Houston Historic Retail readers may recall that a few weeks ago, we published a blog post showing screenshots from a YouTube video published by Dan Starr and filmed by his wife Amy that showed Tomball’s retail scene in the year 1998. Well, Dan has come through once again as he recently uploaded some video footage taken by Amy and …
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Retail News: Burlington likely to move out of Almeda Mall and Ollie’s makes plans for Friendswood Babies ‘R Us
Welcome to Retail News: This week we learn about a big tenant loss for Almeda Mall, a new Ollie’s Bargain Outlet pops up in a familiar location! Almeda Mall Burlington is likely to close as a new nearby store is being planned The Burlington (Coat Factory) at Almeda Mall has operated at Almeda Mall for just shy of 15 years at this point. The store opened in 2009 replacing JC Penney after they chose to …
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The World’s Largest Dollar Store, was once located in a former Houston Target
Howdy folks, and welcome back to Houston, GIANT, Historic, Retail! Today we’re taking a look at a bold claim, a store that was indeed once the largest Dollar Store in the World! First, let’s start off by trying to quantify this claim. We’re going to limit this challenge to the United States, not because the Dollar Store concept doesn’t exist in other countries, but rather I don’t want to deal with all that exchange rate …
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Zombie Sears Pasadena Texas: All stocked up, with no one to shop
Howdy folks, and welcome back to Houston Historic Retail! Your blogging source for all things retail in Houston! Today, we return to the Sears Hometown where these horrible conversions all started. The former Marcoplaza Mall Sears reopened as the first example of a Sears Hometown Store in a closed Mainline store only a few months ago in late 2021. At the time the store was pathetically stocked, using a bit of leftover shelving to form …
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Sears Willowbrook, Grand Opening Weekend! The latest on Fast Eddie’s Sears schemes
Howdy folks, and welcome back to Houston Historic Retail! Today we’re going to revisit the Willowbrook Sears location which you might have seen earlier at HHR in this post about the history of Willowbrook Mall or in this post about the Spirit Halloween store that opened in the Willowbrook Sears after it closed in 2020. Je of the Louisiana & Texas Retail Blog also has some photos of this Sears back when it was open …
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