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 up in bulk, and many still retain whatever decor their former owners left behind. Also, from what I can tell, they’re the largest Houston-owned C-Store …
Keep readingCategory: Gas Stations
Seller Bros C-Stores the only branch left for this Grocery family tree
Howdy retail fans, and welcome! Today I have to start off with some delayed “breaking news” Longtime Houston grocery chain Sellers Bros. has been sold! Yes, it’s true, in a quiet move sometime towards the end of 2019, the Sellers family sold their grocery operations to Rafael Ortega, owner of La Michoacana Markets. As of yet, no public announcement has been made of the sale, however, Sellers Bros offices have closed, and all paperwork refers to Ortega as the owner, mostly through LLCs, associated with him. There have yet to be any major changes to the stores, although the website …
Keep readingRaceway to 7-Eleven the saga continues
Howdy folks, and welcome back to Houston Historic Retail. Today, we’re taking another look at what has become the agonizingly slow transformation of Houston’s Raceway stations in 7-Eleven stores. In early 2021 the Raceway/Racetrac affiliation in Houston came to an abrupt end after over 25 years. Initially, the first stores opened were company-owned Racetrac locations. These gas stations specialized in discount private label gasoline, supplemented by streamlined C-Store operations. With locations featuring a small Made to Order grill, in addition to what would be classified as the bare essentials to be considered a C-Store. Prices of C-Store items were not …
Keep readingVintage Texas Retail Videos in 1080p from the Jones Film Collection
Editor’s Note: Today’s post is a guest submission from HHR’s good friend Anonymous in Houston Those who have been reading Houston Historic Retail for some period of time know that I did a two-part series (Part I and II) in early 2021 about the excellent retail videos available at The Portal of Texas History website operated by the University of North Texas Library. Most of the videos at The Portal were supplied by Dallas-Fort Worth TV station KXAS-TV. Well, another Dallas Metroplex university library, the Southern Methodist University Library, also has a collection of videos in their G. William Jones …
Keep readingThere’s news round the corner! Gas Station coming to Former Walgreens Highway 6 and Westheimer
Howdy Folks, and welcome back to some retail news at the corner of Highway 6 and Westheimer. It seems that two shopping centers, at the crossroads, are coming closer to 100% occupancy again for the first time in nearly 20 years! This intersection has long been considered to essentially be a no-mans lands in terms of retail. Beyond West Oaks Mall’s initial success which is long gone, the two power centers sitting catty corner both managed to maintain decent tenancy, but have more recently struggled. With the Village at West Oaks (Northwest Corner) losses included longtime anchors Barnes & Noble …
Keep readingDigging through the Photo Box: 1980s Houston Retail On Vintage Aerial
Editor’s Note: Today’s post is a guest submission from HHR’s good friend Anonymous in Houston Every so often, someone in the retail enthusiast community will stumble upon great sources of retail history in unlikely or hidden corners of the Internet. Loyal Houston Historic Retail readers will know that in just the last few months, we’ve managed to find a large repository of retail news videos clips at The Portal to Texas History website and we also found a large collection of retail annual reports at the Internet Archive. Friend of the HHR blog and fellow retail blogger South Texas Retail …
Keep readingThis Week in Demolition: Retroactive Permits? No Timewise better than the present for Zuma Fun Center!
Howdy Folks, and welcome back to another edition of This Week in Demolition! If you showed up last week wondering where the demo post was, I do apologize, but such are the perils of what is mostly a one-man operation. You can always check Houston Historic Retail’s Facebook page for more information on missing posts. Interesting demolitions this week include the shell station at Chimney Rock, and 59. Originally a Mobil Owned and Operated Station, later being flipped to a Shell, along with many other Mobil stations around 1992. Shell would drop this station in 2008, selling it along with …
Keep readingLake Oil Co, a lesson in identifying old gas stations in Texas!
Old gas stations are not an expertise of mine. I like to look at them well enough! Especially, when they’re still operating as a modern gas station, but I don’t know too much about them. When you look at most of the companies and stores represented on this website, I chronicle their existence in the conscious mindset (so from the 60s forward really). This is mostly because retailing has expanded quite a bit over the years. This particular gas station was likely built in the 1920s, and think about it like this, how many people still shop in grocery stores …
Keep readingPermit Roundup: New chains, meet old locations
Howdy, folks, and welcome back to another edition of Permit Roundup! Today we’re taking a look at a few retail developments throughout the Houston area. Let’s start off with some newcomers to town. It seems that the Post Oak California Pizza Kitchen, who closed their Texas outlets during a COVID induced bankruptcy, may be host to a new restaurant. Il Braco, a noteworthy Dallas Italian restaurant, has filed remodel permits at 1705 Post Oak Boulevard after announcing their intent to build a second location in Houston. While this is a few digits of CPK’s address, the only other vacant restaurant …
Keep readingIt’s been how many years since Circle K bought our Corner Store?!
In 1977 the Valero Energy Corporation was formed by the State of Texas, as a successor to a failed natural gas transmission company that Coastal had set up years prior. In connection with the Texas Railroad Authority (nothing to do with railroads), Coastal was allowed to build a multi thousand-mile set of pipelines, that supplied natural gas to city utilities. Most large Texas cities were tied into the Coastal system, with the unobtainable promise that prices would never rise. Then the Energy Crisis of the 70s hit, natural gas prices skyrocketed and all of a sudden Coastal’s pipeline subsidiary was …
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