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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Posts Relating to Grocery Stores
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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Sellers 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 …
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Randallsarama still the nicest grocery store in Inwood
Howdy folks, and welcome back to Houston Historic Retail. If you’re one of our more recent fans and have yet to check out a Randallsarama, consider giving my 2021 visit to one a look. I’ll be making some references to it in this post, and it’s also the birth of the HHR Dictionary, with other entries like Krogerstons popping up more recently. Foodarama is no stranger to former Randall’s locations, they seem to flock to …
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Return to Food Town: Revisiting the former Kosher Albertsons in Meyerland
Howdy, folks, and welcome back to HHR! Today, we’re looking at a Lewis Food Town in a Former Albertsons. Located at 9725 Fondren Rd, Houston, TX 77096 I’d call it an Alberstown doesn’t really roll off the tongue, sounds more like an actual town to me. In my mind, Food Town is a store without much context or connotation. If you asked me to “picture a generic Food Town”, I’d have a hard time describing …
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Love thy HEB Neighborhood Market
These days in Houston a vacant grocery store doesn’t tend to sit for too long. While we don’t have a huge number of chains running around town these days to pickup the empty stores, we do have some independents. Even locations that have hit the end of their useful life as grocery stores, are often converted into other types of stores. We’re a town of opportunity, and lax (not non-existent) zoning laws help allow for …
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Vintage 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 …
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It’s your town Boris! A visit to and the history behind the former Iron Curtain Smashing Randall’s
Howdy folks, today we’re taking a look at what is arguably the most significant grocery store in all of Houston. A humble Lewis Food Town located at 570 El Dorado Blvd, Webster, TX 77598. Starting out as a Randall’s in 1984, this grocery store served an important role only a few years later as an impromptu stop by Soviet politician Boris Yeltsin. Aiming to see how “average Americans” lived, many have drawn a direct line …
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This former TJ Maxx was once Jumbo!
Howdy Folks, and welcome back! This time we’re talking about a store I don’t know that well. Jumbo Markets is a grocery store that only comes up on occasion in Houston retail history. They were a very small chain, so most people who remember them, either lived or spent time around one of their stores. Only making it to six stores over a time period of about 13 years, Jumbo had lots of missteps in …
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HEBway a Rare Example in 2021
Howdy folks, welcome back to another edition of Houston Historic Retail. Today we’re taking a look at an HEB at 200 W Hopkins St, San Marcos, TX 78666 that, while not in Houston, was once part of the Houston division of Safeway and AppleTree stores. Located in San Marcos, it lost its Houston affiliation with the 1994 purchase by H-E-B. The store was built in 1984, to replace an older location on the same property. …
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