Howdy Folks, welcome back to what will be the closing chapter, for now at least, on Costco’s new Stafford store. For those not in the know, Costco announced earlier this year their intent to build a new location in place of a driving range originally planned in the Grid mixed-used development. Located on the grounds of the former Texas Instruments campus, the Costco is a bit difficult to spot from the feeder. When announced, it …
Read moreCategory: Random Retail
Anything related to retail that doesn’t fit anywhere else.
Kids’ Kounty: Goodness Grace-ious, What a Toy Store!
Editor’s Note: Today’s post is a guest submission from HHR’s good friend Anonymous in Houston If I told you, the loyal Houston Historic Retail reader, that a retailer opened a toy store that made the typical Toys R Us seem quaint by combining the typical big-box toy store with a children’s clothing/shoe store, a youth furniture store, a pet store, a photo studio, a full-service bicycle shop, a hobby shop, and a nationally-known fast food …
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A tiny Target Express living under off-campus housing in San Marcos
I was recently on vacation in San Marcos, and while on the trip had a chance to visit a few interesting retail outlets. One of the places I wanted to stop by was a “Target Express”. Target has since eschewed any sort of designations for their stores. Even if your local store still claims to be a “Super Target”, it’s actually just a Target with “Expanded Grocery”. However, with a miniscule square footage of 18,000, …
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Retail News: Costco Business Center grand opening October 20th
Howdy folks, and welcome back to another edition of Retail News! With the grand opening of Ollie’s Bargain Outlet in Houston slowly fading in the mirror, our next big grand opening of the year is coming up. It seems that the Houston area’s first Costco Business Center, is nearly ready to open. We first learned the chain had eyes on Houston in April of this year, and we now have the planned October 20th grand …
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Digging 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 …
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So long ThinkGeek, it was nice while it lasted!
To those of you familiar with the mall scene, may be somewhat aware of the sudden closure of ThinkGeek stores all across the country. This has been going on for the past few months in a nationwide and somewhat sporadic manner. In Friendswood, the Baybrook Mall location, “Temporarily Closed” sometime earlier this year, with their relatively active social media going dark in February. The Deerbrook Mall location held a going out of business sale and …
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Steak N Shake, Biglari Style
Over the recent Labor Day weekend, I found myself driving past Ennis. My wife and I both noticed a Steak N Shake sign we’d never seen before, which was a nice surprise as we’re fans of the restaurant. The sign was unusual, not only did it include the Steak N Shake logo, but also a small signature next to the company name. This location hadn’t been here the last time we passed through Ennis, which …
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MacroPlaza Polo or whatever happened to Pasadena Town Square Mall?
Howdy Folks, and welcome to my (Mike’s) contribution to the Month of Malls! Today we’re taking a look at Pasadena Town Square/Plaza Paseo/Marcoplaza Mall, a location that has been on my radar for a few years so let me start off by explaining how I found out about Pasadena Town Square Mall. In 2017 when my coverage of Northwest Mall began to gain popularity I had a reader get in touch with me about a …
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A former Hartz Chicken in a former Burger King
Nowadays fast food restaurants, and many other retail outlets, are built with such little detail that you couldn’t tell them apart from their competitors with their branding. This isn’t just a coincidence either, bland styling easily allows buildings to be reused by other companies, and is often required in planned communities. This, however, was not the case back in the 70s and 80s when chains like BK and McDonald’s went on expansion streaks in major …
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The one where Safeway and H-E-B made the exact mistake 10 years apart
In late 1982 the Houston Division of Safeway opened a brand-new store to serve the growing Alief, and Mission Bend areas of far West Houston. At the intersection of Bellaire and Synott the modern round edged store opened as the anchor tenant of the shopping center along with an Eckerd. While far from being the last Houston Safeway to open, this would be one of the last built, as most “new” stores going forward would …
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