Jumbo Markets was a chain of supermarkets founded in Sacramento, California, with locations in Houston. Jumbo got its start in 1961. It was a joint effort between Ben Mar and Harry Wong, two young grocers in the Sacramento area. Mr. Mar had been working at a grocery store for about 10 years, serving as a store manager for the Bel Air chain. Bel Air was owned by the Wong family and opened in 1955 as a traditional supermarket with Chinese influences. Jumbo was an adaptation of this concept and featured both American and Chinese products. Both companies also had a hot deli that sold Americanized Chinese food. Jumbo would differentiate itself by doing it “bigger” than the competition, owing to its name. Jumbo was an early hit within Sacramento and had four locations by 1968. The business was essentially a family affair. With family or close friends, working together to develop the shopping centers that Jumbo anchored. The chain also used architect Sooky Lee to design some stores, with its fourth location serving as a prime example of mod-supermarket architecture. In 1970, Jumbo’s owner, Ben Mar, partnered with Peter Louie to build a new location in nearby Dixon, CA. This store would be the first outside of Sacramento, and was the first project in what would become a significant partnership. Mar and Louie, through their connection, decided to make a run at our grocery market. Harry Wong’s son Richard would make the move to run the stores, along with a few other members of Jumbo’s California team. The exact connection to Houston was never made clear; however, Jumbo clearly felt that the Houston area could support a hybrid Asian-American grocery store presence.
Jumbo arrived in Houston in 1973 and began searching for a location for its new store. By the end of the year, the company had signed a lease for a space in the planned Bel-West shopping center, which sat along Westheimer, just shy of the unbuilt Beltway. While this area of town was still developing, the location was perfect. The intersection of Houston’s most prominent East-West thoroughfare and a major tollway meant Jumbo could attract customers both near and far. After a few months of construction, Jumbo would hold its Houston grand opening on December 5, 1973. Jumbo was not the only California grocer to take an interest in Houston around this time. While most Houstonians remember that Safeway debuted in Houston in 1970, Lucky Stores was also rolling out its Eagle stores around the same time. As the smallest of the three, Jumbo received relatively little promotion. However, what we do know is that from day one in Houston, Jumbo had an association with Fleming Foods. While most might remember Fleming as Randall’s original supplier, they were also the backbone behind the Minimax co-op chain. With knowledge of running independent grocery stores at their side, Jumbo had a relatively easy start in Houston. However, the one thing Jumbo could not have seen coming was the first of multiple oil crises. Ben Mar and Harry Wong (owners of Jumbo) likely signed the lease for their store only weeks before the 1973 crisis began. With much on the line at the time, Jumbo entered into a bit of a holding pattern for the next few years. Their next store would open in 1975, back in Sacramento, but this would not be the end of Jumbo in Houston. After a few years of stability, a new opportunity came their way.
As mentioned previously, Fleming Foods played a significant role in Jumbo’s presence in Houston. Beyond simply supplying the company, Fleming also helped to work out real estate deals. When developers were building a shopping center but couldn’t find a chain grocer to take the spot, Fleming was often the next choice. As a wholesaler, they had connections to a diverse range of clients, including Jumbo. Obviously, the better a store fits an area, the better Fleming would do in the long run. In 1975, work began on a new shopping center in West Columbia, TX. Located about an hour southwest of Houston, this new store would be the most significant commercial development the town had seen in years. However, given how far out West Columbia was, finding an operator for the grocery store would not be easy. For reference, all of Jumbo’s California stores were within a few miles of each other, and their first two locations were a few blocks away on the same street. However, Fleming was able to hype up Jumbo into taking the spot. Unlike their other stores, this would not be a hybrid of a Chinese and traditional grocery store. While they still had some foreign products, this Jumbo would be more focused on a conventional shopper. Little information about Jumbo in West Columbia exists, but the store appears to have opened in 1976. While not exactly their normal market, Jumbo seems to have thrived in West Columbia, being one of the only modern supermarkets in the area. Some locals consider Jumbo the reason other smaller grocers left West Columbia. Jumbo’s expansion would not be halted with work on a third store starting shortly after the West Columbia location opened.
The new Westfield store would be the anchor of the Country Village Shopping Center, and would also bring in some new faces. While Mar and Wong still owned Jumbo, Peter Louie and Jimmy Kwong would become the faces of the Texas stores. Wong’s son Richard Wong appears to have taken on a less public role during this time. This new Jumbo would open in May 1978. Like the West Columbia store, this location was primarily a standard supermarket, serving a relatively rural area. To help cater to the clientele, this location would feature BBQ in addition to Chinese food in the deli. The next store to open would be in a much more central location, with a more mixed population. Located at the corner of Fondren and S. Braeswood, the newest Jumbo was just on the edge of Meyerland. With a diverse population and little competition around them, this store opened in early 1980. In 1982, Jumbo opened its fifth location in the Houston area, in Alvin. Another Fleming location, this one appears to have been potentially planned as a Minimax, for a group that broke away to form Holiday Foods. The store wouldn’t last long, closing in 1983 to become a Holiday Foods. Jumbo’s effort in expansion wasn’t for nothing, however, as in 1984 the company purchased an existing Continental Finer Foods location on Westheimer, west of Kirkwood, bringing the chain back up to five locations.
Back in California, Jumbo continued to expand its reach, with 10 locations operating concurrently, bringing the chain-wide total to 15. Things looked suitable for both the Mar and Wong families, and just about anyone else invested in Jumbo. The duo had grown from a single location to 15 across two states over 30 years, an impressive feat for a family-owned company. However, things were changing behind the scenes. In 1984, Fleming Foods, which had also been expanding, entered Northern California by buying out United Grocers Co-op, Jumbo’s supplier in California. Around this time, Ben Mar decided to retire; while this wouldn’t be an immediate move, preparations were made to allow both Mar and Wong to step away from Jumbo. One of these preparations was to separate the Texas stores, spinning them off to Richard Wong. In 1985, the Westfield location was transferred to Sak-N-Sav. While Jumbo wasn’t going anywhere, the community it served was changing, and it had little to do with Houston. Consumers across both Texas and California were switching to one-stop shopping wherever the choice was available, and Jumbo just didn’t fit that mold. While they were still a competent supermarket, many remaining shoppers were being wooed away by competitors on price. In 1988, the most significant change would come when Jumbo sold three of its four remaining locations in Houston. The buyer was Continental Finer Foods, which had repurchased its own stores, including the two Westheimer locations and the Fondren and S. Braeswood stores.
Under new ownership, the Fondren store would change hands at the end of the year to Fleming, which operated it briefly under the Jumbo name before finding a new operator. Richard Wong would retain ownership of the West Columbia Jumbo and open a brand new Food 4 Less in Pasadena. Food 4 Less was a warehouse store concept owned by Fleming, which they were trying to expand. While not entirely clear, it seems that at least some efforts were made to rebrand the West Columbia Jumbo as Food 4 Less to better compete with the brand-new HEB Pantry Foods. Some California Jumbo locations were also flipped to Food 4 Less after they closed. The two remaining Houston Jumbo locations both made it into 1990 before shutting down. According to advertising, Jumbo had “lost its lease,” although the more likely reality is that the owners of Continental Finer Foods wanted to concentrate on their remaining original store. While Jumbo had fallen apart in Texas by 1990, most of the stores in California had survived a bit longer. However, they were not immune to similar problems and began to close throughout the 90s. As mentioned, some stores became F4L locations, while others would don the Rainbow Foods brand, another concept owned by Fleming. The final Jumbo closed in 1996, putting a 51-year cap on the grocery chain.
Location List
Thanks to Pseudo3d of Carbon-izer.com for helping with the California locations.
Address | Notes |
|---|---|
| 10250 Westheimer Rd, Houston, TX 77042 | 1973-1990 Later Bizmart/Office Max, Demolished |
| 704 W Brazos Ave, West Columbia, TX 77486 | 1976-1990, Briefly another store F4L? Later Skating Rink and Thrift Store |
| 2600 FM 1960 E, Houston, TX 77073 | 1978-1985, Later Sak-n-Sav, Then Price Buster, Subdivided |
| 9700 Fondren Rd, Houston, TX 77071 | 1980-1988, Became Food World, Then Braes Food, Later TJ Maxx, Texas Thrift as of 2025, Originally 9750 |
| 1701 Fairway Dr, Alvin, TX 77511 | 1982-1983 Later Holiday Foods, Subdivided |
| 11940 Westheimer Rd, Houston, TX 77077 | 1984-1990 Originally Continental Finer Foods, Later Sak-n-Sav, HEB Pantry Foods, Oshman's, Sport's Authority, Sprout's, Vacant as of 2025 |
| 2355 Florin Rd, Sacramento, CA 95822 | 1961-1994 Later Food Depot, Mi Rancho as of 2025 |
| 7870 Florin Rd, Sacramento, CA 95828 | 1964-1990 Later Rainbow Foods, Del Valle Supermarket as of 2025 |
| 2711 El Camino Ave, Sacramento, CA 95821 | 1965-1985 Later Hancock Fabrics, Subdivided |
| 5930 S Land Park Dr, Sacramento, CA 95822 | 1967-1968 Former Safeway, Leased briefly while adjacent new location was under construction |
| 5820 S Land Park Dr, Sacramento, CA 95822 | 1968-1996, Became Vic's IGA, Now Shun Fat Supermarket |
| 1155 N 1st St, Dixon, CA 95620 | 1970-1978, Relocated, Demolished |
| 925 N Adams St, Dixon, CA 95620 | 1978-1990, Later Hometown, Viva Supermarket as of 2025 |
| 8911 Folsom Blvd, Sacramento, CA 95826 | 1975-1987 College |
| 6982 Sunrise Blvd, Citrus Heights, CA 95610 | 1978-1992, Became Food-4-Less, Foodmaxx as of 2025 |
| 8665 Auburn Folsom Rd, Granite Bay, CA 95746 | 1982-1987, Granite Bay Ace Hardware as of 2025 |
| 6366 Mack Rd, Sacramento, CA 95823 | 1984-1993, Became Food-4-Less, Later Food Source (Raley's), H-Mart coming soon as of 2025 |
| 11980 CA-88, Jackson, CA 95642 | 1984-1988 Originally 2078 W Highway 88 Martel, Save Mart as of 2025 |
