Korner Pantry was a grocery concept store born out of Weingarten’s and “raised” by the Rovello family. It’s an interesting story as Korner Pantry outlived its parent company by a few years and was arguably the most successful retail concept ever spun off from Weingarten’s. The story started in 1946 when Charles J. Rovello went to work for J. Weingarten. Rovello, originally from Waco, had made it to Houston during World War II. While not a GI, Rovello had carved out a niche in the special services overseeing the post-exchange at Selman Field in Monroe, LA, and later at Ellington Air Force Base. With knowledge of retail operations, Rovello was immediately hired as Weingarten’s drug and tobacco buyer following his discharge from the armed forces. Rovello would use his knowledge to climb up the ranks within Weingarten quickly. The family-run chain was growing and needed non-family members, who they felt would remain loyal to the company, and they promptly decided Rovello fit this bill. Charles was sent through a management training program and, by 1950, had served as manager of two Weingarten’s locations before being promoted to regional manager. Rovello’s dedication and hard work for the Weingarten family helped him win another promotion in 1960. This time, he would become the Director of Retail Operations; he was the first non-family member to hold that role within the company and was highly regarded.
The 1960s were a time of flux for the grocery chain. What had started as a single location in Houston had ballooned to over 100 locations spread from Texas to Tennessee. With Weingarten’s continuing to grow, diversification became an important topic. In 1962, a subsidiary of Weingarten’s was created to help diversify the company. Buying hardware and auto parts manufacturers and creating a new company to handle the grocery store’s trading stamps for a start. Still, the grocery stores had little to distinguish themselves from the competition. With how the company was heading, Rovello took it upon himself to develop a new concept he could present to his superiors: Korner Pantry. The idea was relatively simple: small neighborhood stores to fill in the gaps where Weingarten’s didn’t have locations. A great example would be the twin cities of Richmond and Rosenberg. Weingarten’s had long been a dominant grocer in the center of town, but those on the fringes of city limits would choose nearby superettes instead of driving into town for Weingarten’s. The plan was for Korner Pantry to target neighborhoods like these with stores a tenth the size of a regular Weingartens. Rovello spent a reasonable amount of time identifying staple items that should be sold, developing a layout, and eventually pitching his plan to the board, who quickly jumped on the opportunity to diversify their retail operations.
The first public announcement of Korner Pantry occurred in the summer of 1964 when a new store was announced. Since he had come up with the more finite details of the concept on his own, Rovello would be made Vice President of KP, which was kept as a separate subsidiary from Weingarten’s. He would also be given a large share of ownership in this new store. From the start, Rovello would consider Korner Pantry “his baby” and have much control over operations. The official term for the store would be a “drive-in” style convenience store. Although Korner Pantry never offered drive-in service, customers were required to come inside and shop. The stores featured convenience grocery staples alongside nice wines and basic household necessities. While Korner Pantry was not exactly unique in its offerings, it was unique because it was backed by a major grocer long before other grocers considered adding C-Store operations. The store would, however, face many of the same problems that other C-Stores had been battling for years, like theft and robberies. Rovello would spend about two years tweaking the store to suit its operations best, and in 1966, he felt it was time for a second location. However, by this point, Weingarten’s priorities were beginning to shift, and retail was taking a back seat to real estate. The tiny KP stores did not provide any retail opportunities compared to the large shopping centers being built for Weingarten’s stores.
With a change in priorities and Korner Pantry taking the back seat, Rovello would have to formulate a plan to benefit both companies. He would be allowed to buy out Weingarten’s shares of Korner Pantry and operate the company on his own. He wouldn’t be the first Weingarten-alum to break away on his own, and with the support of his family, Charles Rovello took complete control of Korner Pantry in 1966. As a newly separate company, one of the first moves would be to increase the location count to five stores. This first expansion would be set in the direct suburbs of Houston, still mainly in Weingarten’s “home turf.” Korner Pantry may have maintained a supply agreement with Weingarten’s as part of the buyout deal. While the store operations had been streamlined in the few years Korner Pantry had been in operation, robberies were still a large problem for what was technically an upscale convenience store. Rovello would use his status to influence other C-Store operators to hire armed guards and develop a plan to better deal with stickups. In 1969, Korner Pantry would add three more locations in the aforementioned Richmond/Rosenberg area. The stores seemed to be quite the hit, although they were a bit down market compared to what they had initially aimed for. In 1970, Rovello would open a high-end grocery store in Town & Country Village. This new store would aim to provide a high end shopping experience, in a convienent format, but in an area where a traditional C-Store would not fit. Around this time, he would experiment with a few other high-end formats like a candy shop and an egg store, selling hard-to-find eggs.
Through the 1970s, Rovello continued to expand Korner Pantry, reaching a high of 18 stores by 1979. This expansion was largely based in Bryan/College Station, where Rovello had purchased several former locations of competitor Spin-N-Market. While these purchases would make Korner Pantry essentially as large as it would ever become, it would be a far cry from the 50 locations that had been predicted as the chain’s maximum reach. New store construction and purchases would all but stop after the 1979 sale of Weingarten’s. While the two companies were no longer directly connected, it seems likely that either the supply agreement or some other finite detail hampered expansion. In 1983, Grand Union, then-owner of Weingarten’s, announced their plans to shutter the chain, and Korner Pantry would mostly die out as well. A handful of Korner Pantry stores would remain open in 1984, with a new location at least being proposed in Bryan, but this seems to have never come to pass. By the summer of 1984, Korner Pantry was dead, and Charles Rovello retired. Many buyers of the former Korner Pantry stores would keep as much of the old stores as they could, including portions of the name (Grocery Pantry, Korner Store, etc). Some of these stores even kept their product selection much the same well into the 2000s, leaving a strange and nearly untraceable lineage.
Location List
Store No | Address | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 7004 Bellfort Ave, Houston, TX 77087 | 1964-1982 Still standing, A&K Food Store, Original sign in use until 2007 |
| 2 | 6908 Martin Luther King Blvd, Houston, TX 77033 | 1966-1977 Still standing, Heavily modified facade, First Stop Food Market |
| 3 | 9783 Long Point Rd, Houston, TX 77055 | 1971-1979, Replaced by #12 |
| 4 | 4520 Beechnut St, Houston, TX 77096 | 1966-1984 Still standing, Heavily modified, Tapester's Grill |
| 5 | 8820 Stella Link Rd, Houston, TX 77025 | 1966-1982 Still standing, Mostly Untouched, Best American Food Mart |
| 6 | 6075 Bissonnet St, Houston, TX 77081 | 1966-1980, Likely part of Strip Center, Unsure |
| 7 | 1513 Avenue H, Rosenberg, TX 77471 | 1969-1977, Still standing, Empty as of 2023 |
| 8 | 1820 1st St, Rosenberg, TX 77471 | 1969-1981, Still standing, Title Loans as of 2023 |
| 9 | 2216 Thompson Rd, Richmond, TX 77469 | 1969-1990, Still standing, |
| 10 | 8002 Boone Rd, Houston, TX 77072 | 1975-1984 |
| 11 | 1417 1st St, Rosenberg, TX 77471 | 1977-1984 |
| 12 | 9941 Long Point Rd, Houston, TX 77055 | 1979-1984, Replaced #3 |
| 50 | 1702 Fountain View Dr, Houston, TX 77057 | 1977-1978, Demolished |
| 20 | 502 Harvey Rd, College Station, TX 77840 | 1978-1984 Demolished, Former Spin-n-Market |
| 21 | 1802 Welsh Ave, College Station, TX 77840 | 1978-1984 Still standing, Former Spin-n-Market |
| 22 | 1501 Groesbeck St, Bryan, TX 77803 | 1978-1984 Still standing, Updated |
| 23 | 2208 Finfeather Rd, Bryan, TX 77801 | 1979-1983 Still standing, Updated |
| 24 | 2101 Old Hearne Rd, Bryan, TX 77803 | 1984, Unsure may not have opened |
