Houston Historic Retail

Howdy folks, and welcome back to Houston Historic Retail. Today, we’re visiting a modern-day remnant of Gibson’s Discount Center; Drug Emporium. To explain the connection, we’ll need to start with a bit of history. The first Gibson’s Discount Center opened in 1960 in Abilene, TX. The company’s roots are a bit deeper than that, but this was their entry into the discount department store territory. The stores were a big hit, and founder Herb Gibson …

Houston-based grocer, Food Town, has announced a new location for the first time in many years. The former Arlan’s Market, located at 12460 Hwy 6, Santa Fe, TX 77510, will reopen as a Food Town within the next couple of months. The site this store occupies is one of two grocery stores in the Santa Fe area, and originally started as one of the final Big Chief locations. Arlan’s took over the store and operated …

The Foodarama store located at 5665 Beechnut St, Houston, TX 77096, closed last week. According to HHR reader John Biundo, who informed me about the closure, the store has a closing note dated June 27th. This location, which was initially a Weingarten’s, was Foodarama’s second ever location, opening in 1974. The store, which was featured in a 2022 post on HHR, was listed as available around the time of the post, raising concerns about its future. …

Editor’s Note: The original version of this article incorrectly listed the new grocer as Sprout’s rather than Trader Joe’s. Howdy folks, and welcome back to HHR! Today, we’re checking out the remains of a Randalls killed off in the last round of closings, located at 600 Kingwood Dr, Kingwood, TX 77339. This is actually the second former Randalls in Kingwood we’ve looked at. Before we dive to deep, though, let’s take a look at a …

The Value World (formerly Value Village) located at 1811 Gessner Rd, Houston, TX 77080 is temporarily closed, after a fire broke out in the store last week. The fire was reported to HHR by multiple readers on June 17th. According to HTX News no injuries were reported. The thrift store, which opened in 1995 occupies a building originally constructed as the 15th Rice Food Market location in 1966. It would later be sold to Gerland’s …

Howdy folks, and welcome back to Houston Historic Retail. Today, we’re taking a walk down memory lane and looking at some retro photos of the Santa Fe Junction Shopping Center, and discussing the grocery store it once housed. The Arlan’s, which was the subject of a previous HHR post in early 2023, recently closed and is an interesting piece of retail history. In my last post, the history of Big Chief was unclear, and although …

According to a now-deleted Facebook post, there are behind-the-scenes plans to close a Houston-area Randalls located at 4800 W Bellfort Ave, Houston, TX 77035. According to the post, employees had been notified that their store, along with other locations in the Southern Division, would soon be closed. A DFW Tom Thumb store was revealed to be closing over a month ago, and a Baton Rouge Albertsons was also revealed to be closing yesterday. The location, …

Local grocer Arlan’s Market has closed its store located at 12460 Hwy 6, Santa Fe, TX 77510 in the Santa Fe Junction Shopping Center. This store originally opened in 1984 as Big Chief Foods. Arlan purchased this location in 2011 and was operating as the only full-service supermarket in Santa Fe, competing against a small footprint HEB. In late 2023, Ames Arlan sold his grocery store chain to Rafael Ortega, owner of La Michoacan, El …

In the ongoing battle between chain and independent C-store operators, it appears that newcomer Honey Farms is repositioning itself in Houston. Massachusetts-based energy company, Global Partners LP (owners of Honey Farms and multiple other brands), arrived in Houston just over two years ago, with the purchase of 64 Timewise locations selling Exxon-branded fuel in March 2023. The new owners took control in June of that year, licensing the Timewise brand and logos, and made minimal …

One of the spaces left vacant by Joann Fabrics’ recent closure will soon be filled in Katy. Burlington (formerly Coat Factory) has secured a deal to pick up 45 of Joann’s former leases across the United States, including 1219 N Fry Rd, Katy, TX 77449. The new location will be the first in the general North Fry portion of Katy. The new store will follow a trend of smaller, more streamlined Burlington stores. It’s not …