Howdy folks, and welcome to Houston Historic Retail. Let me offer you a short introduction, as many people will likely find this via Google or Facebook (normal readers just play along). The following is a “Photo Essay”. It’s not meant to answer exactly why the Randall’s in Sugar Land is closing. However, it should offer some insight into how Randall’s got into the shape it is today. If you have an interest in this type …
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A Tour of Tomball Retail in 2000 and 1965
Editor’s Note: Today’s post is a guest submission from HHR’s good friend Anonymous in Houston Loyal Houston Historic Retail readers may recall that a few weeks ago, we published a blog post showing screenshots from a YouTube video published by Dan Starr and filmed by his wife Amy that showed Tomball’s retail scene in the year 1998. Well, Dan has come through once again as he recently uploaded some video footage taken by Amy and …
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Who killed Greenspoint? A look at the Mall, and a discussion about the community
Welcome back to Houston Historic Retail, where Dead Malls, are a bit of specialty. Chances are you learned about this blog through one of our Mall based posts, dead, dying, or otherwise. Houston’s dead mall problem has never been particularly bad. While we’ve had malls that have been problematic, we’ve usually been limited to one to two malls dying at a time, and in the 4th largest city in the United States, and that ain’t …
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Retail News: Phonecia’s got company, as 99 Ranch Market lands ex-CompUSA spot
Howdy folks, and welcome back to HHR. In this week’s news brief 99 Ranch Market lands an anchor spot, on Westheimer, and Quiktrip prepares for its first Houston proper location. 99 Ranch Market lands former CompUSA spot on Westheimer across from Phonecia Nearly two months ago, I posted some photos to Facebook of the old CompUSA/Goodwill Computer Works spot on Westheimer near Kirkwood. The interior of the buildings was being gutted, and nearly every tenant …
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A Speedway Gas Station in Texas? It’s more common than you think!
For those in the know of Speedway, the Houston area isn’t a market you’d expect to find the chain in. Even after an aggressive expansion campaign that landed the chain with a handful of stores in and around El Paso, H-Town is far from Speedway’s turf. The reason for the location of the store is due to the previous parent company of Speedway, Marathon Oil. The first Speedway to be built in Texas actually dates …
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Fishing Tackle Unlimited closing means the end for this historic former Sugar Land Grocery Store
Fishing Tackle Unlimited, the Fishing Superstore, located just outside the entrance to the Sugar Creek Neighborhood, has recently closed. While I’m not sure exactly when the store shut down, it seems to have been sometime in early April of this year. Fishing Tackle Unlimited is hardly the first tenant here, but it has done a great job of preserving the history of an important building in the area. For many years, this was one of …
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Retail News: Burlington likely to move out of Almeda Mall and Ollie’s makes plans for Friendswood Babies ‘R Us
Welcome to Retail News: This week we learn about a big tenant loss for Almeda Mall, a new Ollie’s Bargain Outlet pops up in a familiar location! Almeda Mall Burlington is likely to close as a new nearby store is being planned The Burlington (Coat Factory) at Almeda Mall has operated at Almeda Mall for just shy of 15 years at this point. The store opened in 2009 replacing JC Penney after they chose to …
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The World’s Largest Dollar Store, was once located in a former Houston Target
Howdy folks, and welcome back to Houston, GIANT, Historic, Retail! Today we’re taking a look at a bold claim, a store that was indeed once the largest Dollar Store in the World! First, let’s start off by trying to quantify this claim. We’re going to limit this challenge to the United States, not because the Dollar Store concept doesn’t exist in other countries, but rather I don’t want to deal with all that exchange rate …
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Zombie Sears Pasadena Texas: All stocked up, with no one to shop
Howdy folks, and welcome back to Houston Historic Retail! Your blogging source for all things retail in Houston! Today, we return to the Sears Hometown where these horrible conversions all started. The former Marcoplaza Mall Sears reopened as the first example of a Sears Hometown Store in a closed Mainline store only a few months ago in late 2021. At the time the store was pathetically stocked, using a bit of leftover shelving to form …
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Retail News: Axiom Space to redevelop former Fry’s in Webster property and an NYC Chain chooses Pearland for their next location
Howdy folks and today we’ve got news! A former Fry’s Electronics space in Webster seems to be living up to its design scheme as a future part of the space race. On the same side of town, an NYC-based Korean Corn Dog chain is making its debut outside the Big Apple, in our Little Pear. Fry’s Electronics in Webster is being built out by Axiom Space In a move that no one could have directly …
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