Houston Historic Retail

Discount retailer Target will open its newest Houston-area store at 12565 Arc Lane, Stafford, TX 77477, on October 19th, 2025. This will be Target’s first new store in the area since the 2022 opening of the Katy Elyson location. The store will be the next large piece for The Grid, the name of the mixed-use project aiming to redevelop the former Texas Instruments campus. The development has opened multiple retail and restaurant spaces, as well …

Update 12:30 PM 9/17: A representative of Salad and Go reached out to me and provided me with the following information. “….41 [Salad and Go] locations are closing across Texas and Oklahoma. The closures include all locations in Houston, Austin, and San Antonio, and a handful of stores in the Dallas metro area and Oklahoma. Salad and Go will permanently close its Houston locations on Friday, September 19th, according to employees of the chain. I …

Bookstore chain Books-A-Million has started work on a new location near Houston. The store will take the place of the former Party City in Fairfield Town Center. This location, along with another Party City in Richmond’s The Shops of Bella Terra, was picked up by BAM! on the heels of their bankruptcy earlier this year. The two stores will be the first expansion the chain has made in Houston since its brief foray into downtown …

Food Town will close its sole location in Sugar Land on September 21st, according to employees at the store. The location at 1130 Eldridge Rd, Sugar Land, TX 77478 dates back to 1992 when it originally opened as a Food Lion. The store would close as Food Lion in 1997, when the chain exited Texas. The following year, Gerland’s Food Fair, which had operated in the former Safeway/AppleTree spot across Eldridge, moved into the former …

The former Sears sign on Shepherd could soon have a bullseye on it, but not for the bulldozers. Big-box discounter Target has filed permits for a new store in the Garden Oaks area. The address at 4000 N Shepherd Dr, Houston, TX 77018 puts the store on the site formerly occupied by a vacant Sears, which was demolished last year. According to plans shared online, the store will sit at the North end of the …

Coffee drive-thru chain Dutch Bros. is making quick progress on its first location inside of 610. Dutch Bros has been in the Houston market since 2021, and their growth has picked up lightning speed compared to similar chains, Scooters, or 7 Brew. Over the past four years, Dutch Bros has worked their way from the suburbs into the Beltway and is now facing the “final frontier,” the inner loop. This new location is at 2301 …

The grand opening of Houston’s newest Portillo’s came and went relatively quietly this week. The restaurant, located at 12419 Southwest Fwy, Stafford, TX 77477, opened Tuesday, August 26th, and is the fifth Houston-area location. Portillo’s hit the Houston market just about 11 months ago, with the opening of their Aliana Shopping Center location in Richmond. With quick momentum, work on four other stores began, and by January, the Willowbrook and Katy locations had opened, with …

Editor’s Note: Photos in today’s post come from HHR Reader Michael Shutika, thanks! Howdy folks, and welcome back to HHR. Today we’re taking a look at a recently exposed retail remnant, while also learning a bit about the tenant. The building in question is located at 18980 Gulf Fwy, Friendswood, TX 77546 just outside of Baybrook Mall, and it started off life as a Krause’s Sofa Factory location. To begin with a little history, Krause’s …

Food Town is closing a store after recently opening a new location in Santa Fe. HHR confirmed with store personnel that the chain plans to shut the location at 1700 Decker Dr, Baytown, TX 77520 by October 26th, making this the third location to close in 2025. The store occupies a large portion of a massive 83,000 sq ft structure, which initially housed a Globe Discount City. Globe operated out of the building from 1969 …

Joe V’s Smart Shop’s newest location opens this morning at 10241 North Freeway, Houston, TX 77037. Located at the corner of West and I-45, Joe V’s takes the space most recently occupied by Fry’s Electronics. The grocery store is the low-cost banner of HEB and operates with a more limited selection than a traditional HEB store at a lower price point. Before this location, HEB had planned for a Joe V’s in East Aldine, but …