Houston Historic Retail

Meyerland will lose a grocery store this weekend when Randalls closes its doors at 4800 W Bellfort Ave, Houston, TX 77035. Randalls has quite a history in the area. They first arrived in 1961 via the original incarnation of Randalls. The store located at 10810 S Post Oak Rd, Houston, TX 77035 was part of the Super Value co-op and had initially been run by Belden’s. When Belden’s dropped, the location, Randalls picked it up as …

Panera Bread now has 10 fewer locations across Houston after EYM Cafe, a franchisee, filed for bankruptcy last week. EYM Cafe was founded in 2019. EYM started with 18 locations across Houston, Lubbock, and Midland, expanding to Abilene and Amarillo before collapsing. The drama began in February when EYM started falling behind on payments to Panera and suppliers. This prompted intervention by Panera, which concluded the stores were not being run to its standards, and …

Kroger has confirmed that it is closing two Houston locations by September 30th. The locations are 9325 Katy Fwy, Houston, TX 77024, and 2300 Gessner Rd, Houston, TX 77080, which are within about 3 miles of each other and have a similar shared heritage. The Kroger of the Villages (Katy Freeway) originally opened as a Safeway back in 1974, and the Gessner at Hammerly location opened in 1970, as one of the first Safeways in …

Drive-thru salad chain Salad and Go quietly closed one of its Houston-area locations in mid-July. The store is located at 2301 University Blvd, Houston, TX 77005, sits just outside the boundaries of Rice Village, and opened in 2023. A long-standing home, previously converted to business use, was demolished to make way for Salad and Go. The former occupant, Village Greenery, was forced to relocate a few homes away to make this space available. This location …

Food Town opens its newest store today. The location at 12460 Hwy 6, Santa Fe, TX 77510 replaces a briefly vacant Arlan’s Market, which closed in June. The new store will feature an independently owned and operated bakery, according to comments from Food Town. The store is an important step for both the community and Lewis Food Town. The grocery store represents one of two long-standing sites in the area. The site occupied by HEB …

Scooter’s Coffee has been operating in the Houston area since early 2021. The drive-thru only coffee shop was not the first of its kind in Houston, but it was the first in a new wave of similar shops. Dutch Bros. would arrive in Houston a few months after Scooter’s, and 7 Brew wouldn’t make it here until 2023. While the drive-thru coffee market doesn’t seem to be slowing down, it appears that the competition may …

The future Joe V’s parking lot will likely stir up memories of how busy Fry’s used to get on Black Friday, most weekends. Joe V’s Smart Shop will soon open a new location on Houston’s North side. The store wich will be located at 10241 North Fwy, Houston, TX 77037 has yet to receive an official grand opening date, but estimates from HEB put the store on a course to open mid-summer according to Chron.com, and …

National grocery giant Kroger has decided to reunite its Dallas and Houston divisions, in a familiar move for anyone who’s been watching the Texas grocery scene long enough. The Houston and Dallas divisions originally started as separate chains. Henke & Pillot of Houston was purchased by Kroger in 1955, and Wyatt’s of DFW was purchased in 1958. The stores were allowed to operate with a great degree of freedom compared to most other chains Kroger …

According to permits recently filed, Fiesta Mart is working on reconstructing a long-dormant store at 4330 Hwy 6 N, Houston, TX 77084. The store, which flooded during Hurricane Harvey, has been closed since 2017. The location, which opened in 2001, replaced a longtime Gerland’s Food Fair, which initially opened with the shopping center in 1978. During Hurricane Harvey, water from the Addicks Reservoir backed up into the store, ultimately flooding the entire building. Not reopening …