Howdy folks, and welcome back to Houston Historic Retail. This week, we’re looking at what could rightfully be considered Houston’s newest Supermarket Chain. Harvest Market stores feature everything you’d find in a standard Supermarket, Perishables, Pantry Foods, Service Departments, and even a pharmacy at some stores. However, they’d prefer it if you called them a “Grocerant” instead. No, a Grocer-rant isn’t a long-winded complaint about customers. Instead, it’s a grocery store that also serves as a restaurant. Harvest Market didn’t necessarily introduce the concept to Houston. That would likely go to HEB’s Chicken Restaurant Concept or maybe even Kroger’s partnership …
Keep readingTag: Closing
Retail News: Edwards 14 at West Oaks Mall slated to close as part of bankruptcy
Sears Willowbrook Mall Experiment is Closing
The Sears Hometown located inside of Willowbrook Mall has started the closing process for their store a short six months after opening. The scheme was a way to put former Sears Mall buildings and a few former Kmarts to use as prospective tenants for this former mainline store, which closed in 2020, failed to step up. The closure was first reported to HHR by regular contributor Anonymous in Houston, who noticed a Google Review stating the store was closing. This rumor was confirmed by visiting the store and finding the yellow closing/clearance tags attached to all products. The closing does …
Keep readingSo long Rice, and thanks for all the Epicuriousness
After nearly 85 years of operation, the final Rice Grocery store will close its doors for good today. While this isn’t coming out of the blue, it’s still a sad event to have to witness. While many of us remember Rice as the exotic Epicurean chain, the company served many people of many different backgrounds under many different names during its tenure. The building that housed this final Epicurean location will once again find another use, this time as a Spec’s location. Rice staff had mentioned there might be something special about this new Spec’s, but what exactly it is, …
Keep readingRetail News: James Coney closes final inner-loop location, and provides some thoughts on the future
James Coney Island’s final inner-loop store shut down earlier this week. The news of the closure was quiet but shouldn’t come as a huge surprise for anyone who has been following the slow death of the chain. While JCI managed to hang on past the Millennium, it seems very little has been invested in the hot dog seller over the past 20 years. With locations stagnant and sales slipping, a 2018 initiative to push the chain away from Hot Dogs began. Local chef, Matt Marcus, was brought on board to help reimagine non-hot dog menu items, and a new name …
Keep readingBarnes & Noble booted from Vanderbilt Square, and why this could mean trouble for Randall’s
Howdy folks, and welcome back to HHR. We’re coming to you today with some sad news, which seems to happen more often than not lately. The second to last Barnes & Noble location inside the loop has quietly shut its doors after a nearly 30-year stay in the shopping center. Located at 3003 W Holcombe Blvd, Houston, TX 77025 along with Randall’s, the stores represent the center’s original anchors. According to an interview with Community Impact, B&N had no desire to close the store and rather was ‘asked to leave. This also lines up with a 2021 resigning of the …
Keep readingRetail News: Circle K Quietly disposes of 4 Houston locations to newcomer Prime Spot
Strange things are afoot at a few Houston area Circle K locations as they begin to rebrand as Prime Spot. The brand is a new one, with their operations mainly consisting of wholesaling fuel prior to this point. Circle K made its reentry into Houston during a 2018 conversion spree, after purchasing the CornerStore chain of C-Stores in 2016, which had recently been spun off by Valero. Many of these Corner Store locations came from Diamond Shamrock’s acquisition of Stop n Go, with a good number of stores dating back to the 1970s as various independents. While some of these …
Keep readingJames Coney Deserted Island, a Meadows Place Story
Update 4/27: For those on the Google crusade of trying to figure out why this location closed, it seems the property is being redeveloped as Cabo Bob’s an Austin-based taco house (Thanks Gruffbear!) If this has been helpful to you, consider following me on Facebook or other platforms for more regular updates! Howdy folks, and welcome to Houston Historic Retail. Today we’re checking out a James Coney Island, which truly is, on an island. Let’s start out though, talking about my least favorite hot dog chain. I know what you’re thinking, what’s wrong with this guy? Doesn’t like JCI, and …
Keep readingThompson’s Antique Center to close doors, leaving Northwest Mall with no retailers by 2022
Greetings readers, I have some sad news for you as we approach the end of the year. Northwest Mall’s final retail tenant, Thompson’s Antique Center, is set to close their doors for the last time December 31st. The shutdown comes with little notice to the public, and a similarly small amount of heads up for vendors. After speaking with one vendor at the antique center, they supposedly received only about a month’s worth of notice. The space occupied by the antique center is as of 2021 the only retailer still operating out of what was once Northwest Mall. While a …
Keep readingHalf Price Books has left The Village
In July of 1981 Half Price Books opened in a prominent spot on University Boulevard. The first store to be built at the corner of University and Kirby was White House, which opened in June of 1941. A local department store chain, they were known for building smaller sized locations throughout the Houston suburbs. It would be purchased by the Meyer family, a group of family members who had been employed in various positions with Foley’s until they sold out to Federated in 1947. At this point they would switch the name to Meyer Bros. White House. In 1950, Only …
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