Howdy folks, and welcome back to Houston Historic Retail. If you’re one of our more recent fans and have yet to check out a Randallsarama, consider giving my 2021 visit to one a look. I’ll be making some references to it in this post, and it’s also the birth of the HHR Dictionary, with other entries like Krogerstons popping up more recently. Foodarama is no stranger to former Randall’s locations, they seem to flock to …
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It’s your town Boris! A visit to and the history behind the former Iron Curtain Smashing Randall’s
Howdy folks, today we’re taking a look at what is arguably the most significant grocery store in all of Houston. A humble Lewis Food Town located at 570 El Dorado Blvd, Webster, TX 77598. Starting out as a Randall’s in 1984, this grocery store served an important role only a few years later as an impromptu stop by Soviet politician Boris Yeltsin. Aiming to see how “average Americans” lived, many have drawn a direct line …
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HEBway a Rare Example in 2021
Howdy folks, welcome back to another edition of Houston Historic Retail. Today we’re taking a look at an HEB at 200 W Hopkins St, San Marcos, TX 78666 that, while not in Houston, was once part of the Houston division of Safeway and AppleTree stores. Located in San Marcos, it lost its Houston affiliation with the 1994 purchase by H-E-B. The store was built in 1984, to replace an older location on the same property. …
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You got me Vintage Houston Commercials for Christmas? How Remarkable!
Merry Christmas Eve y’all I hope this post finds you well on this unseasonably warm morning. Although not unwelcome by folks like me, who prefer to stay out of the cold. To mark the special occasion, we’re taking a look at some presents left by an Anonymous visitor, though not necessarily through the chimney. While I’ll leave the joy of “opening” these presents until you read the post, I will note that what we’re taking …
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Retail News: Remarkable! Randalls Returns to Card Free Savings
Editor’s Note: Today’s post is a guest submission from HHR’s good friend Anonymous in Houston Here’s some recent retail news that I found to be quite remarkable! For the first time in almost exactly 25 years, Randalls shoppers no longer need to have a Randalls Remarkable Card, or the Safeway Club Card equivalent, to get most sale prices. I was recently reading some new posts at the Retail Watchers forum recently when I came across …
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Online shopping at Gerland’s and other unique Houston grocers from 1989-90
Editor’s Note: Today’s post is a guest submission from HHR’s good friend Anonymous in Houston Houston was an interesting place in around 1989 and 1990. The economy, both locally and nationally, was a bit sluggish at the time. Locally, the area was still recovering from the problems facing the oil and gas industry throughout most of the 1980s. Given these problems, one might expect the local supermarket scene to be rather troubled as well, but …
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Weingarten Realty’s Annual Reports, a look into our not so distant retail past
Howdy folks, how many times have you encountered the word “Weingarten” in your life. If you’re a native Houstonian, then you probably know the name, to say the least. Houstonians of a certain era, will obviously remember the J. Weingarten grocery store chain. One of Houston’s first true supermarkets, starting out in the 1930s, Weingartens experienced an explosive growth post World War II. The family, who had initially only built freestanding grocery stores, quickly jumped …
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Digging through the Photo Box: 1980s Houston Retail On Vintage Aerial
Editor’s Note: Today’s post is a guest submission from HHR’s good friend Anonymous in Houston Every so often, someone in the retail enthusiast community will stumble upon great sources of retail history in unlikely or hidden corners of the Internet. Loyal Houston Historic Retail readers will know that in just the last few months, we’ve managed to find a large repository of retail news videos clips at The Portal to Texas History website and we …
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The best Foodarama I’ve ever been to: Randallasarama!
Hello everyone, and welcome back to Houston Historic Retail. Today we begin by adding another definition to the HHR Dictionary, with the new term Randallsarama. Randallsarama- (Noun) A Foodarama location occupying a former Randalls Supermarket. “Great news, the Randallsarama had discounted chocolate cake!” Now that we’ve got the taxonomy out of the way, let’s get into the history of this store. We’re talking about Foodarama at 1603 Cartwright Rd, Missouri City, TX 77489. Originally opening …
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Midtown Randalls, it’s the closest thing you’ll get to a Safeway down here!
In 2015, Randall’s wasn’t doing exceptionally well, but the chain was about to get a bit of a boost with the impending Albertson’s Acquisition, which had been in the works for at least a year prior. Most of Randall’s problems stemmed from parent company Safeway, and those in charge at Albertson’s, who had previously operated in Houston, seemed eager to give our market another try. One of the first Randall’s in Houston to receive an …
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