Houston Historic Retail

Have you ever been to Culver’s? They’re not from Houston, or even Texas, but they’re popping up all around the city.

So what’s the story on Culver’s, you might ask? Well, it’s an interesting one. The Culver family first got involved with fast food in 1961 by purchasing an A&W Root B**r franchise in Wisconsin. The family ran the locations for less than 10 years before selling it to experiment with other restaurants.

In 1984, the A&W location the family had once run was back on the market, and they decided to buy it again. This time, though, they de-franchised the location, turning it into the first Culver’s in the world. While some connections to A&W are a little more evident (like Culver’s root b**r), the Culver family revamped most of the menu, including replacing ice cream with custard.

The new concept was a hit, and by 1990 they were franchising locations. They arrived in Texas in 1998 via Kerrville, where I first tried Culver’s. They made it to Houston about 10 years later, and since then we’ve grown to six locations, with two more under construction.

While Culver’s isn’t exactly local, I do have to give them credit for doing what they do well. They’ve always struck me as the Chick-Fil-A of the burger world. Have any of y’all been to Culver’s? What do you think?

Getting back to Food Lion in 2026

Howdy folks, and welcome back to Houston Historic Retail. Today we're taking a look at a grocer who tried and failed in the Houston market nearly 20 years ago: Food Lion. Today's store is located in Abingdon, VA, just a stone's throw from regional grocer Food City's HQ and Distribution Center. I don't have much history on today's store, other than that it was built around 2000....

Getting back to Food Lion in 2026 Howdy folks, and welcome back to Houston Historic Retail. Today we’re taking a look at a grocer who tried and failed in the Houston market nearly 20 years ago: Food Lion. Today’s store …

History of The Hop! The building you’re looking at is one of the oldest commercial structures standing in the Webster area. Built in 1916, this building was originally a combination general store, gas station, and post office.

Located at the corner of Highway 3 and W NASA Parkway. For years, this building helped Webster grow. Over the years, a number of different tenants moved in and out, including a 1950s-themed club that opened in the late 80s.

For nearly the past 40 years, The Hop was the main attraction here, playing an expanding collection of Oldies that eventually reached into the 90s. However, last month, The Hop shut its doors for good.

The current plan is to replace The Hop with a second Preslee’s location, a restaurant with an existing location in the Heights.

I received a handful of messages last weekend with similar questions. The basic idea was that multiple Circle K locations have recently painted over and removed Valero signage. Does this mean Valero or Circle K is leaving Houston?

The answer to both questions is no; both Circle K and Valero will remain in Houston. So what’s going on? If you remember about 10 years back, Circle K returned to Houston by buying out CST. This company had been running corporate stores for Valero before they were spun off into an independent entity.

Circle K or Valero has presumably decided not to renew their contract at multiple locations, which is why you see some stations with missing branding. The goal is to make these locations Circle K stores that sell Circle K gas.

Have a question about what’s going on in retail? Have a tip to share? Send me a message!

Check out what Goodwill has rolled out at one of its locations: the Goodwill Home Clearance Center. This new concept, located on Gessner Road right off 59, focuses mostly on furniture, with a bit of new home goods sprinkled into one corner.

This building has a storied history: it started as Stower’s Furniture in the 60s, then Academy was the next tenant and stayed until the late 80s, when they moved across Gessner into the Southway Shopping Center. Best Buy then took over the Goodwill building, until they too moved across the street.

By the mid-2000s, Staples was here briefly, with Goodwill moving in around 2015. Originally, this was a standard Goodwill store, with the Computer Works taking the left portion of the building in 2016.

Sometime around 2018, it transitioned into a Goodwill Clearance Outlet (with the bins), which lasted until 2025, when both it and Computer Works were shut down. While the bins later reopened at larger locations, it seems that Computer Works is officially dead in Houston as of this post.

Since then, Goodwill has tried a couple of concepts for this location. The first was a clothing-only, deep-discount setup that honestly resembled Ross or DD’s more than Goodwill. A few weeks ago, the store closed and reopened under the current furniture concept.

Personally, I think the furniture concept is probably the winner between the two. The pieces were reasonably priced, and unlike the clothing, it didn’t seem like the best deals were all picked through. I’m still waiting for my Computer Works to come back one day…

Have you visited this new concept? What did you think? What do you think Goodwill should try out next?

Anytime I’m out in the Stafford area I make it a point to stop as Best Burger. If you haven’t been, it’s all in the name. It’s seriously a case of iykyk!

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Well, now that the Memorial City Mall post is dying down, it’s time for our second mall post this week.

I’m sure y’all have heard the news about Greenspoint Mall. The short story is that it will be torn down, and an industrial complex will replace it. Interestingly, Fitness Connection (the gym in the old Lord & Taylor) will be invited back to the new complex.

Personally, I’m pretty happy to see this happen. It's always hard to admit a mall has hit the end of its life, but honestly, that happened years ago when holes in the roof and a lack of A/C were rendering the building useless.

What do y’all think of this concept? The new apartments in the Sears parking lot seem to be in decent shape. I think this could be the start of a glow-up for the Greenspoint area.

Retail News: Greenspoint Mall to be redeveloped as an industrial park

The former Greenspoint Mall is slated for redevelopment as CityNorth Industrial Park. The mall, which closed in August 2024, died a slow, agonizing death. After failed revitalization attempts like the construction of Premiere Cinema, the death knell for Greenspoint came when mechanical and structural failures began to limit how much of the mall could remain open. Shortly after closing, there was talk of reopening the former Palais Royal in a "bazar" style setup, and while preliminary work began, the project was abandoned sometime in late 2024....

Retail News: Greenspoint Mall to be redeveloped as an industrial park The former Greenspoint Mall is slated for redevelopment as CityNorth Industrial Park. The mall, which closed in August 2024, died a slow, agonizing death. After failed revitalization attempts like …

The demolition at Memorial City Mall has begun. This photo, provided by HHR reporter in the field Ty Jacobsen, shows heavy equipment making its way across the old Sears wing of the mall. The current demolition will remove this wing and eventually continue north to the ice rink and West to the now-vacant California Pizza Kitchen.

The overall plan is to reduce vacant space, create new access around the remaining restaurants, and eventually develop a mixed-use lifestyle center on the Southwest corner of the property.

I visited Houston’s newest Value World thrift store last weekend. If you’re not into thrift stores, I’d still stick around because the building itself has a unique history.

Starting with Value World, it's a nice store. It was quite big and, being brand new, still very clean and organized. Located at Barker Cypress and FM 529, it’s the first Value World (formerly Village) in this part of town.

So what’s so special about this building? Well, it was built for HEB as a concept store. The basic idea was to build a high-end, full-service HEB the size of a Pantry Foods location.

When the store opened, it featured a full-service deli, bakery, and butcher. It also had an HEB-run coffee shop and a drive-thru chicken restaurant, “The Roost.” The store also originally used a Central Market-style maze layout.

When the store opened in 1998, Houston still only had HEB Pantry Foods, making this the first attempt at something new. The store would be evaluated for what worked and what didn’t. The maze layout was abandoned early on, and the chicken restaurant was swapped for a pharmacy.

The lessons learned at this store would be applied to Houston’s first full-scale HEB locations, which began to open in 2001. In 2002, this location received an extensive remodel and expansion. By then, the store had become a pretty standard, albeit small, HEB.

The store closed in 2007, not long after HEB opened a full-sized location at 290 and Barker Cypress. It sat vacant for the next 10 years, with HEB holding the site somewhat hostage. A few ideas were pitched at the time, with a potential Joe V’s seeming the most likely, but it never came to pass.

In 2016, Planet Fitness remodeled half of the building, with the other half remaining vacant until this summer.

Did you ever visit this store when it was an HEB? What did you think? Would you like to see smaller-scale grocery stores?