RebelE91 said:

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My first job was also Gerlands by Sugar Creek in Sugar Land. That was a great job for a young lad, especially when the blond cougar in the blue Mercedes convertible would give you a $3 tip by placing the money in your front pants pocket

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We had a young hottie regular who drove a yellow Corvette with "Besame" license plates. She always wore halter tops and cut off jeans. Had a Farrah Fawcett haircut.

All the stockers would follow her around the store and fight over taking her groceries to the car.

I don't remember any customers being exceptionally hot but a not small amount of Dobie cheerleaders (was mostly white back then) worked there.

Had a crush on a girl that had an IROC. I still want one of those.

A girl with an IROC? Me too.

My daily commute/ family activities take me near 2 Randall's daily and I still stop in regularly to pick up a few things when I don't want to deal with H-E-B and other madhouse stores. Their sales are amazing too and so much cheaper than any other store if you shop those items. Both of the Randall's near me are very clean and orderly.

The high school job aspect of this thread is a fun reminiscence. My first real job was Gerland's Food Fair at Fry and I-10 where the Conn's store has been for the last 25 years. This was early 90s. It was a great job for a high school kid and I worked there for several years. I had a lot of friends who worked at the Randall's on Mason as well and knew a few people at the other Gerland's (Mason) and Randall's (Fry/ Saums). Back then grocery stores were great jobs for high schoolers and except for day shift when we were all at school, most of the front of the house employees were high school kids. Today it's so different. My teens have applied to so many places that used to be teen havens for jobs and they don't even get an interview or chance to meet. It's that way for almost everyone I talk to with teens looking for an after school/ weekend job. They all seem to be staffed by adults these days. I wish my kids could find a place like it sounds many of us had in high school where they could balance work with school/ activities and get to work with peers too. Good memories for me.

Jugstore Cowboy said:

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Biz Ag said:

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Gerland's
Handy Andy
Louis & Coker
Rice Foods
Weingarten's (where I worked in high school)

all gone

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This thread smells like Ben Gay and Old Spice.



And you forgot Food Giant and Belden's.

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and Eagle

randalls in Meyerland is mostly black people

Foodarama or gtfo.

I went to school at A&M Galveston from '90 to '94, and I really liked the huge Fiesta off 45 near NASA. It sucks to see that gone.

Reality11 said:

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randalls in Meyerland is mostly black people

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Or God's chosen

amen to that. i worked my way up from bagger to evening frozen food "manager". i was in charge of restocking, unloading pallets, ordering, etc. all at basically 16,17.

Pahdz said:

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But how we got no mention of Brookshire Brothers yet? Remember the Katy one from my young youth.

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That Brookshire Brothers is still there for now. They did a pretty significant renovation a few years back. With HEB now open at Morton and Katy-Ft. Bend I don't see how Brookshire Brothers can make it unless its just the store of convivence for those that don't want the crowd of going to HEB. I know some people love Brookshire Brothers deli fried chicken. I tried it once and meh.

schmendeler said:

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Any love out there for Klein's?

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Here

I'm talking about the OG Katy Brookshire Brothers...on 10th and Avenue D.

OK, that one definitely predates me.

Pahdz said:

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I'm talking about the OG Katy Brookshire Brothers...on 10th and Avenue D.

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We were never OG Katy. Williamsburg Settlement over here. We just rolled into dominate Little League.

I'm guessing some of yall follow Houston Historic Retail on facebook or elsewhere. They're always cracking these kinds of important mysteries for us, like "did that Food Town used to be a Gerland's?"

https://houstonhistoricretail.com

https://www.facebook.com/HoustonHistoricRetail

Just saw their post about Food Town/Gerland's/ Food Lion on Eldridge in SL.

Yes. I think Gerlands was the leading supplier of Food towns

Diggity said:

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It could be revisionist history, but everything I've heard from the folks at HEB is that they wait until the have critical mass to enter a major market.

The Pantry strategy in Houston was a bit of a misfire, but you can see that they're very intentional about locking up the right real estate before setting up in a new area. Seems like they have Houston well under control and DFW is the new step.

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I used to know a guy who worked for HEB Corp in the finance dept. What you say is basically what he told me as for the larger macro strategy they employ. HEB doesn't like to go into debt so they first build up the capital funds, then build the necessary infrastructure (warehouses, large bakeries, dairy plant, etc) and only then start to build stores themselves. He also told me that HEB makes a location plan and invests heavily in real estate years and even decades in advance in anticipation of their growth.