Food Town-Airline Drive-Houston, TX

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storewanderer
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Food Town-Airline Drive-Houston, TX

Post by storewanderer »

Stumbled across some photos of this place. A bit confused:

Exterior looks like a Safeway....

Wall decor looks like Food Lion... departmental signage is very strange, I'm not sure I've ever seen a wall fixture for "tobacco" before.

It appears this chain is good at making wall decor that looks like what the previous occupants had, to put over what they want the space to be at the present time. In some other stores I saw new fixtures for "specials" that were in perfect Albertsons or Food Lion font and I"m pretty sure neither chain ever had a wall fixture for "specials."

Another interesting thing about this chain is they don't seem to have candy racks at any of their checkstands. I actually think that is a good idea and it really de-clutters things.

Difficult to tell layout because this chain doesn't seem to keep bakery/deli in its stores. Looks like some units have a tenant bakery/tenant pharmacy, mostly former Albertsons units.
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Re: Food Town-Airline Drive-Houston, TX

Post by pseudo3d »

It’s a former Eagle (Lucky owned), which opened stores in Houston in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
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Re: Food Town-Airline Drive-Houston, TX

Post by storewanderer »

pseudo3d wrote: February 7th, 2022, 4:23 pm It’s a former Eagle (Lucky owned), which opened stores in Houston in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
So it went Eagle, then Food Lion?
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Re: Food Town-Airline Drive-Houston, TX

Post by pseudo3d »

storewanderer wrote: February 7th, 2022, 7:45 pm
pseudo3d wrote: February 7th, 2022, 4:23 pm It’s a former Eagle (Lucky owned), which opened stores in Houston in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
So it went Eagle, then Food Lion?
There were a number of stores that reused Food Lion signage, including Hong Kong Food Market off of Bellaire. This particular store opened in 1985 following the demise of Eagle, and must have installed the Food Lion signage at some point in the 1990s when the Food Lion stores began to close.

Food Town has occupied has occupied actual Food Lion stores though, such as the 9520 Jones Road store.
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Re: Food Town-Airline Drive-Houston, TX

Post by storewanderer »

pseudo3d wrote: February 8th, 2022, 7:09 am
storewanderer wrote: February 7th, 2022, 7:45 pm
pseudo3d wrote: February 7th, 2022, 4:23 pm It’s a former Eagle (Lucky owned), which opened stores in Houston in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
So it went Eagle, then Food Lion?
There were a number of stores that reused Food Lion signage, including Hong Kong Food Market off of Bellaire. This particular store opened in 1985 following the demise of Eagle, and must have installed the Food Lion signage at some point in the 1990s when the Food Lion stores began to close.

Food Town has occupied has occupied actual Food Lion stores though, such as the 9520 Jones Road store.
So Food Town only got into business in around 1993, I wonder what the store was between Eagle and Food Town?

I have never seen a Food Lion so large before as that Hong Kong Store. Or did they take the signs from a different location and install them in their location? There are also fixtures in this place that clearly were not present in Food Lion such as a fixture for "gifts."

It appears there is someone in Houston who liked to make Food Lion looking fixtures and sell them to various operators.

Also on the subject of the Hong Kong Store the signs out front for Bakery and Seafood look like Safeway Marketplace exterior signs...

I am very confused by the re-use of Food Lion decor in this manner, in stores that were never even Food Lion, by multiple operators around Houston.
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Re: Food Town-Airline Drive-Houston, TX

Post by storewanderer »

Interesting website here:
https://houstonhistoricretail.com/groce ... permarket/

5708 S. Gessner appears to have a largely unremodeled Eagle interior (!!!) well into the 2010's. It operated under multiple names between 2010-2020:
Mama Food Market (some photos if you search Mama Food Market Houston TX Closed on Google Maps)
I-Fresh
International Market
https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/mama-fo ... et-houston
https://www.yelp.com/biz/i-fresh-houston
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Re: Food Town-Airline Drive-Houston, TX

Post by veteran+ »

Side note:

That Houston Historical link has HUGE amounts of info on Food Fair / Pantry Pride history.

They had scanners in their stores in California as early as 1970.
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