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Lewis & Coker Grocery Stores


IronTiger

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I understand that Lewis & Coker ran grocery stores next to Kmart and they disappeared a long time ago, but how were they? Were they any good, did they go out of business or bought up, and when did this all happen? It seems that L&C were all gone by the late 1980s.

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There was somewhere on the HAIF that mentioned the Kmart Foods stores were operated (and later became) Lewis & Coker stores. There was even one in College Station for a while next to the Kmart. This I've definitely confirmed. It became a Piggly Wiggly later on (Six Star Foods operated), but that doesn't help as to their fate in Houston.

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Turned up online:  Lewis and Coker was founded ca. 1903; that not only predates KMart but goes back almost as far as  SS Kresge.  It went into bankruptcy in the 1990s and never emerged.  It was a family owned chain; that surprised me as I always thought it was a grocer's association sort of deal, like Super-Valu stores.

 

I've only been in 3 KMarts in my life, a delapidated one on Beechnut at 59, a new one a few years later on BW8  around Beechnut,and ,I think, one in Meyerland Plaza later.  There were no L&C's near any, rather obviously in the latter two instances.

 

I can remember the L&C name going back decades, from newspaper ads if not radio, but the only store I remember was the one on Holcombe @ Greenbriar mentioned upthread and I never went into one.

Edited by brucesw
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I found an article about Lewis & Coker.

Grocery store firm files for bankruptcy shield

Houston Chronicle - Saturday, September 23, 1995

Readability: 5-6 grade level (Lexile: 910L)

Author: GREG HASSELL, Staff

Lewis & Coker Super Markets, one of the city's oldest grocery companies, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The company is continuing to operate its only store, located at 12516 Memorial Drive, while it negotiates with its creditors.

"We intend to fight this thing," said Eugene Lewis , the sole shareholder of Lewis & Coker 's stock. "We are going to continue to operate our store. Our shelves are full. We'll do everything in our power to give our customers and our employees the same good treatment they are used to getting from us."

[snip]

Lewis & Coker started out 53 years ago with one store in the Heights. In the years that followed, the company operated as many as 35 stores in Houston and in surrounding communities. The company has gradually retrenched to one location, the Memorial Drive store that first opened in 1963.

[snip]

The Lantern Lane Shopping Center did have the last Lewis & Coker. Another 1997 article states that Rice bought the last store (the grocery store, not the university), closed it on May 20th, 1997 and reopened it a day later. It would last, of course, until 2013. Such a conversion suggests that Lewis & Coker was at least a mid-line grocery store.

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As mentioned earlier here, there was a Lewis & Coker in Palm Center in the early 60s.  It may have dated to the time that shopping center was built in the 50s, I don't know, but I do remember going there with my aunt in at least 1963.  I'd describe it as comparable to a Henke & Pillot of the same time period.  Those stores might be considered small by today's standards, but they were large back then.  They were nothing like the HEBs or Krogers we have today though.

 

There used to be a K-Mart in the 3300 block of Telephone, near Wayside.  If I remember correctly, I believe that the grocery store next to it was a Lewis & Coker when the center was built.  The grocery store is now a Sellers Brothers however the former K-Mart is many different businesses.  Weingarten Realty now owns that center.

 

 

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I don't know how many of you are old enough to remember them, but Lewis & Coker's stores were comparable to Henke & Pillot stores in building size. For the younger crowd, it was it a little smaller than a regular sized Kroger's, such as the one on W. 20th in the Heights, or Airline in the northside.

It was one of those hometown stores that, if they knew you well enough, would slide an accidental hot check. There were employees at the Memorial store that had literally made a career at Lewis & Coker. I grew up with the produce manager's daughter. He and his daughter, who was a boothie and cashier, worked there clear through the end when Rice bought it and flipped it to an Epicurean Market, even then staying another couple of years in the store under the Rice banner.

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My 1957 phone books lists 5600 Westheimer as Lewis & Coker Store #3

Tanglewood Pharmacy is at 5654 Westheimer

Jack & Jill Liquor at 5614 Westheimer

 

Looks like the right spot with the curve in the photo.

 

other Lewis and Coker locations:

1: 1329 Arlington

2: 2266 W. Holcombe

4: 250 W. 19th

5: 5238 Palm Center

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Interesting comparison with the current view on Streetview.  There is still a telephone pole at the same location as on the far right in the picture.  I'm guessing the current strip center is the same structure as in the picture, with heavy re-facading.  

 

 

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I remember the Lewis & Coker located at Holcombe & Greenbriar in the 60s my mom worked for a dress shop in that center I think the name was Scheps. My family left Houston in 68, I moved back in 75 to open my own watch repair service and did work for a jewelry  store in that same center named Klor's and witnessed the Lewis and Coker there change into a Rice store that catered to upscale and Kosher foods.

Edited by blue92
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From that era, my most prominent memory of entering a supermarket -- being a kid -- was the aroma of barbecued rotisserie chicken and also sometimes of hot popcorn too.  Seems like they were always placed near the entryways.  They smelled great and really put people (well, me at least) in an enthusiastic consumer frame of mind!  

 

One time, the popcorn machine had caught fire and the smokey smell was pretty bad ... I think that was at the Lewis & Coker you mentioned at Holcombe & Greenbriar.

 

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If memory serves me ( who knows if it will) before the Lewis and Coker was in the strip center on Westheimer there may have been one on the sw corner of Alabama and S. Rice Ave ( near what is now the Galleria and in the past, the kiddie amusement park Wee Wild West.)

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There was a Lewis & Coker at 1329 Arlington?? That'd be right across from Reagan, wouldn't it?

 

Yes, it would. On Google Earth, there are houses there in 1944, a building that looks like a store in 1953 and 1978, then houses after that.

 

 

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  • 8 months later...

If memory serves me ( who knows if it will) before the Lewis and Coker was in the strip center on Westheimer there may have been one on the sw corner of Alabama and S. Rice Ave ( near what is now the Galleria and in the past, the kiddie amusement park Wee Wild West.)

 

That was a Minimax grocery store and it anchored the Lamar Terrace Shopping Center. W. Alabama was originally Westheimer Rd at that location however the large S curve was removed in the late 50's. The curve in the Tanglewood Center photo shows that the new alignment. 

 

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Yes, it would. On Google Earth, there are houses there in 1944, a building that looks like a store in 1953 and 1978, then houses after that.

 

Yes, the L and C grocery was located at Arlington and 14th across the street from Reagan. My parents shopped there from time to time.

 

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My mom infrequently shopped at the Lewis & Coker on Southmore & Richey, Pasadena location. NW corner, in a shopping strip. 1950's, built sometime after 1953, per GoogleEarth. It was big, but not as colossal as Weingartens. A Washateria is there now. I vaguely remember those poles that kids like to swing around, out front, supporting the canopy. 

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There was a Lewis & Coker at the southeast corner of Hillcroft and S. Braeswood when I lived in that area from the mid-'60s until the '80s. My mother shopped there, claiming it was cleaner than other stores. In the same shopping center were an auto parts store (formerly a drug store), The Taxco Inn mexican restaurant, and a Schwinn bicycle shop owned by a rather stern man. It certainly was a nice area to live in back then.

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^

Interesting.  That was before I moved to this part of town.  Must've been the space on the corner.  That was a Blockbuster for a long time, then vacant for a few years and just recently became Flooring for Life.  I think I've been around long enough that there was something there before the Blockbuster and after Lewis and Coker but I can't think of what it was right now other than I'm sure it wasn't a grocery.

 

Not to hijack the thread but do you recall what was in the strip center on the SW corner of S. Braeswood and Chimney Rock where there is a small, dumpy HEB now?  Must've been a grocery, 5 & 10 or hardware in that space.

 

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