Phar-Mor Drug Stores

[IronTiger]

Hello again! Recently I was browsing through some old Houston Post microfilms at Evans Library on campus (I did graduate) and found some cool ads and articles, which I'll be posting as time permits.

I don't think this is *complete* (I'm pretty sure there was one at I-45 and Beltway 8 at some point), but here's the Phar-Mor locations in town as of June 1989, transcribed from an advertisement verbatim complete with wording idiosyncrasies (yes, "I-59"). Please don't actually call the numbers.

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THE COMMONS AT PRESIDIO SQUARE

Bellaire Blvd. at Highway 6

Across from Fiesta Mart

Store Ph.: 568-6591

Pharmacy Ph.: 568-5269

THE COMMONS AT WILLOWBROOK

Tx. 249 & F/M 1960

Store Ph.: 890-3266

Pharmacy Ph.: 890-0488

SOUTH GESSNER SQUARE

I-59 & South Gessner

Store Ph.: 995-5681

Pharmacy Ph.: 995-4068

ALMEDA SQUARE

Gulf Freeway & Kingspoint St.

Store Ph.: 943-9918

Pharmacy Ph.: 943-9963

MEMORIAL CITY SHOPPING CENTER

980 Gessner

Next to Montgomery Ward

Store Ph.: 467-2400

Pharmacy Ph.: 467-8561

MEYER PARK SHOPPING CENTER

South Post Oak Road at Route 610

Store Ph.: 729-6600

Pharmacy Ph.: 729-6661

OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK

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[Fringe]

I loved Phar-Mor. They were super cheap.  Shopped at the one at 59 and Gessner. Don't remember the one in Meyer Park. Perhaps it opened right before they went out of business and just didn't last long. Of course none of them lasted to long. To bad they were mismanaged and went bankrupt.

[JLWM8609]

We used to go to the one in Meyerland a lot. Then it became a music store whose name I've forgotten, I think it was called Media something, then it was a Blockbuster Music. I think that part of the Meyer Park shopping center was demolished a few years ago for redevelopment.

[IronTiger]

We used to go to the one in Meyerland a lot. Then it became a music store whose name I've forgotten, I think it was called Media something, then it was a Blockbuster Music. I think that part of the Meyer Park shopping center was demolished a few years ago for redevelopment.

Media Play? From accounts, it was kind of like Hastings.

[Michelle C]

When you say I-45 and Beltway 8. Are you talking about North or South? I do not remember one at I-45 south and beltway 8. I don't imagine there was ever one there as it was would so close to the one at Almeda  Square at I-45 and Kingsport

[Tumbleweed_Tx]

the one at Hwy 6 and Bellaire was torn down to build an HEB

[IronTiger]

When you say I-45 and Beltway 8. Are you talking about North or South? I do not remember one at I-45 south and beltway 8. I don't imagine there was ever one there as it was would so close to the one at Almeda Square at I-45 and Kingsport

North, near Greenspoint Mall

[NenaE]

We used to go to the one in Meyerland a lot. Then it became a music store whose name I've forgotten, I think it was called Media something, then it was a Blockbuster Music. I think that part of the Meyer Park shopping center was demolished a few years ago for redevelopment.

 

I went there too, when it was Phar-Mor and the record store/ movie rental place. It was down from Luby's and some Mexican food restaurant.

[IronTiger]

The Commons at Greenspoint location opened in August 1989, hence it's non listing.

[SpaceGhost]

Ah yes Phar-Mor! One of the reasons we have Department stores with pharmacies now.

I had forgotten that Phar-Mor operated down here. I'd only looked into their Midwestern operations.

 

the one at Hwy 6 and Bellaire was torn down to build an HEB

 

By the time I moved to the area that part of the strip center was abandoned. I know that only part of the strip center was torn down to build HEB. What else was in that strip center? Wasn't there a movie theater or something? Or was Phar-Mor just that big?

[IronTiger]

Ah yes Phar-Mor! One of the reasons we have Department stores with pharmacies now.

I had forgotten that Phar-Mor operated down here. I'd only looked into their Midwestern operations.

Supermarkets and discount stores already had pharmacies by the time Phar-Mor made its brief dominance. Phar-Mor's schtick was a deep-discount, buy-in-bulk strategy that almost put Wal-Mart on the ropes.

[Mad Stan]

I went to the one located in Almeda Square. They had a movie rental for 50 cents.

[UtterlyUrban]

I remember the one on Gessner, although I can't ever recall going inside.

[Gurgis]

I remember working at the Phar-Mor in Meyer Park (South Post Oak at the 610 extension). I helped get the store ready for grand opening, then continued working there for several weeks after opening. It might have been early 1989. There is a particular song that I remember hearing over the store's sound system, that probably just came out. Researching that song's release, dates the time frame.