K&B Drug Stores

[IronTiger]

K&B Drugs (Katz & Besthoff) was a drug store operator out of New Orleans known for its distinctive purple logo and good service (including a wide selection of in-house ice cream). In the early 1990s, K&B Drugs went on an expansion, including at least six stores in Texas (as of 1991). All that came to an end in 1998 when Rite Aid acquired and rebranded the chain, and either selling or closing the Texas stores since Rite Aid doesn't operate in Texas (at least not in Houston). Since it did operate in Texas, I'm curious if they opened any stores in Houston. 

 

I'm not 100% sure if K&B had any stores in Houston at all (it's far more likely that the stores would be concentrated in Beaumont and the surrounding towns) but I do wonder if they did. Were there any K&Bs in Houston? Where were they?

Edited April 21, 2016 by IronTiger

[SpaceGhost]

Okay, so here's what I've found so far.

 

One address that is "suspect" 2435 Bay Area Blvd Houston, TX 77058. It's a former CVS strip center location. It doesn't look "Eckerd-ish" however. So it's possible that Rite-Aid sold it to Eckerd's who never had a chance to do any real remodeling before CVS moved in.

 

And, that's about it.. The only other thing I really found was a list of Rite Aid's subsidiaries and under the K&B Texas Corporation section I found:

Super Beverage of Texas #2, Inc.
Super Beverage of Texas #3, Inc.
Super Beverage of Texas #4, Inc.
Super Beverage of Texas #5, Inc.
Super Beverage of Texas #6, Inc.

 

Along with a bunch of other stuff named Super. Some research shows the trademark is long expired but that it was active at one point, and registered in Houston! So K&B more than likely did do business here, if just through liquor stores.

[IronTiger]

7 hours ago, SpaceGhost said:

Okay, so here's what I've found so far.

 

One address that is "suspect" 2435 Bay Area Blvd Houston, TX 77058. It's a former CVS strip center location. It doesn't look "Eckerd-ish" however. So it's possible that Rite-Aid sold it to Eckerd's who never had a chance to do any real remodeling before CVS moved in.

 

And, that's about it.. The only other thing I really found was a list of Rite Aid's subsidiaries and under the K&B Texas Corporation section I found:

Super Beverage of Texas #2, Inc.
Super Beverage of Texas #3, Inc.
Super Beverage of Texas #4, Inc.
Super Beverage of Texas #5, Inc.
Super Beverage of Texas #6, Inc.

 

Along with a bunch of other stuff named Super. Some research shows the trademark is long expired but that it was active at one point, and registered in Houston! So K&B more than likely did do business here, if just through liquor stores.

The "Super Beverage" name is probably an adjoining liquor store that K&B owned. In Louisiana, you can sell liquor just about anywhere you please, but that's not the rules in Texas, and they probably had to register a name for each liquor store they wanted to operate. I can't imagine they would only operate liquor stores. It's also *possible* that Rite Aid did convert them to their own name (this article supports that theory) but then closed them within two years as Rite Aid started to destabilize soon after. I can't find if Rite Aid sold any stores to Eckerd since at this time since Eckerd had just been bought by J.C. Penney, and then J.C. Penney started going through drama of its own. The only way to know for sure is to hoof it to the Texas Room downtown again and go the mid-1990s microfilms (additionally, chances are good they advertised in the papers, as well) and look under the category for "Drug Stores". Maybe next week...or maybe a HAIFer might remember...

Edited April 22, 2016 by IronTiger

[SpaceGhost]

Southern Retail's Blog has this comment on it.

 

Quote

Worked in Louisiana and Texas as a store manager for K&B, loved the chain, you could pick up the phone and talk to Mr Bestoff if you wanted, a real family atomosphere. Had almost 20 yrs in when they sold to Rite Aid, and then Rite Aid shut the Texas stores down. Loved KB because they let the manager actually manage his store unlike all the corporate cookie cutters of today.

 

Also supporting the separate liquor store idea, there is a liquor store name K&B Liquor in Houston, and I know that's kind of grasping at straws, but there's a very odd looking CVS right across the parking lot. It doesn't look like a converted Eckerd, and HCAD has the year built listed as 1990.

[IronTiger]

Reading that article you sent me indicates that K&B Drugs in Texas (and the comment above supports this theory) never changed names to Rite Aid before going down. 

 

It's possible that there were never any stores in Houston and all the stores (remember, they weren't many) were concentrated in Beaumont and Port Arthur. As for the converted Eckerd, it's possible it was one of Eckerd's older stand-alone stores. I think the Funding Universe article said that K&B didn't start building stand-alones until the early 1990s anyway.

Edited April 23, 2016 by IronTiger

[IronTiger]

Update: it looks like the "Beaumont or surrounding areas" was correct, as I found this FB snippet, which indicates there were stores in Port Arthur and Nederland in the early 1980s (at least one in each). This makes it less likely that K&B Drug stores built any in Houston. I'm guessing that if there were any in the Houston area at all, Baytown would be the best bet.

[SpaceGhost]

Found this in this document published by the Retail Center at A&M! (Jeez why didn't I go there instead of giving U of H a bunch of money every year...)

 

Rite Aid operates 3,975 stores in 32 states and in the District of Columbia. The company purchased the two largest privately held drugstore chains in the United States: Harco, Inc., based in Alabama, and K&B, Inc., the predominant chain in Louisiana. The 332 stores are currently being integrated into Rite-Aid. The five Texas stores are located in the eastern portion of the state. The company operates stores in the following locations:

 

Louisiana 109

Texas 5

 

The company plans to build 1,500 new stores by February 2001. Most of these stores will be freestanding with drive-through pharmacy windows. Real estate efforts are focusing on the Western and Southern United States. In Texas, the company, operating under the K&B name also markets home health care and prescription plans.

 

I took out the states other than LA and TX. The report was published in April of 1999. So it looks like they name may have stuck for longer than thought.. Also attached a copy of the document for preservation's sake.

1298.pdf

[IronTiger]

I don't know when K&B Drug "officially" converted to Rite Aid, but at the time of the report's research it seems it was still operating as the K&B name. Likely it already converted by the time it was published.

 

Here's where it gets interesting. The report officially says that Rite Aid operated in only Longview-Marshall (and not, in fact, Beaumont or Port Arthur...they probably closed by that time). If you search "Rite Aid Longview", Google will spit out a few addresses, including a small stand-alone pharmacy looking building at 803 Gilmer Road (now an events center?) and 1754 West Loop 281 (now a CVS).

 

So if the Rite Aid stores in Texas were originally all K&B Drug stores, then K&B actually opened in Longview-Marshall (after all, K&B operated stores as far north as far away as Memphis, when it bought the Osco drug stores there in the early 1990s).

 

[SpaceGhost]

Well I think we've found one for sure. 805 Gilmer returns if you search K&B Drugs Longview. I have received false positive searching Rite-Aid but nothing from K&B. Also that building definitely looks like an old pharmacy. Seems to be a thrift store now.