Orlando's Lucky 7 Supermarket At 6806 W. Montgomery Rd.

[sinister1]

Does anyone on here know the history of Orlando Supermarket located on 6806 W Montgomery Rd, Houston, TX 77091? All I've found is that Marvin Zhindler did a report on it way back in the days because of the R and the D being blown off by a storm and not being replaced the store has since changed owners and has been known as O-Lan-O ever since. It would be even cooler if some one had old photos of it.

I do remember as a kid back in the 80's Orlando ads in the news paper. but it's been a long time.

[dbigtex56]

I've been meaning to go there. Word is that they have some of the best links, boudin, and meats of all kinds to be found in Houston.
4.4 out of 5 stars on Google, based on 700 reviews.

[sinister1]

36 minutes ago, dbigtex56 said:

I've been meaning to go there. Word is that they have some of the best links, boudin, and meats of all kinds to be found in Houston.
4.4 out of 5 stars on Google, based on 700 reviews.

Never tried the links but there hamburgers are very good..

 

Edited February 24, 2020 by sinister1

[IronTiger]

According to the paper, it opened in November 1967 as "Orlando's Lucky 7" (Lucky 7 being a grocer franchisee at the time, much like Minimax).

[sinister1]

46 minutes ago, IronTiger said:

According to the paper, it opened in November 1967 as "Orlando's Lucky 7" (Lucky 7 being a grocer franchisee at the time, much like Minimax).

That's awesome IronTiger, do you recall what paper? Was it the Houston Press, Post or Chronicle?

[sinister1]

4 hours ago, IronTiger said:

According to the paper, it opened in November 1967 as "Orlando's Lucky 7" (Lucky 7 being a grocer franchisee at the time, much like Minimax).

Found this on Google maps from a store in Houston not sure if it s the same company.

[mkultra25]

15 hours ago, sinister1 said:

Found this on Google maps from a store in Houston not sure if it s the same company.

 

Almost certainly the same company. Lucky 7 supermarkets were pretty common in Houston back in the late 1960s. 

[IronTiger]

20 hours ago, sinister1 said:

That's awesome IronTiger, do you recall what paper? Was it the Houston Press, Post or Chronicle?

Houston Chronicle. They've got the whole thing digitized these days, so searching for many things is much easier.

[dbigtex56]

IIRC, the Hyde Park Grocery (Fairview @ Taft, currently Cuchara) was  a Lucky 7 store, as was Ventura's Market (on W. Alabama - since demolished).

Edited February 26, 2020 by dbigtex56

[gnu]

Not that this is the least bit interesting but....

When I visited my uncle in Rice Military, as a kid,  I would usually walk to the Lucky 7 Birdsall Supermarket at 231 Birdsall (now multiple townhomes since about 2003) to pass the time, get candy, etc

BTW. His house was also replaced with 2 townhomes in 1998-ish.

Edited February 26, 2020 by gnu

[sinister1]

1 hour ago, dbigtex56 said:

IIRC, the Hyde Park Grocery (Fairview @ Taft, currently Cuchara) was  a Lucky 7 store, as was Ventura's Market (on W. Alabama - since demolished).

I love the Google time line too bad it only goes back to 2007.  Man Taft has changed a lot since I've visited it, use to go have pizza at the Midnight Pie.

34 minutes ago, gnu said:

Not that this is the least bit interesting but....

When I visited my uncle in Rice Military, as a kid,  I would usually walk to the Lucky 7 Birdsall Supermarket at 231 Birdsall (now multiple townhomes since about 2003) to pass the time, get candy, etc

BTW. His house was also replaced with 2 townhomes in 1998-ish.

 

Edited February 26, 2020 by sinister1

[sinister1]

34 minutes ago, gnu said:

Not that this is the least bit interesting but....

When I visited my uncle in Rice Military, as a kid,  I would usually walk to the Lucky 7 Birdsall Supermarket at 231 Birdsall (now multiple townhomes since about 2003) to pass the time, get candy, etc

BTW. His house was also replaced with 2 townhomes in 1998-ish.

I'm so sick of cookie cutter town homes. I wish it would stop already.

Just out of curiosity, when did Luck 7 go out of business? I can't find anything online about them.

[sinister1]

Found this gem in the Houston Public Library Archives but still no Orlando's.

[Specwriter]

There was a Lucky 7 at the corner of Airline Drive and Gulf Bank. I don't remember the actual name (Firebird probably does) but it was owned by the Io (ee-oh) family.

[plumber2]

The Orlando's that owned this store actually lived in Tanglewood.  I went to school with one of the Orlando sons. 

[N. Orlando]

This was my grandparents grocery store. They were the original owners and one the first supermarkets that had everything to one place. Really cool history!! 

[N. Orlando]

[mkultra25]

On 2/27/2020 at 6:55 PM, Specwriter said:

There was a Lucky 7 at the corner of Airline Drive and Gulf Bank. I don't remember the actual name (Firebird probably does) but it was owned by the Io (ee-oh) family.

I missed this when it was originally posted. That would have been the Fairway Food Center, and the family that owned it was indeed the Iio family (with two 'i's). I've lost the attribution for the attached photo, but I think it was uploaded to a Facebook group by one of the Iio children.

 

[Specwriter]

On 12/17/2021 at 4:14 PM, mkultra25 said:

I missed this when it was originally posted. That would have been the Fairway Food Center, and the family that owned it was indeed the Iio family (with two 'i's). I've lost the attribution for the attached photo, but I think it was uploaded to a Facebook group by one of the Iio children.

 

This image was probably from the late 1940s or early 1950s from looking at the automobiles. There was a more modern building which looked like it may have been built in the early 1960s. It is the only one I remember since I too was "built" in the early '60s. 🙂 Thanks for a catching my misspelling of Iio as well.

We rarely went shopped at the store. My mother's preferred was the Randall's in the Northtown shopping center (I-45 at Tidwell) or the Henke's (later Kroger)  at i-45 and W. Mt. Houston.

Someone please correct or clarify this but I think Lucky 7 was a confederation of independent grocers who were able to get competitive pricing from suppliers by combining their orders.

[mkultra25]

18 hours ago, Specwriter said:

This image was probably from the late 1940s or early 1950s from looking at the automobiles. There was a more modern building which looked like it may have been built in the early 1960s. It is the only one I remember since I too was "built" in the early '60s. 🙂 Thanks for a catching my misspelling of Iio as well.

We rarely went shopped at the store. My mother's preferred was the Randall's in the Northtown shopping center (I-45 at Tidwell) or the Henke's (later Kroger)  at i-45 and W. Mt. Houston.

Someone please correct or clarify this but I think Lucky 7 was a confederation of independent grocers who were able to get competitive pricing from suppliers by combining their orders.

I've seen a 1960s-era photo of the building before, but don't have it at hand and wasn't able to find it online. 

Our family's go-to grocery stores were the W. Mt. Houston Henke's/Kroger, once it opened in late 1966, and the Piggly Wiggly on the other side of I-45. In later years we'd sometimes patronize the Safeway on Gulf Bank and the Randall's in Deauville Plaza. I also remember an A&P in the Northtown center but am drawing a blank on Randall's there.  

[Specwriter]

1 hour ago, mkultra25 said:

I've seen a 1960s-era photo of the building before, but don't have it at hand and wasn't able to find it online. 

Our family's go-to grocery stores were the W. Mt. Houston Henke's/Kroger, once it opened in late 1966, and the Piggly Wiggly on the other side of I-45. In later years we'd sometimes patronize the Safeway on Gulf Bank and the Randall's in Deauville Plaza. I also remember an A&P in the Northtown center but am drawing a blank on Randall's there.  

The Randall's in Northtown also opened around 1966. It may have replaced something that was previously there are been part of an addition. The shopping center was L-shaped with a Grant's in the middle. The Randall's was along that leg that stretched toward the freeway access road. I cannot remember if Mom ever shopped at the Safeway nor the Piggly Wiggly though I know our next door neighbor did patronize the latter. Notably those two stores were the most convenient to my parents' house in Hidden Valley.

In the early 70's my father went to work for (ironically) Lucky Stores. That was a California-based company that owned the Gemco Department stores and Eagle grocery stores like the one on the southeast corner of Little York and Airline so Mom saw incentive to shop at Gemco for groceries. It could have been confusing if Lucky from California  used that name in Texas. It was probably the desire to avoid a lawsuit that the stores were called "Eagle."

For those not old enough to remember the Gemco on the north side of Houston was in the building that houses the Fiesta where Airline crosses the North Freeway.

[ShipPunk]

I know this is an old topic but I see that O Lan O store in acres homes and have witnessed a fight out there before. It looked old so I figured it was something else before, thanks for the clarification. I saw someone mention lucky 7 stores. I was cleaning my sons closet at my grandparents we now live in and found a lucky 7 paper sack in good shape, I had never heard of it. Someone mentioned Birdsall grocery store. My great grandparents owned that building and rented it to the man who owned the actual business, they used to do groceries on credit. My great grandmother lived across the street and a relative has a house on that lot now but I went in there a few times as a kid. The son of the owner saw my great grandma and was sort of ditzy and didn’t remember her name. She said “buddy I own this building if you don’t know my name put it on your daddy’s charge account !” Haha it was a tiny store . My family built a lot of those old houses that have been torn down for big townhouses, they also built most of those townhouses as well. It wasn’t around long when I was a kid before it was torn down. Good info 

[Firebird65]

On 12/18/2021 at 9:13 PM, Specwriter said:

This image was probably from the late 1940s or early 1950s from looking at the automobiles. There was a more modern building which looked like it may have been built in the early 1960s. It is the only one I remember since I too was "built" in the early '60s. 🙂 Thanks for a catching my misspelling of Iio as well.

We rarely went shopped at the store. My mother's preferred was the Randall's in the Northtown shopping center (I-45 at Tidwell) or the Henke's (later Kroger)  at i-45 and W. Mt. Houston.

Someone please correct or clarify this but I think Lucky 7 was a confederation of independent grocers who were able to get competitive pricing from suppliers by combining their orders.

Well, I'm about 14 months late, but better late than never, right? The Fairway Foods Lucky 7 originally started in the early 1940s as the Airline Food Shop. That's the picture in mkultra's photo. It was not a very large store at all by today's standards. Maybe no bigger than a convenience store. Melvin Iio bought it in March 1951. I can't tell when the name changed or when it became part of Lucky 7. This 1951 ad simply lists Fairway Foods as one of "These fine Lucky 7 stores [are] under new management." Chester used it as a place to sell his produce since he and his brothers had a farm down the street on Gulf Bank. In 1956, Melvin builds a bigger store on the same site. That's the store everyone out there over 45 years old is familiar with. When Melvin passed away in 1968, his older brother Chester tool over running the store until thieves robbed the place and murdered him in 1983.

 

 

[Dave W]

Lucky 7 stores weren't franchises. The brand was owned by one of the bigger wholesale grocers, and the independent stores it supplied could use the name and the combined buying power and advertising.

[mkultra25]

On 2/27/2023 at 4:28 PM, Firebird65 said:

Well, I'm about 14 months late, but better late than never, right? The Fairway Foods Lucky 7 originally started in the early 1940s as the Airline Food Shop. That's the picture in mkultra's photo. It was not a very large store at all by today's standards. Maybe no bigger than a convenience store. Melvin Iio bought it in March 1951. I can't tell when the name changed or when it became part of Lucky 7. This 1951 ad simply lists Fairway Foods as one of "These fine Lucky 7 stores [are] under new management." Chester used it as a place to sell his produce since he and his brothers had a farm down the street on Gulf Bank. In 1956, Melvin builds a bigger store on the same site. That's the store everyone out there over 45 years old is familiar with. When Melvin passed away in 1968, his older brother Chester tool over running the store until thieves robbed the place and murdered him in 1983.

 

 

Hadacol is certainly featured prominently in that ad. Almost completely forgotten now, but it was very well-known in its day.

Quote

Hadacol was a patent medicine marketed as a vitamin supplement. Its principal attraction, however, was that it contained 12 percent alcohol (listed on the tonic bottle's label as a "preservative"), which made it quite popular in the dry counties of the southern United States.

And that's only the tip of the iceberg as far as its backstory:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadacol

[Dave W]

3 hours ago, mkultra25 said:

Hadacol is certainly featured prominently in that ad. Almost completely forgotten now, but it was very well-known in its day.

And that's only the tip of the iceberg as far as its backstory:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadacol

Hadacol failed but Dr. Tichenor's ("best medication around") is still around, although you'll have to order it online. Maybe it's because Hadacol was only 24 proof while Dr. Tichenor's is still 140 proof.

[SKIPPER]

On 2/25/2020 at 1:16 PM, mkultra25 said:

 

Almost certainly the same company. Lucky 7 supermarkets were pretty common in Houston back in the late 1960s. 

3 largest retail groups back then were: Lucky 7, Rice Food Mkts, and Lewis & Coker

[Dave W]

1 hour ago, SKIPPER said:

3 largest retail groups back then were: Lucky 7, Rice Food Mkts, and Lewis & Coker

What do you mean by retail groups?

Lucky 7 was a group of independently owned stores. Rice and Lewis & Coker weren't, they were both family-owned chains.

The two biggest chains back then were Weingarten's and Kroger.