Minimax Grocery Store At 1201 Strawberry Rd.

[foxmulder]

Anyone know the name of the store that used to reside on Southmore and Strawberry? Across from fingers? My mom recalls working a lubys and going to buy peppers when the delivary was late. It later turned into a Wal-Greens Which i assumed moved from Pasadena Town Square. Walgreens moved down the street to Burke and southmore but the building is still there. Also anyone know what the deal is with the old foodlion on Strawberry and cherrybrook? Looks like Sellers Bros owns it.

[gnu]

Anyone know the name of the store that used to reside on Southmore and Strawberry? Across from fingers? My mom recalls working a lubys and going to buy peppers when the delivary was late. It later turned into a Wal-Greens Which i assumed moved from Pasadena Town Square. Walgreens moved down the street to Burke and southmore but the building is still there. Also anyone know what the deal is with the old foodlion on Strawberry and cherrybrook? Looks like Sellers Bros owns it.

this building?

sorry i don't know what grocery it was but it was built in 1960 according to HCAD and it did list one of the owners as Super Duper Foods in the 80's.

http://www.hcad.org/records/details.asp?ta...t=0321070200027

[SpaceAge]

The 1969 cross reference directory shows 1201 "Strawberry Belt" as "Strawberry Road Minimax."

473-5503

I bet they called the shopping carts "buggies" there.

[lunchbox]

Totally- it was a Minimax up until the late 80's or 90's.

[Ashikaga]

The 1969 cross reference directory shows 1201 "Strawberry Belt" as "Strawberry Road Minimax."

473-5503

I bet they called the shopping carts "buggies" there.

I remember my mother simply calling them "baskets." She bought groceries from Weingarten's in the then-Gulfgate Shopping City. When I passed by there back in 1995, the name of it was McFrugal's. Someone on the forum said that it's now an H.E.B.

[foxmulder]

Wow you guys are great! What the heck is a "Mini Max?"

[northbeaumont]

Totally- it was a Minimax up until the late 80's or 90's.

I remember a Minimax in Nederland, just south of Beaumont. It's now a public library. I don't think any of them are around anymore. I found a wesite called Grocerteria.com which lists old grocery stores. They gave me some information about a store that I went to when I was a kid called Weingarten's.

[tmariar]

They gave me some information about a store that I went to when I was a kid called Weingarten's.

We had a Weingarten's with, if I recall right, a TG&Y next to it. There were a few Weingartens around town. But then the Weingartens chose to focus on their real estate business. Such as, these days, what to do about the River Oaks Theater and Shopping Center. The company has a long Houston history.

I think we had a Minimax, too (this was in Clear Lake). Though I think the Minimax might have come in the 80's. It seems like it was around for at least 5+ years.

Edited March 15, 2007 by tmariar

[Guest Marty]

This thread has a lot of info about Weingartens Weingartens thread

Edited March 15, 2007 by Marty

[northbeaumont]

We had a Weingarten's with, if I recall right, a TG&Y next to it. There were a few Weingartens around town. But then the Weingartens chose to focus on their real estate business. Such as, these days, what to do about the River Oaks Theater and Shopping Center. The company has a long Houston history.

I think we had a Minimax, too. This was all down in Clear Lake, in the 70's...

Yes, there was also a T.G.&Y store next door to the Weingarten's that I went to as a kid in Port Arthur. Right next door to the T.G.&Y was the Big Bonus Trading Stamp Redemption Center, which were the brand of trading stamps that Weingarten's had. Next to it was a Weiner's clothing store. I don't think there's any more of those in this whole area. Only you would know if there have ever been any Weiner's in Houston.

[Heights2Bastrop]

There was a Minimax across the street from Reagan that was our

[tmariar]

Next to it was a Weiner's clothing store. I don't think there's any more of those in this whole area. Only you would know if there have ever been any Weiner's in Houston.

The others will know better re Houston proper - there was one in Clear Lake. That was likely more Weingarten's era (70's) than Minimax era (80's). I just remember being a little kid and giggling at the name.

[Guest Marty]

The others will know better re Houston proper - there was one in Clear Lake. That was likely more Weingarten's era (70's) than Minimax era (80's). I just remember being a little kid and giggling at the name.

There was a Minimax next to Super X drug store's address at 190 Town & Country Village in my 1969 Post newspaper.

Edited March 15, 2007 by Marty

[mkultra25]

The others will know better re Houston proper - there was one in Clear Lake. That was likely more Weingarten's era (70's) than Minimax era (80's). I just remember being a little kid and giggling at the name.

There used to be a Weiner's anchoring one end of the strip center at I-45 and W. Mount Houston (before it was more commonly known as SH249). It was there into the 70s, and possibly the early 80s - can't remember exactly when it closed.

Next to that Weiner's, there was a TG&Y, and next to the TG&Y was a Piggly Wiggly. Dugan's Drugs anchored the other end of the center until they were bought out by Eckerd's sometime in the early 70s. Dugan's had an actual formica-topped lunch counter with stools and a soda fountain, a tube tester (remember those?) right by the cashier, and a fixture that filled every kid with anticipation: a spinning comics rack.

That Piggly Wiggly is the first supermarket I can ever remember going to as a kid - the only other place like it that I can remember from when I was very young is the A&P that used to be in Northtown Plaza at 45 & Tidwell.

[EastEnd Susan]

There was a Minimax in the eastend on the corner of Navagation and Wayside. The outside walls had shiney blue tiles. I guess it would have been the northeast corner.

[Guest Marty]

I remember my mom shopping at the Minimax at Little York & Hardy street in the early 80's there was a Goodwill, Winns and a Western Auto in that shopping center.

[northbeaumont]

There used to be a Weiner's anchoring one end of the strip center at I-45 and W. Mount Houston (before it was more commonly known as SH249). It was there into the 70s, and possibly the early 80s - can't remember exactly when it closed.

Next to that Weiner's, there was a TG&Y, and next to the TG&Y was a Piggly Wiggly. Dugan's Drugs anchored the other end of the center until they were bought out by Eckerd's sometime in the early 70s. Dugan's had an actual formica-topped lunch counter with stools and a soda fountain, a tube tester (remember those?) right by the cashier, and a fixture that filled every kid with anticipation: a spinning comics rack.

That Piggly Wiggly is the first supermarket I can ever remember going to as a kid - the only other place like it that I can remember from when I was very young is the A&P that used to be in Northtown Plaza at 45 & Tidwell.

I don't want to sound like I'm stupid, but what's a "tube tester."?

[mkultra25]

I don't want to sound like I'm stupid, but what's a "tube tester."?

They were machines that allowed you to test vacuum tubes to determine if they had gone bad or not. Back in the days before the internals of all TVs and radios were completely taken over by printed circuit boards and surface mount chipsets, they had vacuum tubes. Lots of places had these standalone tube testers, so when you suspected one or more of the tubes in your set was starting to go bad, you'd pull them and tote them down to a store that had a tube tester, determine if you had a bad tube, and if so, you could purchase a replacement right there. They were usually in large standup cabinets, like this:

[Firebird65]

There used to be a Weiner's anchoring one end of the strip center at I-45 and W. Mount Houston (before it was more commonly known as SH249). It was there into the 70s, and possibly the early 80s - can't remember exactly when it closed.

Next to that Weiner's, there was a TG&Y, and next to the TG&Y was a Piggly Wiggly. Dugan's Drugs anchored the other end of the center until they were bought out by Eckerd's sometime in the early 70s. Dugan's had an actual formica-topped lunch counter with stools and a soda fountain, a tube tester (remember those?) right by the cashier, and a fixture that filled every kid with anticipation: a spinning comics rack.

That Piggly Wiggly is the first supermarket I can ever remember going to as a kid - the only other place like it that I can remember from when I was very young is the A&P that used to be in Northtown Plaza at 45 & Tidwell.

The Weiner's closed after Allison in 2001. Being the closest store near Halls Bayou, it was severely damaged in the flood. The store had gotten pretty seedy anyway.

Actually, the Weiner's wasn't part of the original shopping center, which was built in 1969. It was added on two years later in 1971. If you go to the shopping center, you can clearly see a differention in the bricks from the rest. Considering the deteriorating condition of the neighborhood, you may not want to do that and just take my word. LOL!

Eckerds bought out Mading-Dugan in 1971. TG&Y was bought out by McCrory's sometime in the 1980s. You may remember how the TG&Y had a mini-post office in the back. Rice took over the Piggly Wiggly space in 1973. Sometime in the mid 1980s, Rice sold the lease to mom and pop grocery store called Price Fighter. I worked at the Kroger across the freeway at that time and the guy who started Price Fighter was actually a customer who would frequently come through my line. I think he wanted me to come to work there because the last time he came to my checkstand, he told me he was opening a store and wondered how much made. Apparently he was just paying minimum wage, and it went no further. Our manager used to send spies there all the time to see what their prices were.

Edited March 16, 2007 by Firebird65

[northbeaumont]

The Weiner's closed after Allison in 2001. Being the closest store near Halls Bayou, it was severely damaged in the flood. The store had gotten pretty seedy anyway.

Actually, the Weiner's wasn't part of the original shopping center, which was built in 1969. It was added on two years later in 1971. If you go to the shopping center, you can clearly see a differention in the bricks from the rest. Considering the deteriorating condition of the neighborhood, you may not want to do that and just take my word. LOL!

Eckerds bought out Mading-Dugan in 1971. TG&Y was bought out by McCrory's sometime in the 1980s. You may remember how the TG&Y had a mini-post office in the back. Rice took over the Piggly Wiggly space in 1973. Sometime in the mid 1980s, Rice sold the lease to mom and pop grocery store called Price Fighter. I worked at the Kroger across the freeway at that time and the guy who started Price Fighter was actually a customer who would frequently come through my line. I think he wanted me to come to work there because the last time he came to my checkstand, he told me he was opening a store and wondered how much made. Apparently he was just paying minimum wage, and it went no further. Our manager used to send spies there all the time to see what their prices were.

I graduated from high school in Beaumont, which is 84 miles east of Houston. When I was a kid, my parents and I would take a weekend drive to Houston. I remember seeing signs of Piggly Wiggly that said "Open Sunday." You can tell that was back when the "blue laws" were in force."

I remember over here in the Gateway Shopping Center many years ago was a Henke & Pillot supermarket. I also remember seeing at least one in Houston on one of those weekend trips. Its store brand name was called Kroger, and later the chain simply changed its name to that. Do any of you remember Henke & Pillot?

[northbeaumont]

They were machines that allowed you to test vacuum tubes to determine if they had gone bad or not. Back in the days before the internals of all TVs and radios were completely taken over by printed circuit boards and surface mount chipsets, they had vacuum tubes. Lots of places had these standalone tube testers, so when you suspected one or more of the tubes in your set was starting to go bad, you'd pull them and tote them down to a store that had a tube tester, determine if you had a bad tube, and if so, you could purchase a replacement right there. They were usually in large standup cabinets, like this:

You just triggered my memory! Now I remember those tube testers. It makes me also remember us taking our TV to a repair shop whenever it broke and we had nothing to watch until the repair shop called and told us that our TV was ready.

Things have certainly changed. We didn't get our first color TV until I was 13. Now, black and white TVs are almost obsolete. The only new ones I've seen are those 5-inch battery-operated portables. As you said about circuit boards replacing tubes, those have made it to where when your TV breaks down for even the first time, you would simply go ahead and throw it away. The price of TVs are now so low that you would simply go out and buy a new one. To me, I think that there are very few, if any, TV repair shops around anymore. The circuit board eliminated TV repair shops, and the jobs of the people who repaired them. You can buy a new TV for a lot less than it would cost to repair it (that is, if there were someone around who knew how to repair it).

[Guest Marty]

Since we are talking about old stores i have this news Jack Smith Food City founder dies at 81 It's a NASCAR sports story link i found it by accident he was a sponsor at Bristol.

Edited March 17, 2007 by Marty

[mkultra25]

The Weiner's closed after Allison in 2001. Being the closest store near Halls Bayou, it was severely damaged in the flood. The store had gotten pretty seedy anyway.

Actually, the Weiner's wasn't part of the original shopping center, which was built in 1969. It was added on two years later in 1971. If you go to the shopping center, you can clearly see a differention in the bricks from the rest. Considering the deteriorating condition of the neighborhood, you may not want to do that and just take my word. LOL!

I'll have to check that out the next time I'm over there - my parents still live nearby, so I drive by that shopping center almost every time I visit them. Halls Bayou really needs to be re-engineered to address the chronic flooding problems in that area, but I'm not optimistic that'll happen any time soon - my dad has talked to the Flood Control District about this before, and their response has been that they're aware of the issues there, but so far it hasn't gone any farther than that. A good start would be cleaning all the trash out of the bayou - if you park in the shopping center parking lot and look around the section of the bayou that runs right by it, it's obvious that a lot of people have used it as their personal dumping ground.

Checking the Flood Control District's website, it appears that there are plans afoot for some modifications to Halls Bayou, but it doesn't look like the major changes will extend past Veterans Memorial, which may not help the areas closer to I-45 much:

Halls Bayou

Eckerds bought out Mading-Dugan in 1971. TG&Y was bought out by McCrory's sometime in the 1980s. You may remember how the TG&Y had a mini-post office in the back. Rice took over the Piggly Wiggly space in 1973. Sometime in the mid 1980s, Rice sold the lease to mom and pop grocery store called Price Fighter. I worked at the Kroger across the freeway at that time and the guy who started Price Fighter was actually a customer who would frequently come through my line. I think he wanted me to come to work there because the last time he came to my checkstand, he told me he was opening a store and wondered how much made. Apparently he was just paying minimum wage, and it went no further. Our manager used to send spies there all the time to see what their prices were.

I completely forgot about the Rice Food Market that was there after Piggly Wiggly. Never realized there was "grocery espionage" going on. My first job was at the Gerland's at 249 and Veterans Memorial (it was probably still Stuebner-Airline then) - I lied about my age on the application, because you had to be 16 to work there, and I was only 15. After working there for a while, I never wanted to sack groceries again for as long as I lived.

[Earlydays]

I graduated from high school in Beaumont, which is 84 miles east of Houston. When I was a kid, my parents and I would take a weekend drive to Houston. I remember seeing signs of Piggly Wiggly that said "Open Sunday." You can tell that was back when the "blue laws" were in force."

I remember over here in the Gateway Shopping Center many years ago was a Henke & Pillot supermarket. I also remember seeing at least one in Houston on one of those weekend trips. Its store brand name was called Kroger, and later the chain simply changed its name to that. Do any of you remember Henke & Pillot?

I remember going to Henke & Pillot in the early 50's as a small boy........

[EastEnd Susan]

I graduated from high school in Beaumont, which is 84 miles east of Houston. When I was a kid, my parents and I would take a weekend drive to Houston. I remember seeing signs of Piggly Wiggly that said "Open Sunday." You can tell that was back when the "blue laws" were in force."

I remember over here in the Gateway Shopping Center many years ago was a Henke & Pillot supermarket. I also remember seeing at least one in Houston on one of those weekend trips. Its store brand name was called Kroger, and later the chain simply changed its name to that. Do any of you remember Henke & Pillot?

My grandma used to shop at the Henke in the eastend on the corner of Harrisburg and Wayside across the street from Sears.

[brucesw]

Henke's was started in 1872 by a Mr. Henke and a Mr. Pillot; it became Houston's first grocery store chain, I think. I believe it was bought in the mid 50s by Kroger. Pillot was pronounced with a long e sound for the i and our name for it as kids was Drinkwater Pillot.

I wish I had a nickel for everytime I had to pull all the tubes out of my Zenith Trans-Oceanic, put them in a paper bag and pedal down to the 7-11 to test them. Before these do it yourself things became available, the only option was to leave your set at a radio repair shop and then wait a week or two for them to get around to testing them and charging you for the labor.

Is this 'our' Minimax chain??? Time Magazine article from 1965: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/...,833669,00.html I always thought it was Houston based.

Here's a pic of some Minimax products from 1937 from the Bob Bailey collection at UT:

http://www.cah.utexas.edu/db/dmr/image_lg....iable=e_bb_1743

Dentler Maid potato chips, Better Maid (?) mayo (?), etc.

Edited March 17, 2007 by brucesw

[nm5k]

Things have certainly changed. We didn't get our first color TV until I was 13. Now, black and white TVs are almost obsolete. The only new ones I've seen are those 5-inch battery-operated portables. As you said about circuit boards replacing tubes, those have made it to where when your TV breaks down for even the first time, you would simply go ahead and throw it away. The price of TVs are now so low that you would simply go out and buy a new one. To me, I think that there are very few, if any, TV repair shops around anymore. The circuit board eliminated TV repair shops, and the jobs of the people who repaired them. You can buy a new TV for a lot less than it would cost to repair it (that is, if there were someone around who knew how to repair it).

Hummm, the circuit board didn't change too much. It's more the low price of new TV's than

anything. You can fix the solid state TV's, but like you say, the labor will often run more

than the cost of a new set, unless the set is big. There are still a few TV shops, but I don't

see how they stay afloat unless they do warranty work.

It's quite common for a solid state TV to only need a new capacitor that might cost

35 cents to fix a seemingly large problem. The small electrolytic caps are often next

to other parts that generate a lot of heat, and then they run hot, dry out, and flake out.

Same for puter monitors.. But you have to know what you are doing, and looking for.

Not quite like the old days when just blindly swapping a tube out might fix it.

Say if you had a flaky 10 mf electrolytic that was causing a problem.. You need to be

able to know what circuit is likely to be flaking out. Then you can use a chiller

spray, or heat from a hair dryer to pinpoint the area the cap is in.

Of course, many sets do eventually toast out with fried flyback tranny's, etc,

but the vast majority of "bad" TV's and monitors can be fixed with parts

costing chump change. Many have popped transisters, which are cheap..

As the price of TV's keep dropping, more people just buy new ones, rather

than trying to get fixed.

It's the same for small air conditioners.. IE: 5000 btu room size models.

I used to change many fan motors in those when the price of a new unit

was more than a motor and labor. But not the case any more with the

home depots, etc selling new units for 100 bucks..

No way will I change a motor for that price.. So I don't see any more

of those.. Even the servicing of larger window units has dropped off

quite a bit.. BTW, I have my own tube testers here at the house..

One is a sencore, and one is a hickock.. Both are pretty good.

I still have an old 1958 transoceanic too sitting under the table here..

Have a 1948 RCA radio/phono console on the other side of the room..

Lots of older tube ham radio gear too. Mostly Drakes...

MK

[silverartfox]

I remember going to Henke & Pillot in the early 50's as a small boy........

My family and I lived in the East End until the mid-1950's. There was a Henke & Pillot on Polk near the underpass and my mother shopped there often. I remember it well from the WWII years before it was remodeled. It was nothing like today's clean, brightly lit supermarkets. It had no air conditioning; black Hunter fans on long downrods hung from the ceiling. The floor was cement. Shopping carts were lightweight metal frames with removable wire baskets on the top and bottom racks. Their wheels were small and often worn out because there weren't replacement parts due to the war.

There were no open refrigerator cases filled with prepackaged food; meat, fish, whole chickens and delicatessen items on white enamel trays surrounded by rows of bright green fake rubber "leaves" were in glass front cases. Some of the cases had pink neon lights in them to make the meat look fresher. The butcher cut what you wanted, weighed it, wrapped it in pale pink paper and wrote the price on it in crayon. You thanked him and put it in your "basket", where it usually leaked. The produce department had seasonal, mostly locally grown items only, a small selection by today's standards. Paper bags were furnished so the customer could choose her own fruit and vegetables; an attendant weighed them and marked the price on the bag. Dried beans, coffee beans, candy were in glass front bins and were measured out and weighed for the customer. Milk (usually whole with cream layered on the top) cream and cottage cheese were in returnable glass bottles, as were soft drinks and beer. The aisles of canned and packaged goods were few and skimpily stocked by today's standards. Everything there had its price stamped in purple ink. A small freezer chest held square pint and quart packages of ice cream; frozen foods were virtually unknown.

At the checkout stand, an attendant took the groceries out of the "basket" and put them on the counter. There was no conveyor belt; instead, the cashier dragged them toward her with a three-sided wooden frame attached to tracks on the edges of the counter. Although the cash register was electric, it printed only the prices and total on the register tape. Everybody paid cash, and cashiers actually had to know how to make change. Anybody with more than two brown paper bags of groceries had them carried out to the car, and a dime tip to the bag boy was considered HUGE!

During the war, my mother also shopped at the old Weingarten's store on Harrisburg and Dumble (now that handsomely restored brick building,) and a short-lived place called FoodTown, which had better meat than Henke's or Weingarten's. FoodTown also managed to get other things that were scarce during the war, but nobody asked any questions.

Note: in this post I did not go into the use of food ration stamps - that's for the section on Houston during WWII.

[Subdude]

Do you remember a Marvin's Food Market at 5202 Canal? It has retained most of the ambiance (such as it were) of that period.

[northbeaumont]

Hummm, the circuit board didn't change too much. It's more the low price of new TV's than

anything. You can fix the solid state TV's, but like you say, the labor will often run more

than the cost of a new set, unless the set is big. There are still a few TV shops, but I don't

see how they stay afloat unless they do warranty work.

It's quite common for a solid state TV to only need a new capacitor that might cost

35 cents to fix a seemingly large problem. The small electrolytic caps are often next

to other parts that generate a lot of heat, and then they run hot, dry out, and flake out.

Same for puter monitors.. But you have to know what you are doing, and looking for.

Not quite like the old days when just blindly swapping a tube out might fix it.

Say if you had a flaky 10 mf electrolytic that was causing a problem.. You need to be

able to know what circuit is likely to be flaking out. Then you can use a chiller

spray, or heat from a hair dryer to pinpoint the area the cap is in.

Of course, many sets do eventually toast out with fried flyback tranny's, etc,

but the vast majority of "bad" TV's and monitors can be fixed with parts

costing chump change. Many have popped transisters, which are cheap..

As the price of TV's keep dropping, more people just buy new ones, rather

than trying to get fixed.

It's the same for small air conditioners.. IE: 5000 btu room size models.

I used to change many fan motors in those when the price of a new unit

was more than a motor and labor. But not the case any more with the

home depots, etc selling new units for 100 bucks..

No way will I change a motor for that price.. So I don't see any more

of those.. Even the servicing of larger window units has dropped off

quite a bit.. BTW, I have my own tube testers here at the house..

One is a sencore, and one is a hickock.. Both are pretty good.

I still have an old 1958 transoceanic too sitting under the table here..

Have a 1948 RCA radio/phono console on the other side of the room..

Lots of older tube ham radio gear too. Mostly Drakes...

MK

Whether it's circuit boards or whatever, new TV prices are LOW. I live alone, and I personally am satisfied with a 13-inch. Best Buy has them for $59.95 (no built-in VCR/DVD). If I bought one of those and it broke down in a year or two, I will have gotten my money's worth. I'm pretty sure that a repair shop would charge more than that to fix it. I would simply throw it away and buy a new one. But I would try to dispose of it properly.

There's one negative result I see to the lower prices of TVs, air conditioners, etc.: You see them disposed of in all of the ditches that run alongside of the streets and roads. Since a lot of city garbage trucks will not pickup those kind of things, people simply dump them wherever they can.