Weingarten's was a

supermarket A supermarket is a self-service Retail#Types of outlets, shop offering a wide variety of food, Drink, beverages and Household goods, household products, organized into sections. Strictly speaking, a supermarket is larger and has a wider selecti ...

chain in the

Southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, Dixieland, or simply the South) is List of regions of the United States, census regions defined by the United States Cens ...

until it was acquired by Safeway in 1983. J. Weingarten, Inc. had its headquarters in what is now the East End in

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

History

Hersch Harris Weingarten, a poor Jewish immigrant from

Łańcut Łańcut (, ; ; ) is a town in south-eastern Poland, with 18,004 inhabitants, as of 2 June 2009. Situated in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship (since 1999), it is the Capital (political), capital of Łańcut County. History Archeological investigat ...

(what was then

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

) and his son, Joseph, opened a grocery store in

Downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in American and Canadian English to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district ( ...

in 1901. A second store opened in 1920. Advertising "Better Food for Less," Joseph Joe Weingarten pioneered self-service and cash-and-carry shopping. Weingarten's chain of stores in Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana grew by 1926 to six; by 1938 the company had 12 stores; by 1951 there were 25 stores; and by 1967 the chain operated 70 stores. To concentrate on real estate development for retail shopping centers, Weingarten Incorporated sold its stores, which had grown to a chain of 104 stores in five states, to

Cavenham Foods Cavenham Foods (also known as Cavenham) was a retail and food processing conglomerate started by Sir James Goldsmith in 1964. The company started out as a group of struggling UK food brands, including Carr's and Hollands Toffee purchased and br ...

, who transferred management to its chain

Grand Union A grand union is a rail track junction where two double-track railway or tramway lines cross at grade, often in a street intersection or crossroads. A total of sixteen railroad switches (sets of points) allow streetcars (or in rarer install ...

in 1980 for $12 (~$ in ) a share. In 1980 Weingarten had 18% of the Houston area grocery market share.Sit-DuVall, Mary.
`Right' store was ripe for picking / Randalls joins trend with deal
" ''

Houston Chronicle The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States. it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. ...

''. Saturday July 24, 1999. Business 1. Retrieved on December 1, 2011. Grand Union then resold most of the stores to Safeway (Safeway, which later left the Houston market, acquired 43 of the stores),

Randalls Randalls Food & Drug L.P. is an American supermarket chain which operates 32 supermarkets in Texas under the ''Randalls'' and ''Flagship Randalls'' banners. The chain consists of 13 stores located around the Houston, Texas, Houston area and 15 sto ...

(purchased by Safeway when they reentered Houston, but at that time, an independent company), and Gerland's Food Fair in 1983, including 55 stores in the Houston area. However, lease provisions at several locations barred the automatic transfer of leases between operators. Because Weingarten's and Tanglewood Corporation could not agree on a disposition of the Post Oak Center lease, Weingarten's continued to operate the store at that location until the end of March 1986. Weingarten Realty Investors was acquired by Kimco Realty in 2021.

References

External links

Weingarten, Joseph
The Handbook of Texas Online. {{Supermarkets of the United States Defunct supermarkets of the United States Companies based in Houston Retail companies established in 1901 Retail companies disestablished in 1983 Defunct companies based in Texas

History

See also

References

External links