Some are calling it the end of an era. Others even say it’s the end of Tomball. However you classify it, the Hometown with a Heart is losing its major lifeblood.

After 88 years, Klein’s Super Market is closing its doors, bringing an end to perhaps the most successful and well-known business in the city’s history.

Photo by Holly Dutton

Store Director Jeffrey Klein explained that a tough grocery market and rising costs have forced his family to finally end the business his great-grandfather began more than eight decades ago.

“The trend in the industry has been that the big stores are gobbling up the small,” he said. “According to the Houston Grocer’s Market, Houston is the toughest market in the state.”

Above, after 88 years, the iconic Klein’s Super Market is closing its doors. Visit the online photo gallery to see more photos from Klein's.

With mega-stores such as HEB, Kroger and Wal-Mart all competing for the same customers, smaller retailers such as Klein’s are being forced out. Much of that, Klein said, is due to purchasing power.

“We’re negotiating for one store, they’re buying for hundreds. So who will get the better price?” Klein said. “We’re at a cost disadvantage. The margins get thinner and thinner.”

While Klein did not reveal a specific closing date, he said the store will begin marking down its products this week. Pharmacy records and inventory are in the process of being transferred to the Tomball Kroger, with the phone system having already been converted.

As in any business, the bottom line is what kept the doors open at Klein’s for so many years. But a soulless, money-making machine is certainly not what the store was known for, or ever was.

Over the years, Klein’s became ingrained in the Tomball culture, as much a part of a daily routine for many as their morning cup of coffee. A trip to the store meant only one thing: picking up the day’s groceries at Klein’s.

It was known as much as a gathering place for friends and family as church. Indeed, while local residents spread out to all corners of town to attend to their own respective churches, that same faith-divided congregation would meet at the non-denominational church of Klein’s after that morning’s sermon.

Klein’s was an “after-hours and weekend Chamber of Commerce,” as Klein liked to describe it Greater Tomball Area Chamber of Commerce President Bruce Hillegeist. Customers who came in for bread, eggs and milk would often spend more than an hour making their way through the store, saying hello to friends and the staff there that was as much a part of the Klein’s institution as the Klein family itself.

Margie Ferguson has been a checker at Klein’s for more than 26 years, one of at least a half dozen employees who have been there for more than two decades.

“This is just very sad. It’s terrible,” Ferguson said. “We’re just going to have to chain ourselves to the register. We care about people here. We really do.”

The longtime checker, who provides customers more than just someone to drag their bar-coded goods across a scanner, wavers at the reality that she’ll need to shop elsewhere.

“I don’t know. I don’t want to go into another store. This is all I know,” she said.

As much pride as Klein’s workers had in their job, the store’s leadership put the same effort into fostering a positive working environment. The store has been many Tomball High School students’ first job. And for many, their only job.

Employees like renowned baker Frank Escobedo, Jack Olsen, Russell Robbins, Larry Adams, Barbara Beard and pharmacist Craig Gracey have all worked at Klein’s for more than 20 years each, and some more than 30.

Klein counts no fewer than 12 marriages that have resulted from relationships that began at his family’s store. In addition to budding romances, Klein’s has been a starting point for enough young men and women who enlisted in the military to start a small battalion.

“I find it interesting that so many have gone on to serve in the military,” Klein said. “I think they’ve been taught hard work here. And they’ve come away with a sense of small town values, service to community and service to country.”

One of the centerpieces at Klein’s is the Wall of Heroes, a large photo montage of many former employees who have enlisted in the military.

“The difference here is, we actually know who those people are,” Klein said.

Those small town values began in 1922 when A.B. Klein, Jeffrey’s grandfather, opened Klein Bros. General Merchandise in Spring. The store was moved to Tomball in 1933 to the corner of Main Street and Cherry, where Tomball Emergency Assistance Ministries currently resides.

In 1956, Robert Klein, Jeffrey’s father, began working at the store after finishing college at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville. Shortly after, A.B. passed away, leaving the family business to his son.

“You wore a lot of hats in those days,” Robert said. “You sacked, you canned, you checked out. You had to do whatever had to be done.”

In 1963, the Klein family took yet another bold move, opening the store at its present location at 1200 W. Main Street.

“That was considered ‘outside of town,’” Robert said. “One of the bankers told us back then ‘I don’t think ya’ll can make it way out there.’”

Not only did the store make it, it thrived for more than 50 more years, becoming not just a grocery store, but an iconic landmark.

Gloria Johnson moved to Magnolia in 2000 and began shopping at the store upon the recommendation of her realtor. Klein’s is the only store she’s shopped at since, she said, wiping away tears as she spoke.

“They have the best people. I’m so heartbroken,” she said. “I travel 18 miles just to come here. I love the people here. They treat like you family, not like a stranger.”

Warren Newberry has been shopping at Klein’s for at least seven years, a seemingly short time in the Klein timeline, but no less important to the unique culture.

“I’m real sorry to hear it’s happening,” Newberry said. “I was new here and they treated me like family. This is a part of change in life that I don’t like.”

As Jeffrey and Robert sit to discuss the past, and the closing of their store, they nod toward the checkout counter as the faces they have come to know make their way toward the exit doors for one of the last times. They call their customers by name, first and last.

“I hate to close,” Robert said. “You develop a lot of friendships, a lot of loyal customers. I will miss the people, but the friendships will go on forever.”

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