Sussan Fine Furniture (Dickinson, Texas)

Sussan following closure. (Street View, c. 2013). With all the news of Walmart's new food establishments--Charleys Cheesesteaks, Mr. Gatti's, Wendy's, sushi bars, and a bunch more I've never heard of I think I've proof of Wal-Mart's oldest branded in-store eatery.

Before we get to that, it started back in 2012 when I came across what I referred to as "brown Wal-Marts" in my youth; the older, original Wal-Mart stores built in the 1970s and 1980s, which slowly disappeared as they were closed or renovated, when I saw Sussan, and was instantly reminded of what Wal-Mart stores, like my own, used to look like (probably with "Discount City" signage on the building).

For a while I believed it had been replaced with another Supercenter in the nearby area but that wasn't the case. The store (Wal-Mart #570) in fact only operated from July 1984 to September 1991. (No wonder. The store appeared to have major access issues.)

In 1992 it became Bud's Warehouse Outlet, a discount/overstock store owned by Wal-Mart that was killed as a concept a few years later because it was cutting into Wal-Mart's own stores. Sussan Fine Furniture moved in around 1997 (moving from Texas City) with almost no updates to the store's exterior.

Sussan ended up lasting longer than Wal-Mart's ventures did, closing in 2010, and even after death, signage remained up for a few years afterward. By 2016 it was fully vacant and demolition began in late 2017.

So what was unique about the eatery? In those days, Wal-Mart operated unbranded, in-house eateries but a tax entry shows that for the first year of this Wal-Mart's existence the once-ubiquitous Corn Dog 7 operated in the spot, something that would also show up in Hypermart USA a few years later.