Shut It Down?

The creepiest gas station in the city? Midtown Texaco singled out as drug & sextrafficking harbor

The convenience store and Texaco station have become a hotbed for crime,according to Harris County officials.
Photo by Tyler Rudick
In the past year, at least 10 arrests have been made by HPD for drugtrafficking, prostitution, assualt, and robbery.
Photo by Tyler Rudick
Since August 2011, Houston police have been called to the site more than 200times.
Photo by Tyler Rudick

The Harris County attorney's office is taking legal action against one of Midtown's hottest crime spots — the Texaco station and convenience store at 2111 Fannin.

With more that 200 reported calls to the Houston Police Department since August 2011, somehow the word "sketchy" isn't a strong enough descriptor for the notorious spot across from the Greyhound Station. In the past year alone, HPD has made at least 10 official arrests at the location for robbery, aggravated assault, drug trafficking and prostitution.

"Defendants have knowingly tolerated this and have allowed such activity to occur habitually on the Property," an unusual lawsuit brought by the Harris County attorney's office reads. Prosecutors claim the property owner and Fannin Food Mart tenants have "knowingly maintained" a site that has become a harbor for the delivery, manufacture and use of controlled substances as well as for sex trafficking.

"The whole thing about this lawsuit is to reduce crime. Not put people out of business."

County officials are asking property owner Jae Kim, as well as the operators of the Fannin Food Mart which runs the Texaco, to find ways to secure the site from crime or risk being shut down. Neither defending party could be reached for comment.

"The key element to this lawsuit is that it's a civil action," senior assistant county attorney Laura Cahill tells CultureMap. "It's a way of getting the locations where crime is occurring involved in the process."

After reviewing the 200 calls to police as well as the arrest reports, Cahill said the gas station owners will be offered the chance to take additional security measures. However, if police records prove more serious instances of crime, the county can have a judge close the businesses indefinitely.

"As soon as the story aired on TV, Kim contacted me to say he wanted to do something about the crime," says Cahill, who has been working on the lawsuit since July 2011. Meanwhile, she reported, the owners of the Fannin Food Mart have secured a lawyer.

Mayson Tin from Snowflake's Donuts worries that closing the neighboring gas station and convenience store will affect her profits.

With her donut shop open during the mornings in the space adjacent to the food mart, Tin notes that her business is rarely affected by reported evening crime. Nevertheless, she faces many trespassing issues during the day.

"The Greyhound Station won't let people stay there, so we get a a lot of homeless here," Tin says. "Not only that, but Harris County drops off people from the jail right in front of the store."

"The whole thing about this lawsuit is to reduce crime," Cahill says, "Not put people out of business."

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No Wallet Required

Texas grocer H-E-B finally rolls out digital tap-to-pay services

Photo courtesy of H-E-B

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Texas' favorite grocery store has some good news for shoppers who have a habit of forgetting their wallets. H-E-B is starting a phased rollout for digital tap-to-pay services, starting in San Antonio before spreading to the rest of the chain's stores.

The rollout began Monday, October 7. A release says it'll take "about a week" to spread to all stores in the region before making it ways across Texas. Although it is not known which stores will add the service on what date, the rollout includes all H-E-B stores, including Mi Tienda, H-E-B's Mexican grocery store that has locations in Houston.

With tap to pay, shoppers will finally be able to use smartphone-based systems such as Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, and Google Pay, as well as tapping a physical card.

Payments can be made with those apps, or "digital wallets," at cash registers and self-checkout lanes, as well as restaurants and pharmacies within H-E-B stores. They won't be accepted right away at H-E-B fuel pumps, but customers can use them to pay for gas if they bring their phones to the fuel station payment window.

This isn't exactly cutting-edge technology; Google Wallet launched in 2011, leading the market, and was followed by Apple Pay in 2014. But it's not ubiquitous either. In 2023, a poll by Forbes Advisor found that barely more than half of respondents used digital wallets more than traditional forms of payment.

H-E-B is on a bit of a payment revolutionizing kick, also launching a debit card in 2022 and a partnership in August of 2024 with the H-E-B-owned delivery service Favor for its fastest order fulfillment yet. Central Market and Joe V’s Smart Shop, two other H-E-B brands, also recently launched tap to pay.

“At H-E-B, we’re always exploring a broad range of technologies to enhance how customers shop and pay for products,” H-E-B vice president Ashwin Nathan said in a statement. “This has been one of the most requested services we have received from our customers and partners, and we are excited to now make this popular technology available at all our H-E-B locations.”

More information about H-E-B is available at heb.com.

h-e-b grocery technology