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    better luck next year

    Houston declines on list of best places for celebrating July 4th

    Amber Heckler
    Jun 25, 2025 | 2:30 pm
    Fireworks over Houston skyline

    Houston is the best city for celebrating Independence Day in Texas.

    yuhirao/Getty Images

    A new national report delivers good news and bad news when it comes to celebrating the 4th of July in Houston: The city is one of the most affordable places in the country for star-spangled celebrations, but it's falling behind overall as a great place to celebrate the holiday.

    A new WalletHub study, "Best & Worst Places for 4th of July Celebrations (2025)," deems Houston the 39th best U.S. city for celebrating Independence Day, a steep decline from last year's ranking of No. 25. It ranked 15th in 2023.

    WalletHub annually compares the 100 biggest U.S. cities across 18 metrics like affordability, the variety of celebrations on July 4th, weather favorability, safety, and more.

    On the upside, Houston is the third most affordable U.S. city for celebrating Independence Day in 2025, and WalletHub found it's the city with the second-cheapest three-star hotels nationwide.

    Houston also ranked 14th in the category for the most "attractions and activities" surrounding the holiday. Festivities in the region start as early as July 3rd, with numerous suburbs hosting their own 4th of July celebrations with fireworks and other festivities. But a predictably low score in the "weather" category lowers the hot and humid city's overall ranking.

    This is how WalletHub ranked Houston in the remaining three categories in the study:

    • No. 40 – 4th of July celebrations rank
    • No. 92 – Safety and accessibility rank
    • No. 94 – 4th of July weather rank

    Though Houston earned a middling national rank, it still ranked as the No. 1 city for celebrating Independence Day in Texas. Corpus Christi (No. 93), the Dallas suburb Garland (No. 94), and Laredo (No. 98) all ranked near the bottom as the worst cities for celebrating the holiday state- and nationwide.

    The best place for celebrating Independence Day in 2025 is none other than Los Angeles. Rounding out the top five cities are New York City (No. 2), Seattle (No. 3), Las Vegas (No. 4), and Minneapolis (No. 5).

    "The 4th of July is one of the most beloved holidays in America, allowing many of us to not only celebrate our independence but also get a day off of work and gather together with family and friends," said WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo. "The best cities for the holiday help you make the most of your day, with affordable food options, good weather, fun recreation choices and long, spectacular fireworks shows."

    Here's how other Texas cities fared on WalletHub's list of the best cities for celebrating the 4th of July:

    • No. 40 – Dallas
    • No. 49 – Fort Worth
    • No. 73 – Arlington
    • No. 80 – San Antonio
    • No. 82 – Plano
    • No. 85 – Irving
    • No. 88 – Austin

    An additional Fourth of July report by WalletHub (created from an online survey of "over 200 Americans") revealed public sentiment regarding the federal holiday has soured, with 38 percent of respondents saying they "don't feel financially independent this fourth of July." Additional economic issues that are concerning Americans include rising inflation rates, tariff woes, and others.

    "More than half of Americans say inflation is affecting their 4th of July plans," the survey said. "7 in 10 Americans think the founding fathers would not be satisfied with the current economy."

    Despite these worries, WalletHub discovered one in four Americans say celebrating Independence Day "is worth going into debt" for.

    Other intriguing observations made by the survey include 65 percent of Americans claim they are "making a bigger effort" to buy U.S.-made products, though nearly one in three people say they aren't willing to pay more money to purchase things made in the U.S.

    Additional findings from the survey include:

    • 79 percent of Americans say U.S. independence is threatened by the rising federal debt
    • 53 percent of Americans plan to spend less money this Fourth of July than they did last year
    • 48 percent of people say tariffs are affecting their Fourth of July plans
    • Nearly 2 in 3 people believe access to credit should be a basic American right
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    SUDDEN SHUTTERS

    GameStop to close 11 Houston-area stores amid nationwide cuts

    Brandon Watson
    Jan 26, 2026 | 4:30 pm
    GameStop
    GameStop/ Facebook
    Long lines for video game releases are a rarity these days.

    For GameStop, it’s a blood bath right out of Mortal Kombat. The Grapevine-based video game chain is expected to shed 470 locations nationwide, including 11 in the greater Houston area.

    The closures were revealed in the company's newest filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that said it would close "a significant number of additional stores in fiscal 2025" ending on January 31. In its last fiscal year, GameStop shuttered 590 locations.

    In addition to braving the overall “retail apocalypse,” the retailer faces the same conditions that largely decimated CD and video stores. Video games are now available for digital download in seconds and no longer require a trip to a physical store.

    “As a part of our profitability initiative, we are reducing our global store base, which includes closing stores that are not meeting performance standards or stores at the end of their lease terms with the intent of transferring sales to other nearby locations,” the company wrote in its annual report. “ If we are unsuccessful in marketing to customers of the stores that we plan to close or in transferring sales to nearby stores, our results of operations could be negatively impacted.”

    The current digital squeeze isn’t the first time GameStop has been thrown for a loop by contemporary internet culture. In 2021, the retailer famously became a meme stock, buoyed by users of Reddit's r/wallstreetbets. The skyrocketing increase in its stock price, followed by short selling, caused major financial consequences for hedge funds and other investors.

    Since then, the stock price has been more stable but has decreased approximately 21 percent over the last year. After CEO Ryan Cohen bought 500,000 shares in the company on January 21, the price has slightly rebounded.

    GameStop has not issued a formal list of the closures, and a request for more information was not returned at press time. But Ohio’s WKYC Studios put together a list of all the U.S. stores that are on the chopping block, verified through GameStop’s online store locator. The Texas closings are as follows:

    • Allen – The Village at Allen, 170 E. Stacy Rd
    • Arlington – Little School Road Shops, 1245 N. Little School Rd
    • Austin – Ben White Payload Center, 500 E. Ben White Blvd
    • Balch Springs – Lake June Plaza, 12209 Lake June Rd
    • Boerne – Menger Crossing, 1375 S. Main St
    • Cedar Park – Lakeline Plaza, 11066 Pecan Park Blvd
    • Conroe – Conroe Center, 1231 N. Loop 336 W
    • Corpus Christi – Padre Island Drive, 1805 S. Padre Island Dr
    • Corsicana – Corsicana Marketplace, 3811 W. Highway 31
    • Dallas – Glen Oaks Crossing, 4787 Vista Wood Blvd
    • El Paso – Alameda Town Center, 9411 Alameda Ave
    • El Paso – Fountains at Farah, 8889 Gateway West Blvd
    • Fort Worth – Clifford Retail, 301 Clifford Center Dr
    • Garland – Ridgewood Village, 2930 S. First St
    • Houston – Beechnut Street Houston, 10100 Beechnut St
    • Houston – Bellaire Gessner Center, 8880 Bellaire Blvd
    • Houston – Market at Uvalde, 13706 East Fwy
    • Houston – Market Square, 13341 Westheimer Rd
    • Houston – Oxford Plaza, 10407 North Fwy
    • Houston – Royal Oaks, 11807 Westheimer Rd
    • Houston – Wayside Shopping Center, 900 S. Wayside Dr
    • Huntsville – Ravenwood Village, 245 Interstate 45 N
    • Irving – MacArthur Park, 7601 N. MacArthur Blvd
    • Lake Jackson – Lake Jackson Shopping Center, 121 Highway 332 W
    • La Marque – LaMarque Crossing, 6408 Interstate 45
    • Laredo – Laredo Crossing Shopping Center, 4415 S. Zapata Hwy
    • Leon Valley – 5601 Bandera Rd
    • Lubbock – 7th St Lubbock, 1803 Seventh St
    • Magnolia – Westwood Village, 33020 FM 2978 Rd
    • Mansfield – Mansfield Crossing, 1301 E. Debbie Ln
    • Marble Falls – Highland Lakes, 2400 US Highway 281
    • McKinney – Lake Forest Crossing, 4100 S. Lake Forest Dr
    • Mesquite – Town East Mall, 2050 Town East Mall
    • Mission – Shary Plaza, 808 S. Shary Rd
    • Palmhurst – Palmhurst Shopping Center, 4416 N. Conway Ave
    • Paris – Paris Corners, 3842 Lamar Ave
    • Saginaw – Cross Pointe Shopping Center, 1453 N. Saginaw Blvd
    • San Antonio – Alamo Quarry Market, E. 255 Basse Rd
    • San Antonio – Blanco Road, 7117 Blanco Rd
    • San Antonio – Huebner Oaks Center, 11745 W. I-10
    • San Antonio – Northwoods Phase III, 1742 N. Loop 1604 E
    • San Antonio – Walzem Plaza, 5366 Walzem Rd
    • Stephenville – Stephenville Shopping Center, 2811 W. Washington St
    • Sulphur Springs – Sulphur Springs Corners, 1707 S. Broadway St
    • Terrell – Terrell Corner, 1888 W. Moore Ave
    • Tyler – State Highway 64 Tyler, 3842 State Highway 64 W
    • Watauga – Watauga Town Crossing, 8004 Denton Hwy
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