They are quirky businesses that provide two things under one roof-like shrimp and guns, steak and loans, or egg rolls and gasoline.
This story comes from the archives of Texas Monthly. We keep it as originally released without updates to maintain a clear historical record.
Other tycoons built larger empires, accumulated more wealth, and left a deeper mark in business history, but Abel Garcia of Houston did more profound things in his own strange way. If you want to look at the short mustard-colored framed buildings of Garcia Company near the Houston Waterway, you can get the two most basic things that every civilized person needs under this roof: cheap haircuts and cold beer. Half of his shop is a barber shop, which contains a vinyl-covered chair, a dirty sink, and some very useful scissors and scissors. The other half is a beer shop with a weathered pool table, colorful murals in San Antonio and Mexico, and a stern sign above the bar that reads: "No check. No credit." Garcia's barber cuts men's hair as standard. $5 and $10 for long-haired men and women's haircuts. Beer and marinated pork knuckle are priced at $1 each. All in all, this is an expansive place.
No group of devout MBAs will build a flowchart to clarify the complexity of Garcia's management structure. Hell, he is his management structure. Garcia is the most unrecognized business type giant, combining sociological insight with entrepreneurial art. Ladies and gentlemen, consider two versions of schizophrenic capitalism in Texas.
The illogicalness of these entrepreneurs—found in large numbers here—provides a great way to master the necessities of life in Texas. However, twofers are easier to find than to define. Garcia's barber shop and beer shop are twofold. The same is true for Avery’s barber and archery shop in Fort Worth and Robert Solomon’s tombstone and barbecue shop on the outskirts of Gilmer. There are stores in Texas selling cowboy boots and cold cuts (Zach's Western Wear and Groceries in Hempstead), bridal accessories and beef enchiladas (Bridal Shop in Rivera and Taylor’s Mexican food), as well as custom-made for left-handers Bras and items (Travel-N-Beauti of St. Antonio).
The best twofers have a ridiculous logic (why not a barber shop and a beer joint shop?), but the basic rule for identifying twofers is that if they are not appropriate, they are appropriate. The country grocery store sells all kinds of weird goods, but that's what they are for, so they are not dual. Different businesses located in just one building, such as the haircut corner and Texaco station in Nelsonville, are not static. The adaptive use is also not important. The old Palo Pinto County Jail is now a museum, and the old Jeff Davis County Jail is now a library, but unless they confuse the liar with Chaucer, they will not succeed.
The twin cities in the Western world are both East Texas, the integration of South and Western cultures, crumbling small towns, and stubborn rural feelings, creating a perfect twin-city environment. East Texas attaches great importance to its duality, making them a civic center, just like the city hall-toilet in Dogwood City. You can drive in North Dallas forever without noticing anything weird enough to look at, but if you blindfold someone in Myrtle Springs and push him towards Minhora’s In the direction, he might find six good people.
A true two-in-one depends on a visionary master, preferably a vision that is as distorted as possible. Our friend Abel Garcia is a good example, just like any mentality at work. Garcia realized a long time ago that barber shops could use a little creative marketing. He has been buying beer joints all his life, dividing them in half, and opening a barber shop; he made his first in Brownfield, repeated his success in San Antonio, and then opened him in Houston about a year ago s position. "The effect is very good," he said proudly when several regulars took turns at the pool table on a recent Saturday afternoon. "Some people will come for a haircut, but they will bring three or four friends with them," he said. "I sell beer to make money, I cut my hair to make money, and customers can spend money to buy beer without losing their place in the line."
In addition to being able to fuse things that seem to have nothing in common, two-headed people have other attributes. The first is that their owner is the last person to see anything strange about them. No matter how bizarre their location is, twofer owners are always confused when customers stare at their inventory. "Everyone said,'Isn't this. Who has heard of a place that sells shrimp and guns?" Ann Patterson stared at the red and white "shrimp" in front of her Aransas Pass store. And the gun" sign said. "They stopped to take pictures of it and everything. To be honest, I never saw any strange places. There is no shrimp business in winter; there is not much gun business in summer. You have to make a living somehow."
Authors: Vanessa Ague and Arman Badrei
This brings us to the second aspect that twofers have in common; they usually come from a lot of trial and error. In the process, many once-pure twins experienced the insidious spread of ink, turned into shadowy multiples, and finally staggered into the black hole that marked the death of the twins-the general store. A case study is books and things located in the small village of Milford in central Texas. Today, the owners Robert and Barbara Biven sell things like Nightcrawlers and Little Fish, tires and T-shirts, but not books. However, their business started with one of the greatest duo in history, a bookstore and drive-in car wash. It turned out that the citizens of Milford only wanted to trade books, not buy books, so the Biwen family used gasoline instead of books. Then they added snacks, groceries, and fishing supplies, such as herring ($3.85 per pint) and Nightcrawler ($2 per box), and anything else they thought might be sold. Now it's just another quirky grocery store. However, if the sales of Books and Things's latest product line pick up, they, as a general store, the Western Novelty Enterprise Group, may regain a somewhat bleak dual position. A typical object is a pecan wearing a cowboy hat in a small wooden cage. It is called the Texas Cowboy Nut and carries the slogan "Caged for your protection".
As the exciting legend of Beavons shows, the unique vision and conceptual genius enable people to boldly launch double flowers, which usually leads to more creative efforts. Of course, this will cause some technical problems. If you sell more than two different products or services, you are not a dual operator in the strict sense-you are a multiple operator. But hey, did the United States become great by telling Henry Ford that he can only make Type A cars?
Now the hottest multifer in Texas can be found in the crazy eastern Texas metropolis Elmo. The logo on the basic frame building identifies it as Sammie's Country Store and Twirling School, which is not a bad thing. Essentially, this business is a feed store and fitness studio that provides farmers with chicken and pig pellets, and provides 18-year-old Billie Doner spinning and fitness for women in Elmo, Canton, Terrell, Fruitvale and other nearby towns Exercise course. This place is run by Billie, her mother Sammy and her sister Shannon. Their initial brainstorming was to open a salad bar-theatre, but they decided to take over the local gas station that no longer exists and instead use their various talents. In this process, the business has developed into a classic multi-party business. Current highlights of this one-room store include Western Art Gallery and Samco Polishing Company, which polishes molds for the plastic factory where Mr. Doner works. Since they have only been in business for three months, it is difficult to determine which companies will succeed—Elmoites is notoriously picky—but the management team has plans to add arts and crafts courses to the curriculum. We will try our best to keep you informed of any major developments.
Like most beautiful things in life, twofers ignore classification. This is part of their charm. I mean, McDonald’s is a fast food restaurant, and Neiman-Marcus is a department store, but if you have a category of feed shops—rotating schools, please let me know. In spite of this, scholars have proposed rough and often overlapping categories to impose an appearance of order in the two worlds.
For reasons that are not entirely clear, the barber shop is the king of double hair in Texas. After Garcia's, the second-ranked barber shop twofer is Rex Avery's barber shop in Fort Worth-archery shop. Avery offers a simple haircut for $3.50 and sells a series of truly threatening archery equipment, such as pointed-less arrows that can chop off bird heads. Other famous barber shops include Whitewright's Barber-Pizzeria and Wills Point's Billy's Trading Post and Barbershop.
twofer does not just represent the greedy side of human beings. Some exist purely for aesthetic purposes. My favorite places of leisure and entertainment are Troy Texaco and Tarantula Sanctuary in central Texas. Bob Manning runs the store, and his 15-year-old son Steve stocks by the counter the tarantulas he has caught or bought at Jerry's Perfect Pets in Temple Mall. The current numbers boil down to killers, trouble, and sunset, because sunset killed Midnight, Laziness, and Snegie after knocking down some other tarantulas and a pet snake in his recent killing spree a month ago. The other two major entertainment venues are Holmes Coin-O-Mat and Grand Ole Opry House in Azle, and Roy's Barber Shop in Emory, both of which are concert halls for local musicians. The two premier cultural halls are the Ford Grocery Store and International Possum Museum in Ronnesboro, and the Brewer's Bells Museum and Craft Store, run by Virginia Belle Brewer in Canton. Lucky visitors to the Bell Museum can see 3109 different bells from 68 countries, while Miss Brewer herself plays a serenade on the hand bell.
The landscape of Texas gleams with double ghosts that cannot stand the test of time. Cobb's Bar BQ Shack still occupies the space next to Cobb's Garage and Welding Shop in Hector, Texas, but the barbecue business has closed down. Agatha Wolaver's coffee shop operates very well in the center of Italy, but it no longer doubles as a flower shop. The taxidermist burger stall south of George West has been closed. Other casualties included Ranchlander Bank and Steakhouse in Melvin and a bank gas station in West Texas that once graced Eastland. Recently, one of the most exciting cultural giants in Texas exulted when the owner of the world's only bull horn and doll museum in Big Spring removed the bull horns. JP's office and gun shop in Ingram are also gone, if any, it's a double room with news. Dice transiting Gloria. ..
Nothing can make a company more active than the sound of a small hoof. Sterling products include Lone Star Portable Buildings and Red Brahmans near Luella, North Texas. Then there is the Alvin and Georgie Ohl Salvage Grounds near Rosenberg-Game Reserve, where there are 75 goats, 65 sheep, 1 javelin, an 800-pound brown bear, some geese, ducks, dogs, deer, and maybe There are 500 animals loitering contentedly in cars and refrigerators among the dumps. Roose's Animal Grocery & Chinchilla Ranch & Supply near Lockhart is also doing well, where Ann Roose raises chinchillas and sells feed for local cattle, pigs and chickens. For flora and fauna, consider Triple C Ranch in Amos Roy in Morrisville, where Roy raises crayfish, catfish and Christmas trees. On a smaller scale, you can find two great small roadside businesses in southeastern Texas near Livingston; one sells tacos and small fish, and the other sells quilts and chihuahuas.
It is safe to say that most of the entrepreneurs listed here will spend their days in relative obscurity, but a dual entrepreneur who attracts media attention can quickly make its owner an international star. The top-ranked celebrity in Texas is Jin Shenhao's wonderful Texaco Omelet in Dallas. (Don’t ask me why so many two-person cars appear at Texaco’s gas station. I’m not the most confused.) Since Jim Schutze of the Dallas Times Herald discovered this place, Mr. King’s life and time as a gas station-- The Chinese food tycoon is well documented in Dallas and New York Times, Money Magazine and Internet news. Holmes Coin-O-Mat and Grand Ole Opry House also received similar treatment. Worth seeing is the Carnival Supermarket, a grocery art gallery in Pasadena. There is a Murillo painting worth $500,000, 13 feet x 7 feet, hanging next to the cash register.
Not all the roses and bait are on the Twin Peaks Trail. Many companies that look like major win-winners turned out to be just teasing. Bain's Junk and Jewels looks great in Odem, a small town in southern Texas, but the name is just a metaphor for the promise of every thrift store. (However, it does have the world's largest collection of second-hand Mrs. Butterworth syrup bottles for sale.) One tragic attempt was Phillips Pest Control and Treasures for Tots in Pittsburgh. The two share a building and a phone, but they are independent businesses—an enlightening pairing, but not dual. Pow Wow Cafe and Grand Saline custom cabinets are another loser. Pow Wow has long become the huge tent in the sky, but successful joiners never bother to take the name of Pow Wow from the front window.
Twofer taught a variety of exciting courses. The content involved the virtue of perseverance, the reward of innovation, and perhaps easy advantages, but the final message was simple and unavoidable: Texans are abnormal. I assume that if you visit a small town in northern New York or northern Illinois, you will find some dual identities here and there. After all, Twofers is not only a product of rural demand, but also a product of personal traits. But upstate New York cannot provide the mixed culture needed for tacos and small fish, cold cuts, and Western-style clothing to create the best dual flavors. And, as evidenced by Cecil Gilstrap's letter to Big Spring Herald, the buried Cadillac of Stanley Marsh 3, and the legislative careers of Jim Collins and Mad Dog Mengden, Texas quirks still reach extraordinary levels.
It is reasonable to assume that as Texas becomes more urban and international, fewer and fewer people will be eager to string illogical things together and try to use them for business. However, if Texas is moving towards normalcy, then it is not moving at an extremely fast pace. In fact, we may be on the verge of a new generation of super multi-frequency devices: too big to be a dual-frequency device, but too stupid to be a distant cousin. I want the Hunter Brothers’ Mustang Bowl in Dallas, where there are gay bowling leagues, punk concerts, gospel singing and Zig Ziglar Crusades, or Fort Worth’s surprising new dream caravan, jazz club and martial arts school, and Avant-garde-garde theater and restaurant lounge and cactus sanctuary.
Now, if they can find a good hairdresser, they should be fine.
Author: Ashley Hope Perez
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