Harwin shopping: Houston’s best kept secret

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — It’s a part of town some call “Houston’s best kept secret.”

We’re talking about Harwin Drive near Hillcroft Street in Southwest Houston.

“Wow. You have to have all day to really take your time and look through everything. It’s a lot. It is overwhelming,” laughed Michelle and Jasmine Rios.

The area is famous for its wholesale shopping.

Many store owners buy items in bulk, and then sell them to stores around the country, as well as to individual customers.

“We’ve been hiding. We don’t do much marketing or advertising or promotion. We’re mainly by word of mouth,” explained Sam Kim, the owner of Bella Jewelry. “We can get stuff for so cheap. The prices are unbeatable. They’re unbeatable.”

“We sell everything. Absolutely everything,” explained Sajad Master, the owner of Perfume Planet. “You can do your whole house on a literal sense. You can buy sheet rock, you can buy paintings.”

Many of these shops closed for months at the start of the COVID19 pandemic.

Now, they are back open, but business is still down from the previous year.

“We’ve seen customers from Louisiana, Los Angeles, New York,” laughed Kim. “Everybody watching this, just ask for Sam’s Special.”