Cacti and Christmas lights. (Photo by author, Sept. 2024)
Located at
3218 South Texas Avenue, the now-defunct Planet K (officially a smoke shop, though would've been a "head shop" back in the day) operated out of a converted house...or at least it appeared to be so. The house behind it at 3213 Doerge Street is on the same property and per Brazos CAD was built in 1953 so it seems that it might have been built for commercial use after all (it also explains why I didn't see mention of a residential address here).
The earliest reference I can find is Doerge Repair Center, which renamed to Midway Repair Center in 1957. After a brief time of vacancy, it became Tuttle's Carpet Discount Center in 1971 (later
simply Tuttle's Carpet Center). Sometime around 1978 and 1979 it was replaced with Tin Barn Furniture, and sometime around 1989-1992 it was closed and replaced with Tin Barn Antiques & Collectibles, which operated until around 2004. Another antique store called Abigail's Attic operated in the house from 2004 to 2008, and Wiggles & Wags (a dog grooming boutique that had been in town since 1999) operated in the space in the mid 2010s for a few years (it had already moved in 2016, and shut down in 2020).
In 2018, Austin-based Planet K "opened" in Bryan with a major change in the building (including covering up the front entrance with a false front with a mural) but
tied up official opening of the store for eight months including parking lot operations. Once Planet K actually opened in 2019 it was just five years later, August 10th, 2024, when they packed up and closed, blaming the economy and the medians.
The false wall is where Planet K's murals used to be. (Photo by author, Sept. 2024)
Planet K's
website is amateurish. Obviously, I can't
throw stones in that department but I'm also not trying to run a business, nor am I promoting debunked myths about the military budget as mentioned on the page. The military's budget is
around $700-800 billion annually, it would cost
$267 billion annually to end world hunger, well above 3%. (While national debt and budget soars, the military does not have a $9T budget, nor did it ever).
In any case, Planet K has left Texas Avenue and I'm sure that there's probably either relief or disappointment depending on the views of the place.