Welcome to Retail History - Detroit Style!

Farmer Jack's former Southgate Shopping Center location, which has been empty since the chain's 2007 shuttering. All American Buffet (formerly Old Country Buffet, originally Kresge) may be seen to the left.

Hudson's, Farmer Jack, Cunningham's: A Retail History of the Motor City is a new site that attempts to preserve the past (and present) of retailers in and around Detroit. What's unique about the region is that the city of Detroit almost has no major retail choices, in fact, most of the only such development in the city is along 8 Mile Road along the city's northern boundary and along Telegraph Road on the city's extreme northwest side, though soon, downtown Detroit could see a few new national retail chains and in midtown Detroit, a Whole Foods Market is already nearing completion. Most major retail in the Detroit area is to the north in Macomb and Oakland Counties (which make up over half of suburban Detroit) and in southern and western Wayne County, which is the county Detroit is located in.

This blog will attempt to document every interesting retail developments that I can easily access, including the interesting, ugly, historic, untouched and unbelievable in shopping malls, lifestyle centers and big-box power centers. And major strip malls too. The Detroit area is indeed interesting in that while in the city, overgrown shrubs are slowly overtaking long-vacant and burnt-out houses, the suburbs are flourishing, with only a few vacant homes and much of the area's activity.

And I would like to thank sites such as DetroitYes and Labelscar for the inspiration of this blog, because if these sites were never created, then neither would this. Now have fun exploring the history of retailing in Detroit!

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