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!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Great Lakes Crossing Outlets, Auburn Hills, Michigan

Image
This sign appears at all four of the vehicular entrances into Great Lakes Crossing Outlets. This enclosed outlet mall located about halfway between Detroit and Flint currently features nine anchor tenants. Sorry for the massive lack of updates...well over a year, to be exact. But anyways, back to our regularly scheduled program... Great Lakes Crossing Outlets (which will be abbreviated as GLX for the remainder of this entry unless when the full name must be used) is a massive enclosed outlet mall (true to it's slogan, "Michigan's Largest Outlet Center") located in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan, featuring 180 stores and nine anchors. This is perhaps one of three locations that contribute to Auburn Hills' significance-along with the city being the location of Chrysler's world headquarters and the Palace of Auburn Hills, the home arena of the NBA's Detroit Pistons. The site, located approximately halfway between two Automotive Revolut...
Read more

Southland Center, Taylor, Michigan

Image
One of Southland Center's two marquee pylon signs. This one is located at the southeast entrance, the other pylon sign may be seen in the background to the right. The center, the last of Detroit's "Land" malls, is currently anchored by Macy's, JCPenney and Best Buy. Many metropolitan areas have at least one area that's ignored a lot and Metro Detroit is no exception. In this case, that area is called "Downriver." It is a collection of 18 Wayne County communities that are located south and southwest of Detroit, extending down from that city to the Monroe County line. It's history almost parallels Detroit's, like it's major city, Downriver was a major area of French settlement in the 18th century. Today, Downriver is unlike anywhere else in the region, which transitions from the oldest houses in River Rouge, Wyandotte and Trenton to the postwar tract homes in Allen Park, Southgate and Taylor to the rural-ness of Romulus and Flat Rock. H...
Read more

Meijer #35, Taylor, Michigan

Image
This post will look at retail in Taylor, Wayne County, MI. Meijer #35 14640 Pardee Road, Taylor, MI Driving distance and time from downtown Detroit: 16.9 miles, approx. 20 minutes This Meijer store opened on July 19, 1977 as a Thrifty Acres store, the first in the Downriver area of Wayne County. It's trade area includes almost all of Taylor, far western Southgate, half of Romulus and far northern Brownstown and Huron Townships. When it opened, it originally would have looked like this , with a very 1970's interior, including a kids-based "Oasis" section in the center of the store. Due to concerns for safety and responsibility, the "Oasis" would be removed by 1985. In 1991, this store had a major exterior and interior remodel, with the exterior repainted gray with a red band and this logo over the entrances. Interior overhead signage was replaced with red-colored signs for the grocery and health & beauty departments, and green-teal for t...
Read more