Southeast Michigan Retail: Motor City Retail History

July 2013 Google Street View image of the Super Kmart at 16705 Fort Street, Southgate, MI operating normally. It's unbelievable, but yes, Super Kmart still exists, but only one-tenth of what it used to be. At it's peak just before Kmart went bankrupt in 2002, there were a total of 117 Super Kmarts, including 14 in Michigan. Since then, a large majority of Super Kmarts either closed or had their groceries removed. After four more Super Kmarts, including two in southeastern Michigan, shutter permanently in December 2014, there will be 11 remaining Super Kmart stores. On July 9, 2014, Sears Holdings announced that 80 Kmart and Sears stores would be shuttered in the second half of 2014. One of these stores was the Super Kmart in Southgate, Michigan. The site of this Super Kmart has a long retail history-in 1963, a new strip mall opened on Fort Street near Pennsylvania Road anchored by EJ Korvette, a regional Northeastern discount chain. Other stores included a Chatha...

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...