Southeast Michigan Retail: Motor City Retail History

This post will look at retail in Wyandotte, Wayne County, MI.   Kroger Michigan Division #312 / Arbor Drugs #29 / CVS #8029 2025 Fort Street, Wyandotte, MI Driving distance and time from downtown Detroit: 14.9 miles, approx. 21 minutes This is the next part in a series of posts chronicling the relocation history of the tenants of 14155 Eureka Road in Southgate . Today's post brings us to where the Kroger that originally occupied that building had relocated from...and that brings us to a background on the history of this Wyandotte building. Kroger #312 grand opening ad in the June 20, 1957 Southgate Sentinel. (credit: Downriver History & Facts ) Kroger #312 was Wyandotte's most recent Kroger to open on June 26, 1957, and was located in the city's fast-growing West End at the southeast corner of Fort Street and Ford Avenue. For those of you unfamiliar with the area, Ford Avenue is the easternmost portion of Northline Road, and yet many people, including MDOT and the Wayne...

  This post will look at retail in Southgate, Wayne County, MI.   Children's Bargain Town USA / Toys "R" Us #9262 / Big Lots #4723 14333 Eureka Road, Southgate, MI Driving distance and time from downtown Detroit: 15 miles, approx. 22 minutes   You've seen Big Lots' previous Southgate location , and today, we're taking you to their new home, but first, our usual building history. In 1969, Children's Bargain Town USA opened this store as part of a large push into the Detroit market, although their tenancy here wound up becoming short-lived, as in 1971 the chain was acquired by Toys "R" Us and rebranded under their name not long after. Toys "R" Us remodeled the building twice - first in the early 1980s into their brown roof prototype, and again in the early 1990s into their rainbow entrance prototype, ensuring that the store would last all the way through to the chain's 2018 demise from their bankruptcy. Other than housing Halloween s...