Southeast Michigan Retail: Motor City Retail History

  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...

The following is (mostly) a SMR:MCRH Contributor Post.   This post will look at retail in Southgate, Wayne County, MI.   Kroger Michigan Division #524 / Family Foodland #5524 / Big Lots #1425 14155 Eureka Road, Southgate, MI Driving distance and time from downtown Detroit: 15.1 miles, approx. 22 minutes This Kroger store originally opened in 1981 as the second Kroger-bannered grocery store to operate within the city of Southgate, and the first of two greenhouse-styled Kroger stores to open in the Downriver suburbs that year. A concrete wall separating the back of the property from adjacent homes on Balsam and Nancy Streets abruptly exploded on June 14, 1984 , and almost a month later, it was announced that the store would close on July 21, 1984 , along with 69 other southeastern Michigan Kroger stores, due to a protracted labor strike. It should be noted that the mid-1980s were a rough period for Kroger regarding labor disputes. Elsewhere in the country, the chain closed a...