Southeast Michigan Retail: Motor City Retail History

  This post will look at retail in Taylor, Wayne County, MI. Target #280 needs no introduction, as we've already written an entire blog post on this store back in 2019. However, yesterday, I had to go there to pick up something...in the middle of a major wind storm warning that was producing wind gusts up to at least 64 MPH at nearby Detroit Metro Airport, and originated from the same storm complex that just the night before had not only spawned a series of destructive tornadoes between Illinois and Arkansas, but had also spawned a large snowstorm in Minnesota. Naturally, the winds triggered numerous power outages across Michigan and Ontario, and among the areas that were affected by blackouts was the area surrounding Southland Center, including the mall itself (though some stores remained with power anyway), forcing it to close. The blackout extended to the Target #280 store behind Southland, and that is the subject of today's post. At the time of my visit, the store was oper...

This post will look at retail in Livonia, Wayne County, MI.   Target #2230 29451 Plymouth Road, Livonia, MI Driving distance and time from downtown Detroit: 18.9 miles, approx. 20 minutes   This Target store, midway between Detroit and Ann Arbor and one of two Target stores in the northwestern Wayne County suburb of Livonia, and the fourth we've covered on this blog, opened on July 25, 2007, as part of the demalling of Wonderland Mall into the power center known as Wonderland Village, replacing store T-352 (which would have been located on the other side of the adjacent Walmart Supercenter #2631 building), which opened on October 4, 1989 as a Wonderland Mall anchor and had survived the demolition of the rest of the mall.   Original plans called for this store to have been the first SuperTarget supercenter in the state of Michigan. A standard Target store ended up being built instead.   This store has only received two minor renovations in it's 13-year existence:...

This post will look at retail in Woodhaven, Wayne County, MI. Target #923 23555 Allen Road, Woodhaven, MI Driving distance and time from downtown Detroit: 21.3 miles, approx. 26 minutes We return to retail-retail posts on SMR today for a visit to....our third Target to be featured on this blog? You're absolutely right! Located right at one of suburban Wayne County's busiest intersections, the store opened on October 5, 1994 along with three other Target stores in Michigan, which were stores in Brighton, Chesterfield and Mount Pleasant. As this post focuses on the Woodhaven store, it originally was smaller in size and sported this decor (known variously as P90 or P93) inside. A 2005 expansion gave this store the P04 decor and exterior design while adding a pharmacy, a Starbucks and a Pizza Hut Express. Since then, it has been further remodeled twice: a PFresh remodel around 2012ish (while preserving P04), followed by a full-on remodel in October 2019 to P17 d...