Southeast Michigan Retail: Motor City Retail History

This post will look at retail in Southgate, Wayne County, MI. Meijer #123 16300 Fort Street, Southgate, MI Driving distance and time from downtown Detroit: 15.6 miles, approx. 22 minutes   First off, apologies for not posting on this blog at all in the past two months....I've just been too busy.   This Meijer store opened on August 30, 1994. It was the third Meijer store to open in the Downriver area of Wayne County and was built on the site of the former Fort George Drive-In Theater , which operated between 1950-1990, and the AMC Southgate 4 Theaters , which operated between 1969-1992. This Meijer store uses the Pineapple exterior architecture, named for the yellow appendage that is visible here. Dutch-style gable structures are another defining feature of Pineapple. Pineapple's usage coincided with a major expansion period for Meijer in the mid 1990's that saw them enter Indiana and Illinois and reenter Kentucky after having closed a Meijer Square ...

This post will look at retail in Madison Heights, Oakland County; Shelby Charter Township, Macomb County; and Taylor, Wayne County, MI. Another short blog post kicks off the month of November here at SMR with some great Southeast Michigan retail news - the entry of two chains into the Great Lakes State. Photo courtesy Crain's Detroit Business Hudson's Budget Store #???? / EJ Korvette #???? / (Super) Kmart #3575 / BJ's Wholesale Club #383 29101 John R. Road, Madison Heights, MI Driving distance and time from downtown Detroit: 14.5 miles, approx. 16 minutes One of these chains is BJ's Wholesale Club, which on November 2nd (yesterday as of the creation of this blog post) opened it's first Michigan foray at the site of former (Super) Kmart #3575 at John R. and 12 Mile Roads in Madison Heights. Through Google Maps photos , it seems that this location is already really popular! Sorry, this was the best I could do. BJ's Wholesale Club #384 ...

This post will look at retail in Lincoln Park, Wayne County, MI. Lucky Drugs #2 / Arbor Drugs #122 / Hollywood Video #???? 3605 Dix Highway, Lincoln Park, MI Driving distance and time from downtown Detroit: 12.5 miles, approx. 15 minutes   This Arbor Drugs store opened on February 25, 1992, replacing a location of a Downriver-area chain, Lucky Drugs. This was a fairly short-lived location for Arbor Drugs, as you'll read below.   After Arbor Drugs relocated, this original building was soon converted into a Hollywood Video store, which lasted until that chain went under in 2010. It has been vacant since, though it did receive an exterior facelift to hide any Hollywood Video artifacts.   August 2021 Update: For the first time in a decade, 3605 Dix Highway has a tenant, as in 2020, AutoZone store #6034 opened in this building.   Arbor Drugs #122 / CVS #8122 3647 Dix Highway, Lincoln Park, MI Driving distance and time from downtown Detroit: 12.6 miles...

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...