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List of Detroit Metro Packer Foods stores from 1964

Posted: 23 Sep 2019 12:44
by mburb1981
Last night, I, quite by accident, stumbled upon a lucky Newspapers.com clipping - from the Detroit Free Press of December 11, 1964 - of Packer Foods stores that operated in the Detroit metro area. Packer Foods was an older name that was resurrected in the early 1960's as the name for lower-volume Wrigley locations.

Of the 38 locations that existed in 1964, a surprisingly majority of them still stand today, though only at least 3 still house supermarkets.

East Side
*4707 Conners (sic) at Warren, Detroit, MI
Shopping center location, this address is now used by a corporate office for The NRP Group, though the space it uses looks quite small. It is possible that Packer could have been in the adjacent space now subdivided between Save-A-Lot and Dollar General.

*5800 Caniff at Mound, Detroit, MI
Still selling food as an Imperial Fresh Market.

*7011 Gratiot at E. Grand Blvd., Detroit, MI
Still selling food as a Sav-Mart.

*17410 Mack at Woodhall, Grosse Pointe, MI
Now a Staples store.

*12250 E. 8 Mile at Groesbeck, Detroit, MI
Subdivided, part of this space still sells food as a Glory Supermarket.

West Side
*13952 Telegraph at Schoolcraft, Redford, MI
Now the Living Bread Ministries church.

*5881 W. Fort Street at Cavalry, Detroit, MI
Long demolished by 1999.

*2594 W. Grand Blvd. at Rosa Parks Boulevard (fka 12th Street), Detroit, MI
Demolished between 1999 and 2002 for a CVS store. Perhaps this was where Motown Records' employees shopped during shift breaks at Hitsville USA, which was within walking distance?

*20235 Plymouth at Evergreen, Detroit, MI
Demolished for a driveway that leads to a high-rise apartment tower. There is a nearby Save-A-Lot at 20427 Plymouth, so maybe Packer was actually located there?

*3429 Grand River at Trumbull, Detroit, MI
Subdivided between Norm's Liquor Express and Family Dollar.

*52 Bartlett at Woodward, Highland Park, MI
Was most recently Red Apple Food Store, appears to be long closed.

*5120 Schaefer at Michigan, Dearborn, MI (duplicated under the West Suburban listing)
Features a rather narrow pylon. Per the Groceteria Dearborn list, lasted as a Packer through at least 1970. Later Murray's Auto, now O'Reilly Auto Parts.

North East Suburban
*30830 Schoenherr at 13 Mile, Warren, MI
Shopping center location, now Dollar Tree.

*29176 Van Dyke at 12 Mile, Warren, MI
Shopping center location, demolished and replaced by a Walmart Division 1 store, which later closed and eventually was itself razed for a new Walmart Supercenter.

*26200 Eastgate Blvd. at Gratiot, Roseville, MI
Shopping center location, this address is now used by the Simply 10 clothing shop, though the space it uses definitely looks too small to have housed a supermarket.

*Gratiot at Masonic, Roseville, MI
Anchor of Macomb Mall. It is not mentioned in it's Wikipedia article, so what it became is unknown.

*24225 Harper at Little Mack, St. Clair Shores, MI
Now the Barriester Gardens Banquet Center.

*31001 Harper at 13 Mile, St. Clair Shores, MI
Shopping center location, later Aco Hardware, now Ace Hardware.

*37665 Gratiot at Metro Parkway/16 Mile (fka Metro Beach Parkway), Clinton Township (Mt. Clemens address), MI
Shopping center location, now a Sunshine Thrift Store.

West Suburban
*208 E. Michigan, Ypsilanti, MI (Store 106)
Per the Groceteria Ypsilanti list, lasted as a Packer through at least 1967 before becoming Wrigley by 1972. Demolished in 2010.

*29800 Ford Road at Middlebelt, Garden City, MI
Demolished in 2016.

*17200 Farmington Rd. at 6 Mile, Livonia, MI
Shopping center location, now Abbey Flooring & Design.

*27500 Grand River at 8 Mile, Livonia, MI
Has an old "ghost sign" for an Advance Electronics on the north wall, perhaps that's what it became? Vacant today.

*29951 Plymouth at Middlebelt, Livonia, MI
Anchor of Wonderland Shopping Center, which was demolished in 2004 for the Wonderland Village power center, anchored by Target and Walmart Supercenter.

*Middlebelt at 7 Mile, Livonia, MI
Anchor of Livonia Mall, which was demolished in 2009 for the Livonia Marketplace power center, anchored by Sears, Walmart Supercenter and a Kohl's department store.

South Suburban
*15411 Southfield at Allen Road, Allen Park, MI
Shopping center location. Per Downriver Locations Thru the Years, lasted as a Packer through at least 1965, was later a Chatham in 1980, then an AL Price discount drug store in 1992, and after that Perry Drugs in 1994, now Rite Aid.

*14240 Fort near Eureka, Southgate, MI
Per Downriver Locations Thru the Years, lasted as a Packer through at least 1965, then became Bakhaus Florist by 1975. Became vacant between 2007 and 2013, then razed in 2018, which is a shame, as it had a pretty big pylon.

*13555 Eureka at Trenton Road, Southgate, MI
Shopping center location. Again per Downriver Locations Thru the Years, this also lasted as a Packer through at least 1965. Later listed as a Great Scott! in 1973, as an F&M discount drug store in the 1990's, and as an Aaron's store in the later half of the 2000's and throughout the 2010's before closing by 2018. Now the Metro Jiu Jitsu martial arts school.

*23300 Van Born Road east of Telegraph, Dearborn Heights, MI
Features an arched roof almost similar to that of Safeway/Kohl's Foods/Penn Fruit stores of the period. Later Murray's Auto, now O'Reilly Auto Parts.

*11500 Telegraph at Goddard, City of Taylor (formerly Taylor Township), MI
Shopping center location. Once again per Downriver Locations Thru the Years, this too lasted as a Packer through at least 1965. Somehow reverted back to (or became for the first time) Wrigley by 1975. Now a Dunham's Sports.

North Suburban
*1811 E. 8 Mile Rd. at Dequindre, Hazel Park, MI
Demolished in 2009 for a small strip mall, anchored by a (rare) scratch-built Save-A-Lot.

*23101 Coolidge Highway at 9 Mi., Oak Park, MI
Shopping center location, subdivided.

*5060 Dixie Highway north of Walton Blvd., Drayton Plains, MI
Shopping center location, later Aco Hardware, now Ace Hardware.

*700 Pontiac Trail at Maple, Walled Lake, MI
Shopping center location, now the Safari Playground indoor amusement center.

*30775 Stephenson Hwy. at 13 Mi., Madison Heights, MI
Now a doctor's office.

*1855 Woodward at 14 Mile, Birmingham, MI
Exact location unknown, Birmingham renumbered it's addresses along Woodward about 20 years ago, which results in Google Maps erroneously placing a pin for this address in downtown Detroit.

*515 E. 4th Street, Royal Oak, MI
Shopping center location, later Aco Hardware, now Ace Hardware.

Also available as a map.

Re: List of Detroit Metro Packer Foods stores from 1964

Posted: 24 Sep 2019 11:12
by mburb1981
Relating to Birmingham, I decided to open up a 1967 aerial image of this suburb and noticed a large enough building on the east side of Woodward just north of 14 Mile between Sheffield and Taunton Roads. After checking address ranges on a couple of nearby north-south streets, this completely confirms that this building was indeed where Packer was.

In any case, this building was long demolished and replaced with a strip mall by 1999. 1855 Woodward in 1964 would roughly correspond to a KSI Kitchen & Bath showroom in that strip mall at the present-day address of 33254 Woodward (that's right-old Woodward addresses in Birmingham had odd numbers on the east side of the road, the present-day system has even numbers on the east side of the road).

Re: List of Detroit Metro Packer Foods stores from 1964

Posted: 24 Sep 2019 21:22
by Groceteria
This is great stuff. I've put the Detroit area on hold for a little while due to my own error, but that will end soon!

Re: List of Detroit Metro Packer Foods stores from 1964

Posted: 25 Sep 2019 05:20
by rich
Livonia and Macomb malls opened in 1964, so it’s unlikely that these were low volume stores and the mall owners would not have wanted stores with a discount image which makes these locations odd. Packer was basically KMart Foods without the KMart next door. Perhaps they opened some new stores asPacker as a dress rehearsal for dropping trading stamps and other “extras” at Wrigley. This also may have been around the time that Birman began converting Food Fair to Farmer Jack.

Re: List of Detroit Metro Packer Foods stores from 1964

Posted: 25 Sep 2019 12:36
by mburb1981
rich wrote: 25 Sep 2019 05:20 Packer was basically KMart Foods without the KMart next door.
This was quite interesting that you mentioned that, as the Garden City store was an outlot of the property containing a Kmart store - to be specific the very first Kmart. Quite odd that they didn't just put it right next to the Kmart itself.