Monroe, Michigan chain history
Posted: 22 Jul 2021 18:30
Located halfway between Detroit and Toledo is a place for which I have created my newest chain history list:
Monroe chain grocery/supermarket history (1919-2021)
Yeah, this is just a period of a little over a decade, and this combined with the city's small size doesn't make this list too exciting, but there are still some footnotes to be found:
Monroe chain grocery/supermarket history (1919-2021)
Yeah, this is just a period of a little over a decade, and this combined with the city's small size doesn't make this list too exciting, but there are still some footnotes to be found:
- Since the chain locations in the 1958 and 1959 directories were identical, I have consolidated them into one.
- Kroger entered the 1950s by consolidating their two Monroe stores into one at 123 West 1st Street.
- Quite surprisingly, A&P had exactly one Monroe store during this period, at 222 South Monroe Street.
- Southeast Michigan's other major chain during this period, Wrigley's, also had one Monroe store, which relocated in the middle of the 1950s.
- National had a blink-and-you'll-miss-it existence in Monroe. They had just a single store at 950 South Monroe Street in 1956, and by 1958, it was sold to...
- ...an outfit called Gruber's Food Market, which was Monroe's biggest grocer during this period. Its history can be traced back to the 1940s, and did business until 1970, when its remaining stores were sold to Seaway Food Town, which was unrelated to the Food Town chain which has locations listed in 1956 and 1958-59. This acquisition allowed Seaway Food Town to become dominant in Monroe.
- In fact, Kroger's two current Monroe stores were both acquired from Seaway Food Town.