Search found 225 matches

by TenPoundHammer
15 Jul 2011 02:02
Forum: History: Department Store Chains
Topic: JCPenney mall locations
Replies: 16
Views: 20807

Re: JCPenney mall locations

JCPenney's mall stores in Michigan: * Courtland Center, Flint: Started out as central anchor, converted from Federal's/Robert Hall Village. This one moved to the west anchor (originally The Fair, later Mervyns) in 2008. Before the move, JCPenney had TWO other storefronts in the mall: a home store in...
by TenPoundHammer
22 May 2011 01:35
Forum: History: Restaurant Chains
Topic: McDonald's Express
Replies: 14
Views: 17001

McDonald's Express

Are there any "McDonald's Express" locations still around? How limited were their menus? I remember four in the Flint area. Strangely, three of them were extremely close to existing McDonald's: * One was in Clio. There had been a traditional McDonald's on the SE side of the exit since mayb...
by TenPoundHammer
22 May 2011 01:17
Forum: History: Restaurant Chains
Topic: 10 Most Unique McDonald's
Replies: 15
Views: 19187

Re: 10 Most Unique McDonald's

We actually have a lot of oddball McDonald's in Michigan: There's a 2 story McDonald's in East Lansing. From what I can tell, the dining room is on the upper level, and the kitchen on the lower one. Also, it has a green mansard to indicate its proximity to Michigan State University. Until 1997, Mack...
by TenPoundHammer
26 Apr 2011 17:26
Forum: History: Shopping Centers
Topic: Regional Shopping Center in Mt. Clemens
Replies: 0
Views: 6216

Regional Shopping Center in Mt. Clemens

Any Detroiters here familiar with the Regional shopping center on Gratiot in Mt. Clemens (15 Mile @ Gratiot)? From what I can tell, the south end was an open-air mall that had JCPenney and Montgomery Ward at one point.
by TenPoundHammer
21 Nov 2010 18:18
Forum: History: Restaurant Chains
Topic: Baskin Robbins signs
Replies: 10
Views: 12450

Re: Baskin Robbins signs

The one in Bay City, MI still had the first-generation sign until a few years ago; only the post is still there. The building still hasn't been updated with the 2007 logo: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=bay+city+mi&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=30.8...
by TenPoundHammer
28 Jul 2010 22:31
Forum: History: Restaurant Chains
Topic: Former Arby's locations
Replies: 18
Views: 20357

Re: Former Arby's locations

Arby's has been kind of in flux lately. It seems like every time one opens up, another one closes. They closed the one here in Oscoda, MI on Halloween 2007, almost exactly 20 years after it opened. It's now a coffee shop. Strangely, our Arby's used a building style I've seen nowhere else: Here's a p...
by TenPoundHammer
28 Jul 2010 22:28
Forum: History: Department Store Chains
Topic: Woolco
Replies: 43
Views: 45341

Re: Woolco

I'm surprised that there apparently weren't any Woolcos in the Detroit area as far as I can tell. Were they that afraid to go fight Kmart in its home base? Or have I just overlooked some?
by TenPoundHammer
15 Jan 2010 11:34
Forum: History: Restaurant Chains
Topic: H. Salt, Esq.
Replies: 13
Views: 14452

Re: H. Salt, Esq.

^Long John Silver's seems to have come out of the 1970s and 1980s pretty much unscathed, actually. The 1990s, on the other hand...
by TenPoundHammer
14 Jan 2010 22:07
Forum: History: Restaurant Chains
Topic: H. Salt, Esq.
Replies: 13
Views: 14452

Re: H. Salt, Esq.

submariner wrote:Are you sure they're gone from California? Granted the copyright is 7 years ago, but they have a website (of sorts) still up:

http://www.hsalt.com/locations.htm
My fingers got ahead of my mind. I meant to say "don't exist outside California."
by TenPoundHammer
14 Jan 2010 18:41
Forum: History: Restaurant Chains
Topic: H. Salt, Esq.
Replies: 13
Views: 14452

H. Salt, Esq.

Is anyone familiar with this chain? It looks like they don't exist in anywhere else than California anymore, but I've dug up some mid-1970s phone book listings that verify a few in Detroit and one in Lansing. None of these seem to have made it out of the 1970s; Lansing was already a stereo store in ...
by TenPoundHammer
12 Jan 2010 12:20
Forum: History: Restaurant Chains
Topic: Der Wienerschnitzel
Replies: 4
Views: 3339

Re: Der Wienerschnitzel

Hmm. I didn't know Tastee-Freez used A-frames too. I have been told that there was one on Cedar St., but I don't know where exactly it was.
by TenPoundHammer
11 Jan 2010 15:17
Forum: History: Restaurant Chains
Topic: Der Wienerschnitzel
Replies: 4
Views: 3339

Der Wienerschnitzel

Did Der Wienerschnitzel ever actually go into Michigan, or elsewhere in the Midwest? I found one 1968 listing saying that the chain had plans for two stores in Saginaw in 1968, and this repair shop in Lansing and this title loans center in Bloomington, IL both look like former Wienerschnitzels, but ...
by TenPoundHammer
06 Jan 2010 21:19
Forum: History: Drugstore Chains
Topic: Rite-Aid Sign Replacements for Acquired Chains
Replies: 33
Views: 37744

Re: Rite-Aid Sign Replacements for Acquired Chains

Allegan, Michigan has signage like that (see here), so I would imagine it was a grocery store convert from the 1970s as well.
by TenPoundHammer
27 Nov 2009 15:22
Forum: History: Drugstore Chains
Topic: Early Walgreens stores in Michigan
Replies: 6
Views: 10526

Early Walgreens stores in Michigan

Considering how close we are to Illinois, I'm surprised at how few Walgreens stores existed in Michigan before the chain's explosive late-90s growth. So far, these are the only "old school" Walgreens stores I've found in Michigan: *downtown Muskegon. This probably opened in the 1950s or 19...
by TenPoundHammer
23 Nov 2009 17:06
Forum: History: Department Store Chains
Topic: That used to be a department store?!
Replies: 18
Views: 11924

Re: That used to be a department store?!

How about a whole mall converted to a call center? I've found at least one former enclosed Belz property that was converted to one. (Shops at River Rock, née Outlets Ltd. Mall, in Murfreesboro, TN.)