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Jewel stores in Michigan

Posted: 22 Mar 2009 11:25
by TenPoundHammer
For the longest time, I never knew that Jewel operated stores in Michigan. Not surprisingly, these stores were all concentrated in the SW quadrant of the state. I've found several of them. I'm not exactly sure when the chain left Michigan, but it seems to be sometime around 1993.

412 Howard St., Kalamazoo is now a Harding's. Looks to be a fairly big store.

When Maple Hill Mall first opened, it had a Jewel/Turn Style combo attached to the mall but not accessible from within until the west anchor closed and was divided among mall stores. Meijer opened a Meijer Square store (just a discount, no grocery) in the former Turn Style space. After Meijer moved out of this space, the former Meijer and Jewel buildings became Target, which they are to this day. Sometime in the early 1990s, Jewel moved across the street to a space at West Main Mall, in a space that used to be Grant City and later JCPenney. This store only operated as Jewel/Osco for a short time, then became Harding's. West Main was then partially demolished in the 1990s for a Hills store that only lasted a year or two and became Menards. (The mall's other anchor was Zayre, originally a Federal's.) When the mall was finally fully demolished in the 2000s, Harding's and MC Sports moved into the former Hills, and Kohl's moved in to the former Grant's/Penney's/Jewel-Osco/Harding's space. Here is what that building looks like now.

Here is a Loopnet listing of a former Jewel food store in Battle Creek that's now a combination Felpasch Food Center and ACE Hardware (there's a mix).

Here is an image of the former Jewel/Osco on Westnedge Ave. in Portage. The whole building is now a Harding's.

And here is a former Jewel in Benton Harbor on Napier Avenue, still vacant.

Finally, here is a mystery building in Grand Rapids on 28th St. SW. I think it used to be a Jewel, given that the small behind it was once anchored by Turn Style. I can't see Jewel as having been in the TurnStyle building, as the mall itself had a Kroger for a long time.

Does anyone know of any other Jewel stores in Michigan?

Re: Jewel stores in Michigan

Posted: 22 Mar 2009 17:43
by rich
I wouldn't be surprised if Jewel pulled out before 1993. They retreated from places like Indianapolis (which they entered with Turn-Style in the early 70s) and most of the old Eisner territory sometime during the mid-80s. They kept two stores in Bloomington, Indiana until the early 90s. I think one went to Marsh. Jewel was acquired by American stores in 1984 which sold off or tried to sell some of Jewel's other operations--they sold White Hen and considered selling Star and Buttrey.

Jewel may have had a long history in "Michiana"--I can remember seeing 1950s ceramic style fronted Jewels in places like Hobart and Michigan City in the 70s. Grand Rapids and certainly Battle Creek might be contemporaries with Indianapolis, given the Turn-Style connection. National Tea also had a number of stores in SW Michigan and even had a warehouse in Grand Rapids for awhile, which may have supported stores in northern Indiana in places like South Bend. By the early 70s, all they had were Kalamazoo/Portage, Niles, and Benton Harbor.

Re: Jewel stores in Michigan

Posted: 25 Mar 2009 23:39
by TenPoundHammer
rich wrote:I wouldn't be surprised if Jewel pulled out before 1993. They retreated from places like Indianapolis (which they entered with Turn-Style in the early 70s) and most of the old Eisner territory sometime during the mid-80s. They kept two stores in Bloomington, Indiana until the early 90s. I think one went to Marsh. Jewel was acquired by American stores in 1984 which sold off or tried to sell some of Jewel's other operations--they sold White Hen and considered selling Star and Buttrey.
Turn Style had several stores in Michigan too. I found a few in Michigan. Surprisingly, two of them were mall anchors, which was something Turn Style almost never did. There were two in Grand Rapids and one in Kalamazoo. Some of the other big cities in that quadrant, like Lansing, Benton Harbor, Battle Creek, etc., might have had them too, although I don't know if Jewel had any Lansing stores.

Re: Jewel stores in Michigan

Posted: 30 Mar 2009 03:00
by storewanderer
I was very surprised to come across the Jewel in Michican City, IN. It was also the only Jewel I saw (and I saw dozens of Jewels) that still had an early 90s interior (white walls with colored signs in each department and slightly different but very similar wall signs and decor in drug; I had seen the drug decor before, here: http://s196.photobucket.com/albums/aa11 ... niversity/ ).

Re: Jewel stores in Michigan

Posted: 14 Oct 2009 22:21
by TenPoundHammer
Minor update: I found that the Benton Harbor Jewel was still open until 1999.