Hollywood Markets Rochester, MI Closing

[Bagels]

End of an era. While not official, staff at the Rochester Hollywood Markets location have confirmed that the store will be closing soon. Via social media reports, the store manager insists the store is profitable but the shopping center’s owners are significantly increasing the rent. He claims the small chain is looking to relocate. Of course, none of this is likely - maybe the store has been recording small but declining profits and the chain decided it was best to pull the plug. There’s too much vacant real estate nearby for anybody to be interested in the space, and there’s no suitable location nearby to relocate into. Not that they’d pay the buildout costs!


Anyway, this is significant because it’s the most preserved Farmer Jack remaining. Minimal updates have been made to the store, what you see is A&P’s early 1990 decor package. Hollywood will continue to operate one last former Farmer Jack in Madison Heights. That store is still will preserved as well but has had a far larger number of updates.

[Romr123]

Mike's at 7/Livernois is also a pretty well preserved Farmer Jack.

[Bagels]

Mike's at 7/Livernois is also a pretty well preserved Farmer Jack.

Good catch, I forgot about that place. But looking at the photos on Google, most of the flooring and signage has been replaced in recent years.

[storewanderer]

Good looking store; too bad it is closing. I wonder what will take the space.

Mike's at 7/Livernois is also a pretty well preserved Farmer Jack.

What a weird store there- completely hidden from the main roads. Is the building out front that is vacant a previous grocery space then that Mike's was the larger replacement or something? At least it is still open.

It appears this Mike's outfit has another store that is a former Kroger, a pretty modern one at that.
Their ad says Mike's on the front page but other pages all say "Foodland" at the top of the page. What is that? Is that like an IGA type of thing?

[Romr123]

No, the building in front (facing Livernois) is a smaller business building (with the initial intention of keeping a streetscape with sidewalk access).

Storefronts like a wig store, vacuum cleaner store (which recently closed), etc. Quite liable to be re-tenanted soon with more upscale stores

Facing 7 Mile is a bank (believe it's a Black owned bank) and some small offices (Insurance, etc).

Intent when Borman (Farmer Jack) re-developed the store in in the 70s/80s was to not decimate street-front retail. Avenue of Fashion was one of the last pre-mall shopping districts developed post-war (heyday was 1959, right after Northland was built) as the exclusive neighborhoods (Palmer Woods/University District/Detroit Golf Club) were adjacent and Bagley/Outer Drive and the other nearby neighborhoods were solidly middle-class Jewish (the migration of the Jewish community to the northwest to Oak Park/Southfield was underway). The Borman family was dead center in that demographic so were sensitive to the needs/desires of the community---the Farmer Jack was viable until the A&P pullout in 2007.

There has been a good bit of recent investment in streetscape and neighborhood viability (the surrounding couple-mile radius has a goodly proportion of the stable neighborhoods in the city of Detroit and takes in southern Ferndale as well) including both University of Detroit-Mercy and the Marygrove campus (was a small liberal arts college which has been transformed into an all-ages education complex---really a cool re-thinking of what might have been a messy college closure). The Meijer at 8/Woodward is about 3 miles from 7/Livernois.

About Mikes--it's one of the Chaldean families' branding---believe they they also have the Gratiot location which was the Kroger-built store in the city of Detroit that lasted only about 10 years and turned them into complete carpetbaggers (there is a quite awful Kroger at 8/Wyoming about 1 1/2 miles from the 7/Livernois location).

As I recall, Foodland was what the threatened Kroger pullout of Michigan in 1985-ish (akin to their Pittsburgh/Cleveland pullouts) was going to become---break the union and spin off the stores. There is a Kroger-to-Foodland conversion (still has a cube sign) 2 miles north in Ferndale at 9/Livernois. Detroit/Michigan food retail had a lot more competitors in those days...Meijer was not in the market yet; KMart hadn't "Supered" yet, but for traditional grocers you had Borman (Farmer Jack), Kroger, Chatham, Great Scott, A&P.

If memory serves, in the late 80s in Metro Detroit Farmer Jack clearly led the market with about a 20% share of the market and Kroger/Chatham/Great Scott/A&P each had about 10% (Chatham was a little more successful in Macomb County). And now...Meijer entered; Kroger slurped up everyone else and spat out the gristle

[storewanderer]

No, the building in front (facing Livernois) is a smaller business building (with the initial intention of keeping a streetscape with sidewalk access).

Storefronts like a wig store, vacuum cleaner store (which recently closed), etc. Quite liable to be re-tenanted soon with more upscale stores

Facing 7 Mile is a bank (believe it's a Black owned bank) and some small offices (Insurance, etc).

Intent when Borman (Farmer Jack) re-developed the store in in the 70s/80s was to not decimate street-front retail. Avenue of Fashion was one of the last pre-mall shopping districts developed post-war (heyday was 1959, right after Northland was built) as the exclusive neighborhoods (Palmer Woods/University District/Detroit Golf Club) were adjacent and Bagley/Outer Drive and the other nearby neighborhoods were solidly middle-class Jewish (the migration of the Jewish community to the northwest to Oak Park/Southfield was underway). The Borman family was dead center in that demographic so were sensitive to the needs/desires of the community---the Farmer Jack was viable until the A&P pullout in 2007.

There has been a good bit of recent investment in streetscape and neighborhood viability (the surrounding couple-mile radius has a goodly proportion of the stable neighborhoods in the city of Detroit and takes in southern Ferndale as well) including both University of Detroit-Mercy and the Marygrove campus (was a small liberal arts college which has been transformed into an all-ages education complex---really a cool re-thinking of what might have been a messy college closure). The Meijer at 8/Woodward is about 3 miles from 7/Livernois.

About Mikes--it's one of the Chaldean families' branding---believe they they also have the Gratiot location which was the Kroger-built store in the city of Detroit that lasted only about 10 years and turned them into complete carpetbaggers (there is a quite awful Kroger at 8/Wyoming about 1 1/2 miles from the 7/Livernois location).

As I recall, Foodland was what the threatened Kroger pullout of Michigan in 1985-ish (akin to their Pittsburgh/Cleveland pullouts) was going to become---break the union and spin off the stores. There is a Kroger-to-Foodland conversion (still has a cube sign) 2 miles north in Ferndale at 9/Livernois. Detroit/Michigan food retail had a lot more competitors in those days...Meijer was not in the market yet; KMart hadn't "Supered" yet, but for traditional grocers you had Borman (Farmer Jack), Kroger, Chatham, Great Scott, A&P.

If memory serves, in the late 80s in Metro Detroit Farmer Jack clearly led the market with about a 20% share of the market and Kroger/Chatham/Great Scott/A&P each had about 10% (Chatham was a little more successful in Macomb County). And now...Meijer entered; Kroger slurped up everyone else and spat out the gristle

Did not know what you meant by Chaldean families but this article helped me understand.

https://www.chaldeannews.com/features-1 ... r-business

I notice many of these stores I am looking at that are independents are selling Essential Everyday. Has it always been that way? I thought in the past with Spartan being dominant in MI, most of these independents would be with SpartanNash now...

[Bagels]

Good summary but the new build Detroit Kroger lasted just three years.

IMO, the significance of the Hollywood Markets closing is that it had minimal updates of the remaining ex-Farmer Jacks..

Most of the remaining ex-Farmer Jacks are in Detroit and the inner ring suburbs. These stores were divested in the early 2000s, when A&P was trying to offload the “core” stores to a competitor. Nearly all these stores are old, legacy FJ that received minimal updates when the chain was acquired by A&P. Most were not exactly modern supermarkets when they were sold off in the early 2000s. They survive largely because they’re in food deserts and independent owned/operated.

Of the 70 “core” FJ, I guess that roughly ~25 are still in operation as a grocery today — and most as Kroger.

[pseudo3d]

If memory serves, in the late 80s in Metro Detroit Farmer Jack clearly led the market with about a 20% share of the market and Kroger/Chatham/Great Scott/A&P each had about 10% (Chatham was a little more successful in Macomb County). And now...Meijer entered; Kroger slurped up everyone else and spat out the gristle

Allied Supermarkets Inc. ended up in a reverse merger with Vons which spat out Allied (now composed of solely of Great Scott! stores, the remaining Allied stores converted) as the new spin-off Meadowland Foods, and in the early 1990s Kroger bought them to regroup their Detroit-area holdings after it had been shaken so badly by the strike closures.

I'm not sure if Kroger shut down Great Scott! to reopen them or they simply slapped their name on it after a transition process.

[Romr123]

Did not know what you meant by Chaldean families but this article helped me understand.

https://www.chaldeannews.com/features-1 ... r-business

I notice many of these stores I am looking at that are independents are selling Essential Everyday. Has it always been that way? I thought in the past with Spartan being dominant in MI, most of these independents would be with SpartanNash now...
[/quote]

It seems like Spartan has about 70-75% of the market and SuperValu has about 25-30% of the wholesale distribution market---maybe SV has a shade higher percentage in upscale operators (Busch's/Holiday/Hollywood/Nino Salvaggio/Westborn) but TBH the default is Spartan and no one really distinguishes between the two. Super Valu is out of Fort Wayne or maybe Lima, OH so may be a shade more efficient for the counties along the southern border

[arizonaguy]

If memory serves, in the late 80s in Metro Detroit Farmer Jack clearly led the market with about a 20% share of the market and Kroger/Chatham/Great Scott/A&P each had about 10% (Chatham was a little more successful in Macomb County). And now...Meijer entered; Kroger slurped up everyone else and spat out the gristle

Allied Supermarkets Inc. ended up in a reverse merger with Vons which spat out Allied (now composed of solely of Great Scott! stores, the remaining Allied stores converted) as the new spin-off Meadowland Foods, and in the early 1990s Kroger bought them to regroup their Detroit-area holdings after it had been shaken so badly by the strike closures.

I'm not sure if Kroger shut down Great Scott! to reopen them or they simply slapped their name on it after a transition process.

I'm pretty sure that Great Scott! simply became a Kroger after a transition process. I don't recall the stores ever closing.

The Clarkston, MI store is still of the Great Scott! design (with the red trim / tile) and the all capitol KROGER lettering (like a lot of Texas stores).

https://maps.app.goo.gl/amhmXpaV6B3YNxmY8

Up until the mid 2000s Farmer Jack was the dominant chain in the Detroit area. Meijer was a bit player until the mid to late 1990s and Kroger really didn't become the dominant grocer until the A&P implosion. Walmart didn't have many supermarkets in the area due to the very (especially until the mid 2000s) pro union stance of the market.