Sam's Discount Stores

Can anybody give us some information about Sams? I know the main store was right on Campus Martius. There was another Sams [[don't know if same company) on E. Eight Mile somewhere between Ryan and Van Dyke. We lived on Wasmund [[between Dequindre and Ryan) and one Sunday around '60, while my parents were driving back from church in Ferndale, the traffic was backed up past John R because the Sams on 8 was burning down. The next day us kids went over to see the place. The fire had started in the paint dept and the place was nothing but tiled floors and burnt/melted piles.

I don't know, but you reminded me of another place I used to go on the south side of McNichols, somewhere around Van Dyke or Mt. Elliot. Loads of surplus tools, gloves and just about everything else. It seems like it was about the only place of it's kind in the 70s and 80s. Silverstein's I think was the name.

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Originally Posted by Meddle

I don't know, but you reminded me of another place I used to go on the south side of McNichols, somewhere around Van Dyke or Mt. Elliot. Loads of surplus tools, gloves and just about everything else. It seems like it was about the only place of it's kind in the 70s and 80s. Silverstein's I think was the name.

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"Nicholas Silverstines'" I believe it was spelled,. The store was a gigantic war surplus operation that began after the Second World War. In its heyday of massive amounts of WWII surplus, it was a fantastic place. They had the fuselage of a bomber that you could crawl around in and a huge navy lifeboat. You could get genuine military knapsacks, pistol belts, canteens, and messkits for cheap prices. We got all of our boy scout camping gear there. As the WWII surplus supply wound down, it became like any other surplus store, he stocked up on whatever he could get cheap in large quantities.

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Sam's had a store downtown on Randolph until the mid-80's. On the first floor of the parking structure by the Opera House there was a Sam's Discount Drug Store until the mid-90's.

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Originally Posted by DetroitPlanner

Sam's had a store downtown on Randolph until the mid-80's. On the first floor of the parking structure by the Opera House there was a Sam's Discount Drug Store until the mid-90's.

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The big yellow Sam's Cut Rate store on Randolph replaced the one in the old Opera House as Sam's main store when the Kern Block was torn down around 1966. I remember being in the Opera House Sam's as a kid for their closing/moving sale.

The drug store on Broadway in the parking structure was Paul's Discount Drugs, known for their conversational ads on the Martha Jean the Queen radio show [["So whatcha have for us today Mr. Paul?").

Back in the day!

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Originally Posted by EastsideAl

The big yellow Sam's Cut Rate store on Randolph replaced the one in the old Opera House as Sam's main store when the Kern Block was torn down around 1966. I remember being in the Opera House Sam's as a kid for their closing/moving sale.

The drug store on Broadway in the parking structure was Paul's Discount Drugs, known for their conversational ads on the Martha Jean the Queen radio show [["So whatcha have for us today Mr. Paul?").

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You're the Man Al!!! Thanks for your clarification.

I'm hip to yer pic daddeo!

Quick memory on Paul's Discount Drugs: When I was a kid on Sundays my dad would occasionally help me with my paper route by driving me and my papers around Warrendale. We would listen to Mr. Paul's somewhat bizarre radio show and have a lot of laughs about some of his remedies and callers, I wish I had a chance to go in there any meet him before they tore it down and, I assume, he passed.

Are army jeeps still being sold anywhere is michgian?

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Originally Posted by stasu1213

Are army jeeps still being sold anywhere is michgian?

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No, the M151 series are not highway safe and are cut up before being sent to property disposal. Once the Willys M38 and M38A1 cleared the system, no more jeeps for sale.

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I worked at the Sam's Randolph Store in 1961 while I was in the Th grade in school. My classmates Jack and Dave also worked there. It was a fun place to work and Sam's was the precursor of the Discount Dept. Stores of today. They always had this woman saleslady selling cookies at one of the Main Exits and she was a great sales person. She sold more cookies than anyone else in the store.People in those days didn't have Credit Cards like we do now, they would put items on layaway and pay a little money each week until they paid it off. Sam's also had a grocery dept on it's second or third floors...reminds me of the Walmarts of today.

I also worked at Sam`s
















I also worked at Sam`s on Monroe and Randolph.I was a runner for the store manager,, l also worked iiiiiiiin the print shop,later in display...