Was Arlan's Store in the Packard Plant?

[mtburb]

Since you mentioned Federal:

Attachment 29232

Was this released after the Wyandotte Federal was converted into what was until a couple years ago their city hall?

All of my personal memories of the Southgate location came after it became Service Merchandise. I still fondly remember those Jetsons-styled conveyor belts that brought customer's purchases all the way to somewhere in the front of the store.

[Wesley Mouch]

There also was one where you make the right turn on 8 Mile and Telegraph in Southfield in the mid to late 60's. Looks like some type of industrial firm is on the location now, but I still see remnants of the old store.

Both the Lonyo & 8/Telegraph locations were in what looked like warehouses. Early 'big box' stores.

My guess is that Arlans located in warehouses and didn't purpose-build these stores.

[catch22]

Both the Lonyo & 8/Telegraph locations were in what looked like warehouses. Early 'big box' stores.

My guess is that Arlans located in warehouses and didn't purpose-build these stores.

The Warren & Lonyo location was an old auto plant, first Graham-Paige, then later sold to Chrysler.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham-Paige

When I was a telephone installer, I had occasional work orders in the Arlan's store. They were using only about 25% of the total floor space. The telephone service entered the building in the opposite corner from the store, so any time I had to add lines, I had to string wire through the rafters of the dark and empty space. Not a lot of fun.

[Dcxdan]

Not sure why it's not listed in the 1967 phone book, but there was also an Arlans on the SE corner of Gratiot & Frazho in Roseville, where the Kmart [[up until recently Super Kmart) is today. There's an outside chance it was Shopper's Fair, and not Arlans, but I'm almost positive it was the latter.

EastsideAl, maybe you have some more insight?

Across Frazho, on the NE corner, was Federal Eastgate Center [[leveled and rebuilt as Kmart, then converted to Kroger when Kmart moved across the street).

Much of what you mentioned is right...... Of what I observed. I know in the early 1970s there was a Federals Dept store in Eastgate - or was that a Korvettes :-). But I also remember The Super K- Marts on Frazo road. It has closed recently - as with many others. I do recall a Shoppers Fair.... not sure if was there... But....

[jcole]

There was a Shopper's Fair on the corner of 8 and Gratiot and an Arlan's on Schoenherr and 8. Both NE corners, I think.
Off topic, but it was weird when you mentioned Graham-Paige. When my mom was in a nursing home suffering from dementia, she kept telling us the my long-deceased father was coming to visit her every evening in his red and white Graham-Paige coupé; he never went in to see her. He would just pull up and wait. I think he was there to take her over, but she wasn't ready yet. I like to believe that he was there the day she died.
None of us had ever heard of a Graham-Paige, so I googled it and the very first picture that popped up was a red and white coupé

[Zacha341]

It was a Shoppers World too at the end. By then the building was really rough. Roof leaking, floor tiles busted!

[Dcxdan]

I absolutely remember going to an Arlan's located in a portion of the Packard Plant. Early 60's. I remember my father mentioning to me that this where his dad used to work. Displays looked more like a clearance/overstock warehouse rather than like a Walmart. Really cheap looking merchandise. Don't remember how long it lasted.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/dcxdan...-fD5bVb-fDfLsi

[msamslex]

You're correct, the "big" store was @ Lonyo and Warren, they also had a store @ the Southfield & Dix mall location, directly behind Sears. There might have been others I'm not aware of. The building is still @ the Lonyo\Warren location, but it's a logistics company. There was a small tile store for years in the Lonyo\Warren corner of the building that said "Arlans Tile" on their canopy.

I was going out to dinner this evening with family & we went down Warren, passing by Lonyo where the old Arlan’s Tile store was. The tile store appeared to have been recently torn down because the lot hadn’t been completely cleared & smoothed out. There was a sign with a rendering of a new building that was going up in that space, but I couldn’t make out what it said. Maybe someone here knows.

[Honky Tonk]

I was going out to dinner this evening with family & we went down Warren, passing by Lonyo where the old Arlan’s Tile store was. The tile store appeared to have been recently torn down because the lot hadn’t been completely cleared & smoothed out. There was a sign with a rendering of a new building that was going up in that space, but I couldn’t make out what it said. Maybe someone here knows.

I have driven by occasionally in the last month or so, and have seen the building in various stages of demolition. Next trip I'll try to get a shot of the sign.

[Onthe405]

Much of what you mentioned is right...... Of what I observed. I know in the early 1970s there was a Federals Dept store in Eastgate - or was that a Korvettes :-). But I also remember The Super K- Marts on Frazo road. It has closed recently - as with many others. I do recall a Shoppers Fair.... not sure if was there... But....

Yes, it was definitely Federal on Gratiot & Frazho [[Eastgate). Korvette was north on Gratiot a bit, at the SE corner of 12 Mile . .there's a Wally World there now.

After doing some homework, I found that the Eastgate Federal store had a fire in 1978, and was torn down. It was replaced by a new Kmart. When the Super Kmart concept emerged, they required more square footage than was available within Eastgate, so they built across the street on the SE corner of Gratiot & Frazho.

Kroger moved into the former Kmart space at Eastgate. Super Kmart was briefly downsized to a regular Kmart, then closed altogether within a year or two.

Federal Eastgate prior to the fire:



Eastgate under construction in the late 1950s, with the Federal store nearing completion:



EJ Korvette at 12 Mile & Gratiot [[looks like the Costco concept of marketing fast food outside the front door isn't so new or novel as it appears):

[Gistok]

At 12 Mile & Gratiot, what used to be Korvette's is today Marshall's....

https://www.google.com/maps/uv?hl=en...px8wCnoECAAQDg

[Meddle]

Federal Eastgate prior to the fire:

So, I guess their hours were S AM to F PM?

[detroitsgwenivere]

This is a great thread. Thanks to everyone for posting the photos and sharing the history. It was all before my time.