Drugstores of Michigan

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TenPoundHammer
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Drugstores of Michigan

Post by TenPoundHammer »

There's at least one other Michigan native here, so...

From my recollection, there were at least three drugstore chains based in Michigan. I'll break them down one by one:

ARBOR DRUGS
Arbor began in Detroit somewhere, that's all I know. They were primarily a SE Michigan chain, but I know that Bay City and Flint had some too. Most of them were converted to CVS/pharmacy, but for some reason, CVS/pharmacy closed up most of the former Arbor drugs not long after acquisition. I remember the two in Bay City still had fairly fresh Arbor Drugs labelscars when CVS/pharmacy closed them. One is now a carpet store, and the other is a Dollar General.

Here's a former Arbor/CVS location in Grand Blanc, Michigan that's now a Rite Aid. From the outside, it still looks exactly like a CVS/pharmacy (not sure about the inside):

http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&F ... &encType=1

CUNNINGHAM DRUG
I don't know much about Cunningham's, except that some went non-union and became Apex Drug. Cunningham's and Apex were acquired by Perry Drug Stores (see below) around 1985. I know that Cunningham went as far as Alpena, and maybe even further north. Here's a former Cunningham's still operational as an independent drugstore:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/71288712@N00/2428963488/

PERRY
Perry Drug Stores was the big one in Michigan, begun in Pontiac sometime in the 1950s. They were pretty much all over the mitten, with at least one in the UP as well. One of their first acquisitions was Gould's Rexall, which had a handful of locations in my neck of the woods, including Cadillac, Mount Pleasant, West Branch, East Tawas, etc. I know nothing else about Gould's. Perry also took over the Michigan Cunningham's locations (the Ohio ones were sold to Gray Drug) in 1985, as well as all of the Michigan Revco and Hook's stores in 1990 and 1994, respectively. Rite Aid made their biggest acquisition in 1995 when they took over Perry. No doubt all the acquisitions led to Perry, and in turn Rite Aid, effectively pwning Arbor Drugs.

I haven't been able to find any good pictures of a former Perry Drug store, as almost every single one was in a strip mall, and I don't really recall them having any sort of consistent store design anyway. All I remember is that they had brown storefronts, but there was no real consistency among the ones I saw. Furthermore, almost all of them have been replaced by newer stores. One thing I do remember about the former Perry stores is that, after the conversion to Rite Aid, none of them had the pentagonal Rite Aid logo, instead opting for RITE AID PHARMACY in all caps, red, pseudo-Helvetica. Perhaps Rite Aid put no effort into remodeling because they knew that most of these stores would be replaced with drive-thru stores in a few years anyway? (Well, except for the former Perry in Grand Blanc, which held out until last year.)
rich
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Re: Drugstores of Michigan

Post by rich »

I believe Perry had a small number of stores in the Chicago area and retreated from there around 1985.

Cunningham's I know only from their operation of Marshall's drug stores in Cleveland, which they bought from the Marshall family in the 1950s. They apparently put zilch into those stores and added no new ones until they bought the Cleveland area SuperX locations from Kroger in the 1970s. Around 1970, they changed the name of the stores to Cunningham's and advertised having "21 stores in one" (they used the same campaign in Michigan) which emphasized selling everything from tvs to cosmetics. Unfortunately, they had the highest prices of any major chain in the area and I never knew anyone who bought a tv or any of the other non-drug store stuff. Gray Drug, which sold almost as wide a range of items seemed to do much better. By then, Sunday store openings were becoming common and drug stores were no longer among the few stores open on Sunday, which cut into the market for a lot of extraneous stuff that they sold.

Cunningham also operated a small number of Dot Discount Drug stores, which were meant to compete with Revco. I believe most of these were in the Detroit area. They only had one in the Cleveland area that I recall (a converted Marshall's) and it didn't last long. They also owned the Miller Drug chain in Cleveland, which operated in relatively upscale areas. Our local shopping center (a large strip) was their one non-upscale location and operated not far from a Marshall's for many years. They sold off the Miller's locations around 1970. Unlike some other Detroit merchants, they never expanded into Toledo, which was dominated by Lane Drug (part of People's), with Gray and Revco picking up small shares of the market.

I don't think Cunningham's was publicly traded, but it would be worth looking in an old Moody's Industrial Manual (the old Bible of stocks) to see if there's anything on them and their history.
Kroger472
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Re: Drugstores of Michigan

Post by Kroger472 »

I can remember 1 of Each:
There was an Arbor Drugs at the corner of Hewitt and Ellsworth Roads in Ypsilanti.... It was a strip mall store and is long on to other uses.

There Was a Perry Drug Later Rite Aid in a Strip Mall on Washtenaw Ave. in Ypsilanti Next to a Strange 1981 Kroger Superstore.... Both closed in 1999.

There was a 1973 Cunningham Drugs Later Perry Drugs Later Rite-Aid In Ann Arbor: Here it is as a Cunningham's in 1977: You can see it off to the far left of the Superstore... It still looks like this except the sign says Rite Aid and it closed in 2008. IIRC it had the Rite Aid Logo on the Sign. The Superstore still soldiers on as it appears here in an otherwise empty center.
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TenPoundHammer
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Re: Drugstores of Michigan

Post by TenPoundHammer »

rich wrote:I believe Perry had a small number of stores in the Chicago area and retreated from there around 1985.
That they did. I think they tried to take over a chain called DeKoven and failed, then ventured into Chicago on their own. The Chicago stores were their own division for a while, it seems.

One thing I've noticed is that most of the former Perry properties were huge. Ours, a former Cunningham's as I mentioned before, was maybe 9000 square feet, compared to the maybe 5000 square foot store 1/2 mile away that was built in 1990 as a Rite Aid. I've seen some lease plans showing Rite Aids as big as 12,000 square feet. No doubt some of these are former Perry stores. I'm still baffled as to why Rite Aid never badged the former Perry stores with a proper sign.
rich
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Re: Drugstores of Michigan

Post by rich »

The new Rite-Aids seems a little smaller than new CVS locations, but 12K sf would not be out of line.

The Cleveland Cunningham stores reflected Marshall and SuperX construction, but the store stock was all over the place, in terms of size which would suggest that Cunningham was able to accomodate diverse store set-ups. Later stores like the 1955 Shoregate store were probably about 10K sf or more, while the c. 1930s store in Willoughby and the c. 1940s/early50s former Marshall/Dot in Euclid were much smaller. The SuperX stores were probably 8-10K sf. The "21 stores in 1" format came out after they ripped out the soda fountains from stores that had had them and around the time they sold Miller Drugs (which had operated relatively small stores). Perhaps the format had to do with filling newly available space rather than a change in store size. They made no effeort to enlarge stores in Cleveland, although the smallish Willoughby store did close in the 70s (it was in a declining small town/suburban downtown). Still, they kept other small stores like the one in University Circle.
Super S
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Re: Drugstores of Michigan

Post by Super S »

TenPoundHammer wrote:There's at least one other Michigan native here, so...

From my recollection, there were at least three drugstore chains based in Michigan. I'll break them down one by one:

ARBOR DRUGS
Arbor began in Detroit somewhere, that's all I know. They were primarily a SE Michigan chain, but I know that Bay City and Flint had some too. Most of them were converted to CVS/pharmacy, but for some reason, CVS/pharmacy closed up most of the former Arbor drugs not long after acquisition. I remember the two in Bay City still had fairly fresh Arbor Drugs labelscars when CVS/pharmacy closed them. One is now a carpet store, and the other is a Dollar General.

Here's a former Arbor/CVS location in Grand Blanc, Michigan that's now a Rite Aid. From the outside, it still looks exactly like a CVS/pharmacy (not sure about the inside):

http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&F ... &encType=1

CUNNINGHAM DRUG
I don't know much about Cunningham's, except that some went non-union and became Apex Drug. Cunningham's and Apex were acquired by Perry Drug Stores (see below) around 1985. I know that Cunningham went as far as Alpena, and maybe even further north. Here's a former Cunningham's still operational as an independent drugstore:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/71288712@N00/2428963488/

PERRY
Perry Drug Stores was the big one in Michigan, begun in Pontiac sometime in the 1950s. They were pretty much all over the mitten, with at least one in the UP as well. One of their first acquisitions was Gould's Rexall, which had a handful of locations in my neck of the woods, including Cadillac, Mount Pleasant, West Branch, East Tawas, etc. I know nothing else about Gould's. Perry also took over the Michigan Cunningham's locations (the Ohio ones were sold to Gray Drug) in 1985, as well as all of the Michigan Revco and Hook's stores in 1990 and 1994, respectively. Rite Aid made their biggest acquisition in 1995 when they took over Perry. No doubt all the acquisitions led to Perry, and in turn Rite Aid, effectively pwning Arbor Drugs.

I haven't been able to find any good pictures of a former Perry Drug store, as almost every single one was in a strip mall, and I don't really recall them having any sort of consistent store design anyway. All I remember is that they had brown storefronts, but there was no real consistency among the ones I saw. Furthermore, almost all of them have been replaced by newer stores. One thing I do remember about the former Perry stores is that, after the conversion to Rite Aid, none of them had the pentagonal Rite Aid logo, instead opting for RITE AID PHARMACY in all caps, red, pseudo-Helvetica. Perhaps Rite Aid put no effort into remodeling because they knew that most of these stores would be replaced with drive-thru stores in a few years anyway? (Well, except for the former Perry in Grand Blanc, which held out until last year.)
The Rite-Aid in Port Clinton, Ohio is a former Perry drug store. Although I haven't been inside there since 1982 (when we moved west) I can tell you that the outside has not changed except for the sign. I noticed it was still in operation when I was there in January.
rich
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Re: Drugstores of Michigan

Post by rich »

Besides buying Marshall's in the 50s, they bought the Michigan-based Kinsel's chain.

Cunningham's appears to have split into pieces in 1982. They sold the Cleveland stores to Gray Drug. Some of the stores were regrouped as Apex under some former executives. They had a small number of stores in Florida, which also were operated by this group. Perry appears to have bought stores rather than the chain. It looks like Cunningham's must have liquidated rather than been sold outright to Perry.
TenPoundHammer
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Re: Drugstores of Michigan

Post by TenPoundHammer »

http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v ... &encType=1

This is a strip mall with a dead Farmer Jack (née A&P), a Rite Aid in a former Perry, and a very undersized Kmart. The sign along the Rite Aid (which moved only in the past year or so) was just RITE AID PHARMACY, red uppercase letters on a white field. No pentagonal sign at all. If I recall correctly, there used to be a sign at the corner of Holly and Saginaw that had the A&P logo, the Perry Drug logo, and finally, "Kmart" (I think in the 80s logo, against a white field framed in turquoise). This sign was removed in the late 1990s or so for the current sign, just a small red Kmart logo in a dinky white box. I don't remember if Rite Aid ever got its own sign in this strip or not.

Similarly, you have this oddball Rite Aid:

http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v ... &encType=1

This is a former Arbor and CVS that somehow became one of FOUR in the community of Grand Blanc. It has Rite Aid Pharmacy in mixed-case red letters on the building, and the sign out front has Rite Aid Pharmacy in mixed-case too.

In between the two, along Saginaw Road, is another Rite Aid that may have opened as Perry (strange that it'd be so close to the other Perry):

http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v ... &encType=1

It, too, has the red, mixed-case logo and no pentagons in sight.
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