KROGER/BI-LO/RITE-WAY SUPERMARKET
2259 E Palmer St, Detroit, MI 48211
-Abandoned after 1996
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HISTORY OF THE SUPERMARKETS AT 2259 E PALMER ST
Throughout the years, the supermarket building at 2259 E Palmer St in the Chene Corridor has seen many different owners, the most notable being Kroger. However, this was not the Kroger Michiganders know today. This store was one of Kroger's original supermarket stores, which were the type of stores that displaced neighborhood markets like CF Smith. These stores were not the big box stores we are accustomed to today with Kroger, but they were considered large for the time when the store opened in 1958. The store would later become one of Kroger's subsidiary store names under the BI-Lo Company, a budget-friendly grocery store. By 1975, Kroger had transitioned it back to a Kroger store, and in 1980, the store was sold to Samir Danou. It would then become a "Rite-Way Foods" store, one of the first three locations Retail Danou purchased. The store operated under Rite-Way Foods until the late 1990s, when the Chene Corridor area was past its prime from the 1950s. The building, along with other notable buildings on the Chene Corridor, was featured in the 2016 Transformer movie and was labeled as a bowling alley for the movie's purposes.
Recollection from the author
This Small Grocery Store was a small find but helped showcase the supermarket before the Big Box Store. It hard today to really see what people mean when they say the Supermarket put the Neighborhood Market out of Business. But seeing this you got to see a look into the long bygone of Survival of the fittest retail style and you got to see the true Supermarket. The building in general was pretty weird with all the rest of the blight on the Chene Corridor it makes you assume the roof has been burned out with all the stuff hanging from the ceiling but there is no sign of fire damage the openness and decay of the building adds to this post apocalyptic vibe not found in many abandoned retail in Detroit.
Recollection from the author
Sears Lincoln Park wasn’t just another abandoned building it was a story of many generations of the Downriver community, the building was so huge that out of the dozens of times I ventured inside I always would find something new to admire about the building, the pillars that lined the salesfloor gave a cool backrooms vibe to the building, and the offices told the biggest story of the building, when the history books tell you this was one of the biggest Sears stores in the US there not kidding, the store was so easy to get lost in, but not in a bad way, before the demolition of the iconic store began in April of 2024, the light fixtures still stood from the day the store closed and the lights would appear to be on with the shine of a bright flashlight, before entering the building you could sense the feeling this building gave many generations of people, when the demolition began I took it upon myself to document the progress of the demolition both inside and out, and as the building became more and more smaller and more mysterious as the demolition crew made their mark working everyday to take down the iconic Sears Store #1250
Once stairs to the basement
one of the few rooms remaining inside the market
sometimes you got to sit inside of a abandoned supermarket in your pool chair to take in life
Very old sign saying "Sour Center"
another room with some still in good condition wood
Front Entrance of the Supermarket
Two Combos that don't go together (beer and pickles)
front of the store