Monroe County history includes several grocery stores

Tom Adamich
·3 min read

It has been a few years since I first wrote about Gruber’s Supermarket, which was mainly in operation in Monroe from the late 1940s through the ‘70s.

By chance, I recently uncovered a great resource for local grocery history – Groceteria.com – that allows contributors to trace grocery story history in select communities.

Previous Coverage: Monroe County History/Gruber's once was growing supermarket

A contributor from Wyandotte kindly shared knowledge of Monroe’s market history dating back to 1919. The individual profiled Gruber’s, along with other national market chains of the era, including Kroger, Atlantic & Pacific (A&P), Safeway and others.

Gruber’s Supermarket was Monroe County’s homegrown supermarket. Gruber’s locations were also found on Steffas Road in Raisinville Township and on South Monroe Street, Delaware Court and East Second Street in Monroe. A later location opened in Carleton.
Gruber’s Supermarket was Monroe County’s homegrown supermarket. Gruber’s locations were also found on Steffas Road in Raisinville Township and on South Monroe Street, Delaware Court and East Second Street in Monroe. A later location opened in Carleton.

I learned that in addition to the Gruber’s located at 211 N. Telegraph Road, in the space now occupied by Family Farm and Home, there were Gruber’s on Steffas Road in Raisinville Township and on South Monroe Street, Delaware Court and East Second Street in Monroe. Most of these locations were in operation during the 1940s and ‘50s.  Another Gruber’s was identified as being located on North Custer Road in the mid-1960s.

The earliest chain grocer in Monroe was the A&P at 124 W. Front Street, which was operating in 1919. The A&P moved to other Front Street locations before moving to 222 South Monroe Street in the 1940s and 138 North Monroe Street in 1965.

Kroger followed A&P into Monroe and opened its first location at 627 E. Second Street in 1925. That location would later become an R-J-B Food Market in the 1940s. Other R-J-B Food Market locations would open on E. Noble Avenue in the early 1940s.

The Atlantic & Pacific (A&P) was the first chain grocer to add a location in Monroe County. It opened in 1919 and located at 124 W. Front St. in Monroe.
The Atlantic & Pacific (A&P) was the first chain grocer to add a location in Monroe County. It opened in 1919 and located at 124 W. Front St. in Monroe.

Several Food Town locations would open in Monroe beginning in the 1950s.

Stores on Conant Avenue, South Custer Road and West Elm Avenue would operate into the 1960s.  The latter is shown to have become a Vesico’s and, later, Danny’s Fine Foods. Another Food Town would open in Carleton on N. Monroe Street in 1965.

Seaway Food Town would open a location on South Monroe Street that had been a Wrigley’s – the popular Detroit-based chain. This location would join another in Lambertville, located on Secor Road and in Dundee at 571 E. Monroe Street, which operated into the 2000s when they were taken over and converted to Kroger locations.

Nevertheless, Gruber’s remained Monroe County’s truly homegrown grocery store chain, led by Warren Gruber’s business acumen and community spirit. As I wrote earlier, Warren Gruber was born on May 19, 1921, in Monroe.

Warren Gruber was the son of the late Frederick John Gruber Sr. and the late Johanna Marie (Niemann) Gruber. He was also involved in several additional business-related ventures outside of Gruber’s Supermarket in and around Monroe for nearly three decades.

Gruber’s three Park- N- Snack Restaurants opened in the early 1960s, and, in 1968, he opened another independent supermarket in Detroit Beach which he called Park-N-Save – possibly related to the growth of discount supermarkets that were beginning to appear across the U.S.

In 1978, Gruber opened yet another independent supermarket – this time located in Carleton -- called Gruber’s Valu World (again, another discount chain that sold dry goods and department store-type merchandise). A banquet facility known as Grafton Hall was added in 1988.

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The Groceteria.com contributor from Wyandotte noted that Gruber’s Valu-World managed to keep its doors open into at least 1995 before becoming Busch's Valu Land/Fresh Food Market, which, itself, closed by 2015.

Gruber also served as chairman of the Monroe County Chamber of Commerce, and he was the key community organizer supporting the founding of Monroe County Community College.

Gruber died on March 8, 2015. His wife, Leslie Gruber, died on Feb. 7, 1998.

— Tom Adamich is president of Visiting Librarian Service, a firm he has operated since 1993. He also is project archivist for the Greening Nursery Co. and Family Archives and the electric vehicle awareness coordinator at Monroe County Community College.

This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Monroe County history filled with grocery stores