Congratulations Gaylord

[TC Talks]

Gaylord has logged 48.5 inches (4 feet) in one week... and it's calling for another 12" tonight.

Traverse City finally has just about 2 feet at 22.5 inches.

We have snow near 100% in the forecast until next Tuesday

[MWmetalhead]

GR area is getting thundersnow right now. Three lightning strikes on radar in past 10 minutes.

[MWmetalhead]

South Haven at the airport reported a 74 mph wind gust as part of its 7PM weather observation this evening.

Consumers now has 12,500 power outages.

[Realist]

MW - believe it or not, the first Menards in Michigan was built in Bay City. It’s right off 75 and next to the Bay City Meijer

[ftballfan]

Hardly anyone shops at Von Maur unfortunately. That chain seems to have a non-existent marketing strategy. Cheesecake Factory was a good addition.

Tanger Outlets has definitely taken traffic away from Rivertown.

GR tends to jump on retail trends 20 years later than similar sized metro areas located elsewhere. Look how pathetically long it took GR to get Cheesecake Factory and a Whole Foods store. Even the Supercenter version of Walmart was a late arrival! LOL

Two major chains that did arrive in GR on schedule are Target and Sam's Club. I know Target opened its first three stores in the area around 1989 or 1990. Sam's Club arrived in 1991.

Anyone remember Hills? That was a big friggin' deal when they opened in the Grand Rapids area circa 1987. Financial mismanagement at the corporate level coupled with rapid expansion of Target and Walmart into many of Hills' markets caused that chain to exit Michigan and some other states by the early 90s. Their former Eastbrook Mall store became Menards (the first in Michigan, I believe). Their Wyoming store became a Value City Department Store. Their Plainfield store became Handy Andy, a Home Depot knockoff that was based in Indiana.

The only store I can remember arriving in TC before Grand Rapids was Prange's, which later became Younkers.

Cadillac had Walmart for several years before the first Walmart opened in the GR area. (It would take twenty more years for Cadillac to finally receive a Meijer.)

Speaking of Target and Sam's, they entered Traverse City not long after entering Grand Rapids! The Target in TC opened with Grand Traverse Mall in 1992 while Sam's Club opened by 1994 at the latest.

Whole Foods' late arrival into Grand Rapids may have something to do with the area's traditional political leanings prior to 2020.

Does anyone remember Elder-Beerman? They were in Muskegon and a few other similarly sized communities before becoming Younkers. Also the logo when I was younger looked like it said Ellen Bauman. Never entered one (or a Younkers for that matter).

[MWmetalhead]

MW - believe it or not, the first Menards in Michigan was built in Bay City. It’s right off 75 and next to the Bay City Meijer

The first Menards in the GR area opened early 90s at Eastbrook Mall in the former Hills department store. That original store, which lacked a lumberyard, lacked a garden center and was maybe half the size of the typical Menards store in operation today, closed many years ago.

The Comstock Park store just north of GR - still alive and well - opened 1995.

[edj]

Elder-Beerman was based in Dayton. They also had stores in Monroe and Adrian. The Monroe store turned into Carson’s, yet the Adrian location did not. My guess is because of TV markets- Adrian is in the Toledo market which also had Elder-Beerman, but Monroe is in Detroit.

Younker’s was also in Birchwood Mall in Fort Gratiot, which also rebranded to Carson’s, again likely due to have one branding for an entire TV market (in this case Detroit) for advertising purposes.

[TC Talks]

There are a number of schools districts that haven't been open since last Tuesday.

[TC Talks]

Here comes the next party...

[kager]

[TC Talks]

Don't be roasting winter is actually here.

[DefendTheDen]

I remember Hills was crosstown near The Crossroads Mall which is a dead mall. They did build on my side of town on The West Main Mall parking lot in the summer of 90 it opened for 3 years and then remained empty until West Main became more of a strip mall, if Hills waited could've gotten the Ames space as they closed it in the fall of 90.