Early history of the Grocery Store
Figure 27 – Conklin Building and A&B Grocery
With the closing of the Manchester Market comes the end to a store with roots 100 years old and origins on the corner of M-52 and Main Street. Here is an excerpt from part 5 of a much longer article on the history of the intersection of M-52 and Main Street called “Life on a Corner” by Ray Berg and Alan Dyer. Read the whole article here: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, and part 5. Read about the impact of the closure on the community here.
C. F. Smith Grocery/Mingus Market/A&B Grocery
The C. F. Smith Grocery chain was founded in Detroit in the 1910s by Charles F. Smith, and ultimately consisted of several hundred stores. The business had an elegant headquarters building and warehouse on West Grand Boulevard near Michigan Avenue, with its own railroad spur. Using modern economies-of-scale and efficient warehousing methodologies, Smith promoted his stores as low-cost purveyors of “pure foods.” The company expanded rapidly throughout lower Michigan, becoming the first “chain store” in Manchester, as well as a presence in all the surrounding towns. The Jiffy Mix Company of Chelsea attributes its success to the backing of C. F. Smith in promoting its products. The Internet has several websites devoted to recollections of the C. F. Smith chain, many from former employees and patrons. In particular, many stories relate to the earliest Smith stores where, unlike today, shoppers brought their grocery list to the counter and the clerk retrieved the items from tall shelves with the aid of specially built pole hooks.
The first printed record of C. F. Smith Co. in Manchester is found in the 1920 telephone book. It occupied the east Wurster building on the corner [the building in place before the building currently occupied by Over the Edge was built (see figure 24)]. It is possible that the grocery store was initially established by R. G. Conklin before a buyout by C. F. Smith. The store continued in this building until at least mid-1939. The Sanborn Insurance Map of January 1941 indicates the east and center Wurster buildings had been demolished, and the current one-story, curved façade store at 230 E. Main Street was or had been constructed.
In a most elusive search, the authors tried several techniques to determine exactly when the building … was constructed. The Sanborn Insurance Map from January 1941 shows the current building’s outline with the wording “from plans,” implying that the previous two Wurster buildings have been demolished, but the new structure is not yet completed. Unfortunately, Manchester Enterprise issues from December 1936 through mid-October 1940 do not exist. The authors researched Enterprise articles from October 1940 through 1949, but found no discussion concerning this building’s construction. While we do not know what became of the C. F. Smith Grocery store during the demolition and re-construction, the authors surmise that the new building was designed specifically to house the C. F. Smith Grocery, most likely with improved floor space, refrigeration and power equipment, and a more modern, customer-friendly layout. The grocery also now occupied the same footprint previously held by the two older buildings.
Jim Mann of Manchester stated that the new store was one of the first projects built by Allen Schaffer when he founded the Manchester-based Schaffer Lumber and Construction Company. Several late 1940s Enterprise articles and advertisements concerning Mr. Schaffer (sometimes spelled Shaffer) do exist, but no reference could be found to the construction of the C. F. Smith Grocery by him. The authors then contacted Joe Fitzgerald of Manchester, who worked for Allen Schaffer beginning in 1952. Schaffer told Fitzgerald that the new store was constructed “1938-39”. Contact was also made with Lucile Williams, who with her husband managed the C. F. Smith Grocery from 1937-1946. She remembers the store in both buildings, and gave her best estimate of a 1939-1940 construction date. The authors also spoke with Maxine Widmayer of Manchester, who confirmed that she was employed at the C. F. Smith store as a teenager in the summer of 1944, working in the new building. We have thus tentatively placed the construction of the new grocery as 1939 based on these remembrances.
The grocery store remained under the ownership of C. F. Smith Co. from 1920 through May 20, 1954, when the Manchester Enterprise reported on the purchase of the Smith store by Merlyn Mingus. The article stated that Mingus lived at 206 Main St., had been affiliated with the company for 23 years, minus 2½ years in the Navy, and had managed the Smith store for the last 8 years. He graduated from Howell High School. His wife, Maxine, was born in Detroit, but also lived in Howell.
The store was renamed the Mingus Market according to the 1954 and 1959 Manchester phone directories. By the early 1960s, it was known as the A&B Grocery and affiliated with the IGA chain of stores. Figure 4 shows a November 1963 view down Main Street of the Conklin Building and the A&B Grocery. Figure 5 shows Jay Lantis, long-time owner of the A&B Grocery in the center, and Randy Fielder on the right, inside the old grocery.
Lantis moved the store to its present location at 455 W. Main Street around 1975, which is now known as Manchester Market.
Figure-24-1928 view showing center and east Wurster buildings. The east building on the corner originally housed the grocery store.
Figure-28-Jay-Lantis-AB-Grocery with Randy Fielder on right (Mark Roberts on left).
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