A&P, Norway MI – Groceteria.com

Happy New Year!

As 2007 begins, I’m starting what I promised a few days ago. I plan for this journal to be more of a regularly-updated photo journal, with a picture and maybe some accompanying text every few days.

Let’s start with this lovely shot from Norway, Michigan circa 1974. You could argue that the fact that A&P was still operating outdated, tiny stores like this one well into the 1970s is probably why it’s no longer a major national player anymore.

By all logic, this store should have closed in the 1950s. It was anachronistic even thirty years ago, cobbled together as it was from two ancient storefronts midblock, without a parking lot in sight.

It’s just this kind of store, though, that first piqued my interest in vintage supermarkets back when I was a kid in the 1970s. There were one or two in my hometown, and I also remember seeing the few that remained along Peachtree Street in Atlanta when I visited as a small child. It’s a pity I never thought to take pictures of them then.

One thought on “A&P, Norway MI”

Robert Simon

February 21, 2014 at 9:46am

When I see this photo I think BOLOGNEY! Both my mother’s and father’s family (Johns and Simon) are from Norway, Michigan. I grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin but once a month we would drive up north to visit my grandparents in the 60’s and early 70s. My Simon grandparents lived in the house on Norway St. next to St. Mary’s Church. On Saturday mornings my brother and I would go see my Great Uncle Jos (Joseph Erspamer), the butcher at the A&P. We would walk the ally that connected the back of my grandparent’s house to the back of the store. We never went in the store’s front but always from the back. Once the “Oh its them Simon boys” was announced in the meat department we would always get a fresh slice of bologney.

I remember the big butcher block in the middle of the room, the cooler were the meat hung and various butcher tools that hung on the wooden walls.

It is my understanding that my mother worked as a clerk in the store as a young woman and “Mum” had introduced her to my father.

Think about the amount of living, relationship building, and meeting of friends and relatives that must have taken place in that A&P store.

BR Bob Simon

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Robert Simon
February 21, 2014 at 9:46am

When I see this photo I think BOLOGNEY! Both my mother’s and father’s family (Johns and Simon) are from Norway, Michigan. I grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin but once a month we would drive up north to visit my grandparents in the 60’s and early 70s. My Simon grandparents lived in the house on Norway St. next to St. Mary’s Church. On Saturday mornings my brother and I would go see my Great Uncle Jos (Joseph Erspamer), the butcher at the A&P. We would walk the ally that connected the back of my grandparent’s house to the back of the store. We never went in the store’s front but always from the back. Once the “Oh its them Simon boys” was announced in the meat department we would always get a fresh slice of bologney.

I remember the big butcher block in the middle of the room, the cooler were the meat hung and various butcher tools that hung on the wooden walls.

It is my understanding that my mother worked as a clerk in the store as a young woman and “Mum” had introduced her to my father.

Think about the amount of living, relationship building, and meeting of friends and relatives that must have taken place in that A&P store.

BR Bob Simon

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