Kresge’s – 1990

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• Major downtown destination of its time. Something for every age, taste, and purpose. Take all the suburban behemoth box stores, shrink 'em down and combine 'em into one funky human scaled space, add food - this is what you get. Creaky wood floors and bakery smells, great daily specials at the lunch counters. Buy a pair of pants, or a parakeet. Latest Beatles' 45? We got it! Coffee pots, blankets, and brooms, penny candy and birthday cakes.....Feeling chilly on a cold winter's day? Just drop in and hang out for a while, walk around or have a cuppa coffee at the counter. Matronly waitresses in starched white uniforms with little white hats, pencil behind the ear...

• Would have been nice to have something like that downtown today... even two.

• Don't forget the great smell of the donut-making machine while waiting for the bus on a cold winter Saturday morning: flipping the raw dough into boiling grease and flipping them back out to cool and take a ride on a figure eight conveyor belt. Plain, dark brown, crispy on the outside; warm and soft on the inside. My heart still murmurs for 'em after all these years!

• Last of the major downtown retail establishments and a big part of the memory of anyone who grew up in the city! I don't think I ever had one of their doughnuts but I sure loved watching that machine.

  Twenty years ago seems like forever until suddenly you find yourself remembering things that happened then. Eventually it becomes "only" twenty years. lol

• I love the corner entrance..Classic.
  I remember as a child in the late sixties, my mother would take me there to shop. We would take the crosstown bus from the west end to Wyandotte and Ouellette and walk down to Kresge's.
  Back in those days it was customary for children to wear a device called a harness which enabled a parent to keep a child close by in a busy store or on a busy street. It was made of leather and fit over the child's shoulders. A metal hook was at the back to which a leather strap could attach. ( kinda like a dog leash now that I think about it )
  I still remeber feeling goofy attached to my Mom by this silly contraption but felt much better when in Kresge's for two reasons...1. a delicious grilled cheese sandwich with a pickle garnish was waiting for me at the lunch counter and 2.... just about every other kid in that store was attached to their Mom with the same goofy looking harness.Misery loves company ! We laugh about it to this day..

• I thought that colour photography was available in 1990? Kresge's went along with a lot of downtown, because of the convenience the mall offered. Lots of easy parking, everything in one place with a controlled climate, and without the vagrants and lowlifes that took over the downtown.

• Also, I will never forget the authentic hardwood floor!!

• Remember how in the 1950s, Kresge hot dogs were 10¢ and hamburgers were 15¢? Coffee and tea were 10¢, too. I bought my first Elvis Presley record there on the Quality label (it was 78 rpm). One guy used to walk around the store wearing a Mexican sombrero and some of the other people simply talked to themselves. In this electronic age if there were another Kresge’s today (Woolworth’s was next door to the south on Ouellette Ave., by the way) we’d just see folks yammering away on cell phones and never interacting with one another directly. There were actual attendants behind the counters, too. What a great place………but then, the whole of downtown was a great place. And if you drank too much coffee or other beverages in the “Men Only” or “Ladies And Escorts” beverage rooms, you could always find solace in the underground public rest rooms which were in the middle of Chatham St. east of Ouellette. Those were the days!

• Remember how in the 1950s, Kresge hot dogs were 10¢ and hamburgers were 15¢? Coffee and tea were 10¢, too. I bought my first Elvis Presley record there on the Quality label (it was 78 rpm). One guy used to walk around wearing a Mexican sombrero and some of the other simply talked to themselves. In this electronic age if there were another Kresge’s today (Woolworth’s was next door to the south on Ouellette Ave., by the way) we’d just see people yammering away on cell phones and never interacting with one another. There were actual attendants behind the counters, too. What a great place………but then, the whole of downtown was a great place. And if you drank too much coffee or other beverages in the “Men” and “Ladies And Escorts” beverage rooms, you could always find solace in the underground public rest rooms which were in the middle of Chatham St. east of Ouellette. Those were the days!

• Remember how in the 1950s, Kresge hot dogs were 10 cents and hamburgers were 15 cents? Coffee and tea were 10 cents, too. I bought my first Elvis Presley record there. It was on the Quality label. It was 78 rpm but you could get 45s of it as well. One guy used to walk around the store wearing a Mexican sombrero while other unusual folks simply talked to themselves. If there were another Kresge's today (and Woolworth's was next door to the south on Ouellette Ave.) we'd see nothing but people yammering away on cell phones and never interacting with one another. Pity. There were actual attendants behind the counters, too. What a great place....although then, the whole of downtown was a great place. And if you drank too much coffee or "other" beverages in the "Men Only" or "Ladies And Escorts" beverage rooms, you could always find solace in the underground rest rooms which used to be smack in the middle of Chatham St. just east of Ouellette. Those were the days!