Family Dollar Prepares to Move into West Dearborn
Family Dollar will soon open a store in West Dearborn.
Dearborn’s ACO Hardware and LaPita restaurant will soon have a new retail neighbor on Newman Street.
While we can debate whether it’s the right kind of retail for West Dearborn, the addition of a Family Dollar store to fill a long-vacant building (not owned by Norm Newman who has his share of vacant buildings in our town), might help ACO and other businesses in this particular strip mall.
The owners of Family Dollar have been talking about moving into the former fabric store for about two years, according to one city official. We mentioned two months ago it was coming here.
Now, it appears the owners are a bit more serious having installed a Family Dollar sign on the building. Along Michigan Avenue, a new fixture has been installed to hold another sign for Family Dollar.
Inside the vacant building there isn’t much going on just yet. But it probably won’t be long. Installing shelving to stock rows and rows of made in China products shouldn’t take long . . .
August 3rd, 2011 at 11:09 am
Don’t know about anyone else but I shop at $ stores from time to time and think that anything that draws shoppers to that area is a plus for the stores around there. If the city sits back and waits for ‘what’s right for the city’ we will be in deeper do-do then we are now. Look what happened when they waited for ‘what’s right for the city’ in the so-called super block and across the street on MI Ave.
August 3rd, 2011 at 12:09 pm
Woohoo! Michigan is back baby!
August 3rd, 2011 at 2:01 pm
I agree Donna. I need to get pans for using under my propane grill and if I can get them for $1 instead of $4 at Kroger, all the better
August 3rd, 2011 at 3:14 pm
The Mayor wouldn’t let Kohl’s move in because it was to low class. He thinks Family Dollar is higher class. Really?
August 3rd, 2011 at 4:32 pm
Am I understanding this correctly, that there was a move to prevent a Kohl’s from coming to Dearborn versus a Family Dollar Store? Wow! The brilliance from the front office in this town is absolutely staggering. Kohl’s has so much more to offer in terms of products, stature and sense of community versus a damn dollar store. West Dearborn is looking more and more like Inkster. I hope folks are happy with this.
August 3rd, 2011 at 5:46 pm
disappointing that Dearborn has become a collection of cheap dollar stores. There’s nothing at Westborn anymore except this type of store. to say “better than a vacant storefront..” is barely a consolation.
August 3rd, 2011 at 6:58 pm
The idea that development in itself is good, is a completely bogus proposition. Dearborn needs sustainable development and organic growth. Dearborn does not need a business model based on selling processed foods to people on food stamps. Family Dollar will consume city resources like police with very little return to the taxpayers. If people are so desperate that they need to consume cheap plastic goods Walmart is only a 5 minute drive. This store will anchor the west Dearborn downtown area and will set the tone for future growth. So good job O’Reilly close our parks, pools, and libraries and then develop properties that are dependent upon government entitlements
August 3rd, 2011 at 7:49 pm
Big Jack can now shop all he wants for his wardrobe at FAMILY DOLLAR, instead of at a store like Kohls, because its much classier, at least according to his classy way of doing something nice for our City. Hit the Road Jack.
August 4th, 2011 at 2:33 am
Great! 2 Krogers and 2 dollar stores. Just found out tonight that Sears is discontinuing their Land’s End section – nobody buys is here. Other Sears will continue carrying Land’s End. Hmmmmmmm!
August 4th, 2011 at 1:07 pm
IKnowDearborn: It wasn’t a decision of either a Dollar Store or Kohl’s. I believe the Kohl’s decision was made early last decade by our previous mayor Michael Guido.
August 4th, 2011 at 1:38 pm
No one buys Land’s End products at Sears? Well, there goes my only reason for going to Sears. I like the Land’s End product line myself. While I realize some things are simply out of my our control, it is just one more reason in the long list of many that leads me go and shop elsewhere.
August 4th, 2011 at 1:54 pm
For those who are complaining about another dollar store, unfortunately, it is time for all of us to come to the reality of our situation.
Dearborn sat by passing on stores like Kohl’s. It got rid of stores like Price’s all under the guise of the “Master Plan”.
I have had experience with what the “big three landlords” charge for their properties. Small family-run business can not make it with what they charge, so you get the dollar stores.
While Dearborn sat on it’s high, self-imposed, image of itself, Allen Park quietly took over as the retail mecca for this area.
August 4th, 2011 at 2:12 pm
From what I remember there was talk at one time during Guido’s term of Kohl’s wanting to come to the ‘super block’ and it was Guido that didn’t want it.
August 4th, 2011 at 4:25 pm
JohnnyChristmas: I think regardless whether it was the Guido or O’ Reilly Adminstrations, ignoring, preventing or prohibiting Kohl’s from setting up shop versus yet another dollar store is ill founded in my book. Past and current administrations have begged citizens to spend their money in town, yet, I cannot find what I want in what is made available to me. And like someone else who has posted here has said, if want cheap ass, ten cent products priced at a dollar and made in China, then I will go the Dollar Store.
August 4th, 2011 at 5:05 pm
Great–another target for the rapidly increasing number of robbers who love that easy cash.
August 4th, 2011 at 8:28 pm
I highly doubt a dollar store is going to ‘draw’ anyone to Dearborn considering there’s one every few miles or so.
August 4th, 2011 at 9:47 pm
The landlord rented this building to a Family Dollar merchant. Don’t blame city hall for a landlord leasing their property out. No one has been exactly beating the doors down to rent that empty building.
August 6th, 2011 at 2:59 am
great ! now i hear that aco s closing and the frontage will be sub divided into a laundramat, check and go, nails and more,and a buy sell trade pawn shop!!!!
August 6th, 2011 at 4:03 am
Johnny, Iknow,
It’s a GD Kohl’s! What the heck are you going to buy there? A Cuisinart Stand Mixer? Lee jeans? The bigger problem is that Dearborn was the last to jump on board the train!!! You want Kohl’s? Go to Taylor or Westland. You want a $ Store? Go to Inkster or the Heights. A Kohl’s or Sonic or Piano Bar isn’t going to save West Dearborn. It’s a PROCESS, folks. One brick at a time. Plymouth and Royal Oak and Rochester and Saline are all very distinct. Dearborn should be distinct too. Embrace what we have, don’t fight it. You want good Mexican food, go to SW Detroit. You want good Arabic culture or food….. That Jewish boy from Hibbing said, “the times they are a-changin'”. The faster we figure it out, the more successful we will be.
August 6th, 2011 at 11:59 am
Robert Zimmerman is a pretentious has-been.
August 6th, 2011 at 1:40 pm
I don’t want ACO hardware to close but they have lost their way. I want to go into a hardware store for products to fix my house. You go in there now and you can buy cereal, fudge toppings, candy bars etc. The last four times I tried to give them my hardware buisness they did not have the products homeowners need. Go to Telegraph road to Studtz hardware, its the real thing and they have what you need.
August 6th, 2011 at 3:37 pm
MadT you are correct. O’Reilly is going to ask for help in November, for all of his screwups that he and his buddy Pee Wee Somers have done, and are continuing to do, well lets stick it up his fat ass, and show him by defeating his requsts at the polls in the fall, maybe then they will get the hint. Asta La Vesta Big Boy and Pee Wee Mark Somers.
August 8th, 2011 at 12:00 pm
Valid points Donna. Empty stores are an eyesore and bring absolutely nothing to the city. Let’s hope that when/if times get better, then perhaps some stores that please more residents and shoppers open up. In the meantime, it is what it is…
August 8th, 2011 at 4:20 pm
This just in… I heard from a reliable source the our wonderful city is now ripping ou the vacant codominium slabs on the other side of the tracks from West Village condo’s. In the city’s pursuit to be in the real estate business, they (we taxpayers) are now going to have to pay the costs to rip out all of this prepared building slabs to make way for a “green space”. Nice job once again City of Dearborn leaders!! Remember this when voting day nears.
August 8th, 2011 at 8:06 pm
Keep hoping Mike, you seem to have more confidence in the big boy at City Hall, than the rest of us do. His team is not bringing anybody into the City, while other cities, seem to be doing that and surviving, regardless of how the economy is doing. Face facts there is absolutely no confidence in our fearless leader at City Hall, why don’t we help him along, and boot his fanny out, when the election comes up, because he is anything but a leader, and has surrounded himself with no other leaders on his team.
August 9th, 2011 at 12:03 am
I’m sure that they will have a perfect reason for doing this. Green space is just what we need or even better then that why not build another parking garage??
August 9th, 2011 at 2:47 am
Anybody reading here should be sure NOT to give more money to the folks in charge. Dearborn residents have kept their homes and properties in good condition. The guys at City Hall have failed us – DON’T give them more money to make more mistakes. We need BIG changes in this City before its not possible. There is no good reason we don’t have a full downtown. No good reason we need to go to other cities to shop. Vote NO on any tax increase!
August 10th, 2011 at 12:57 am
Hold your hats Kohl’s shoppers> You will get your Kohl’s store and guess where? Yes you’ve got it, up on the HIll in Allen Park. Good for Allen Park. Maybe we need to hire their Community Development people. HMMMM. And oh say Good by to the old Vic Tanny’s and Muirhead’s they are coming down. People at Muirhead’s are head east to Schaefer and Michigan Ave. There goes our WEST DEARBORN! “MOVING ON UP TO THE EAST SIDE” as the saying goes!
August 10th, 2011 at 12:47 pm
You know, there are so many aspects of this, it leaves me a bit down. On the one hand, it’s positive that vacant space will be occupied. On the other hand, I’m not ecstatic that the occupant is a dollar store.
While I would love to see more up-scale boutique businesses congregated in our ‘West Dearborn” locale, my business sense side tells me that the marketplace is demanding just the opposite: value stores.
One could discuss the definition of this ‘customer’, ad infinitum: Homeowners living in Dearborn looking for more purchasing value than ever before due to economic stress, people using Michigan Avenue to get from home to work and stopping to shop, people coming from outside Dearborn to shop because they are not satisfied with shopping near their home (sound familiar??). Fact is, a business wouldn’t open if they didn’t think they could make a sure buck.
I am trying really hard here to look at the big picture, because my shopping habits are not typical and don’t easily fall into a particular category.
We still have some West Dearborn gems here: Kiernan’s, Dearborn Music, Buddy’s, Steven Bernard, Merchant, Lynch’s, Bistro 222, Village Framing, Les, Stanford, Demmer, Village Ford, La Pita, Biergarten, Miller’s, Richter’s (JUST TO NAME A FEW).
Shopping is dynamic. It’s always changing.
Anthony
August 10th, 2011 at 3:01 pm
Hope your right about Kohl’s on the hill but have been hearing this for a couple of years – do you have a good source for this info??
August 10th, 2011 at 7:27 pm
More mismanagement by the city! The neighborhood begged the city to put less density on that 1.7 acre lot! The neighborhood begged the city to consider 36 units rather than 48 units in that development and to make more green space and PARKING between the units. The city was too bullheaded and tax revenue hungry to listen. So they went with 48 units, built 36 units and stuck it up the neighborhoods’ collective arses! Now they have to pay to remove two of the units foundations to create a green space at the end of the development which makes no sense whatsoever. These same baffoons that are in office now are the same ones that wouldnt listen to the neighborhood, with the exception of the useless Gino Polidori who Dearborn sent to Lansing and has now returned with another government pension — HMMMM!
August 13th, 2011 at 5:01 pm
There are still a few good places in Westborn shopping center. Staples, the Postal Store, CVS and the Chinese restaurant. I still go to the bulk food store from time to time. With that said, most of the rest of the stores never get my business.
August 16th, 2011 at 5:52 pm
I feel that the comment referring to people who will patronize the new dollar store as ‘low lifes’ is extremely broad and incorrect and insulting. Dollar stores are flourishing due to our poor economy in Dearborn and the communities surrounding this city. I see many of my neighbors, are customers of a local dollar store, shopping there to save a buck or two on everyday items. What is wrong with that?! Between gas prices and our taxes which haven’t fallen in Dearborn, while the value of our homes has, people are going to try to make their dollars stretch. As for mismanagement in Dearborn government, try this one on for size. Today a total of four trucks and six employees came to my neighborhood to trim my neighbor’s tree. I was under the impression that they were going to trim every tree on my block. My tree is constantly being hit (upper hanging limbs) by the new garbage trucks, and by trucks that have been in the neighborhood to replace the neighbors gutters, etc. Imagine my surprise when the tree cutting trucks and workers left, also hitting the branches of the tree that we bought from the city years ago. I did call city services and when I asked what the protocal was for tree branch removal the response I got was, “Not another one!” I said that I was simply asking, not requesting. I was told that a work order would have to be placed and I was asked for my name. I didn’t give my name and I said to this person (who did not identify herself), that I wasn’t about to give my name after the response I got from her(Not another one!) after I asked my initial questian. It seems to me if the city is being asked to repair/remove broken branches, it would be economical to check out other trees in the neighborhood and clean up the problem. My resolve was to get out our ladder and pruners and trim the broken branches ourselves, I never considered asking the city. Maybe that’s my oversite, but it’s ‘little’ things, like the dripping faucet that can end up costing far more than calling in the plumber would.-Penny
August 17th, 2011 at 11:03 am
Detroit is full of “green space”
August 22nd, 2011 at 7:10 pm
Great … another ghetto store like Marshalls. We have enough garbage moving into our city, we don’t need more help. The people coming in from the south and east end have changed our neighborhoods and schools into the ghetto and the mayor and council people obviously welcome the change … or they would enfore our laws and ordinances instead of letting these people run our city. Look what’s happening to our most beautiful neighborhoods – take a ride through Dearborn Hills – it’s disgusting!! The mayor is just another Obama-thinking mayor … enforcing only the laws and ordinances he thinks are important.
August 25th, 2011 at 8:24 pm
You are wrong. People at Muirheads are staying put and not heading to Schaefer.