Here’s an aerial view, from 1952, of the Elmwood Shopping Center - home of Grand Union’ s headquarters and flagship store. The second largest retail tenant in the center was Neisner’s, a major variety store chain at the time, and probably the only one who didn’t have a set of initials before its name, unlike its competitors – F.W. Woolworth, W.T. Grant, S.S. Kresge, J.J. Newberry, G.C. Murphy…
The parking lot to the left of the shopping center at the edge of the photo would become the future location of the Grand Way store which opened, as previously mentioned, in 1966.
Great shopping center! Whatever happened to Neisners?
ReplyDeleteNeisner Bros. was based in upstate NY (Rochester or Syracuse, I think). They had a scattered collection of variety stores in the NE and Midwest. They were pretty generic variety stores. Many locations were castoffs from Woolworth.
ReplyDeleteIn the 60s & 70s, they also built "Big N" discount stores, a lower end counterpart to K-Mart, et al. They were pretty awful and stocked rather shoddy merchandise. The ones I recall were in small towns, but they may have had some urban locations closer to their headquarters. Ames bought what was left of the chain in the 80s.
Hi David, just came upon your site. I'm FASCINATED by the amount of knowledge (and research) you have put into this. And the PHOTOS! Holy COW! They are worth the price of admission alone -- if, of course, there were admission to pay! Can't wait to see what else you have in store. I've been blogging and reading blogs for a few years now and it's always fun to come across one as creative as this. I've added you to my blogroll. See ya soon!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Anonymous. For some reason I thought Nesiners lasted longer than the 80s. I didn't know about the discount division that they had. I had always heard very little about the variety ones because tehy had a few locations in Chicago. Big N though sounds interesting in the Spartan-Atlantic sort of way.
ReplyDeleteRocketman - I'm glad you enjoy the site. I've had a near lifelong interest in business and pop culture history, so the research and writing for this is pure fun for me. As for the photos, I'm as amazed at them you are!
ReplyDeleteThanks very much!
Hi,
ReplyDeleteNeisners and Big N are part of my past, Dad worked for the Neisners chain for 30 years. This site brings back great memories. Don't forget Myrtle Mills, (not sure if that is spelled right)
Anonymous - Thanks, and I hope to do some Neisner's posts one of these days. As for Myrtle Mills, I've heard of them (I think), but don't know anything about them. Can you tell us a little bit about them?
ReplyDeleteMyrtle Mills was located in Unionville, CT and operated from, I'm guessing, the 1950's until the late '70's. Their logo was a spool of yarn, a nod to the buildings history as a textile mill of the same name. There is a picture in a local history book of A. J. Rosenstien cutting a ribbon at opening ceremonies at the store. My mom worked there at the service desk and later as a bookkeeper for Louis Radin who owned the housewares and paint concession. The entire store was run in this manner, sort of individual stores within a store and centralized checkout.
DeleteHey Anonymous, my dad worked for Neisner Bros. for 26 years.
ReplyDeleteWere your Dads managers? I'm guessing so with 26 and 30
Deletewith the years they had. Guess they were lucky if they retired before Ames took over.
Im trying to find information on the men who started Neisner Brothers. It is possible they are related to my aunt. Do you know where I might look? Ive found nothing online.
ReplyDeleteI worked for Neisners in Homestead,Fl in 1968-69. Does anyone know of any employees who worked there..
ReplyDeleteThere was a clothing store named Canadians in the Elmwood Shopping center. The employees turned their downstairs lounge into a "Hang-Out" for the town's teenage girls. We used to go there after school.
ReplyDeleteNeisners out of Rochester, had apprx 125 variety stores and I think 22 Big N discount stores, the 1st in Pittsfield, Mass. They bought the 1st discount store, Myrtle Mills in Unionville,Ct which was converted
ReplyDeleteFrom a knitting mill (Roosevelt Mills) into a retail store. This also a training ground for the 1st 3 Big N mgrs all who were already mgrs in their variety stores. Stores were mainly in NYS,Pa,Ohio,Fl,Mi,Chicago and scattered around about 10 other states. They were very successful until shopping centers came along and shoppers went from downtown to the burbs. And there was Neisners stuck with lots of 99 yr leases in all the now undesirable locals. The real estate division certainly didn't have any vision for the future.