Okay, you may be thinking “we've seen the old general stores, and now grocers...so what's the difference between general stores and grocery stores?” It's a fine line, but there is a difference.

Diffsense.com defines a general store as a store that “sells a large variety of useful things, without specializing highly in any particular type of merchandise, and which is not departmentalized.”

And then they go on to explain that grocery stores sell “retail foodstuffs and other household supplies.”

So there ya go. General stores are thought by many to be actual grocers, and to be fair, they do carry many, many food stuffs, so it can get a little quizzical.

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Okay, so where does that leave convenience stores? How do they differ from general stores and grocery stores? Surely there isn't much difference, right? Just mostly interchangeable? Nope. Differencebetween.com states the difference is in “the type of food they sell; convenience stores sell staple food that is packaged whereas grocery stores sell fresh produce such as fruits, vegetables, and meat.”

Okay, fine. So before we get to the gallery of old Michigan grocers, I decided to go one step further: what's the difference between a convenience store and a party store? According to urbandictionary.com, 'party store' is a “Michigan slang term that describes a small convenience store that sells soda, beer, liquor, snacks such as potato chips and hot dogs, and some household goods such as plastic cups and paper plates.”

Sure...why not.

So now since all that is somewhat settled, here's a gallery of over 50 Michigan grocers, from 1900-1960s!

Michigan Grocers, 1900-1960s

MORE VINTAGE MICHIGAN GALLERIES:

Michigan's Coffee Shops, 1900 - 1975

Michigan's Wagons, Early 1900s

Michigan Stagecoaches

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