The Convenience Store Used to be the Corner Market
In the times before cars we didn’t have the “convenience store” like 7-Eleven. Well, we did, we just didn’t call them convenience stores. They were simply the corner market:
Image from the Thomas Kempland Collection.
7-Eleven pioneered the convenience store concept way back in 1927 at the Southland Ice Company in Dallas, Texas. In addition to selling blocks of ice to refrigerate food, an enterprising ice dock employee began offering milk, bread and eggs on Sundays and evenings when grocery stores were closed. This new business idea produced satisfied customers and increased sales, and convenience retailing was born! The company’s first convenience outlets were known as Tote’m stores since customers “toted” away their purchases, and some even sported genuine Alaskan totem poles in front. In 1946, Tote’m became 7-Eleven to reflect the stores’ new, extended hours – 7 a.m. until 11 p.m., seven days a week. (Source)
Although 7-11 started in 1927, but it was not until 1952 that they opened their 100th store. It took until 1960 to reach 500 locations but by 1963 they opened their 1,000th store.
The above Kroeger store at Virginia & Fassen (map) is long closed but there is a 7-11 a block to the South and a former 7-11 was a few blocks to the North. Another within six blocks to the West. We never totally lost the coener market. They just morphed into places to drive too.
Around here, I think the better analogy would be Walgreen’s, not 7-11 . . .
Aesthetically speaking…It is a shame to see great brickwork covered over by the ugly siding and the removal of the great pieces near the roof line. I am sure that those things were done a while a ago, but the take away from the character of the neighborhood. Fortunately, Iron Barley has that great look of the exposed glazed brick and natural facade.
If only 7-11 in the US were more like 7-11s in Japan…less emphasis on driving, better integrated into existing urban settings, and a large and tasty selection of groceries and ready-made foods.
I’m glad to hear a CVS is opening where the gas station closed @ Gravois/Hampton. It will greatly help that eyesore at that intersection. I just don’t understand why that spot though. I’d still continue to go to Walgreens though. Any other new CVS locations besides this one in the city, and the one at Lemay/Lindbergh in the county?
The old Steak-n-Shake is coming down on Manchester in Rock Hill – I wouldn’t be surprised to see a CVS going in there.
We have largely lost the corner market in places where pedestrians use to exist. I use to walk to the corner pharmacy at Hanley-Wydown (now Starbucks), a fountain shop was across the street to the west (now a restaurant), to the south across Wydown was a local grocer and the mega-center (Schnucks) was another short walk away at Hanley-Clayton. These shops have been replaced by the stores at Brentwood Pointe and convenient/safe access is now blocked by the New 64 and the Extension. They’re no walkable corner grocers or pharmacies in the neighborhood any more. StL region continues to decline in quality of life factors, quite quickly.
John, I’d say you’re lament applies to just about any city in America, and until land development patterns are reshaped by multi-modal transit and neighborhood anchorages like the vitally important corner buildings, we can expect the rapid pace of decline to continue uninterrupted. In fact, The conditions you describe (as commonplace) have been gone for decades, but the more we stand idly and watch traffic engineers and corporate-size developers shape our scape, the harder it will be to reinstill the neighborhood-scale qualities via the staple fixtures that make neighborhoods actual ‘places’.
Certain posts shed light. John sounds like he’s posting from Clayton! There may not be any corner stores left in Clayton, but there are plenty in city neighborhoods all over town. At least that’s what I thought they were. If I’m mistaken, call me dumb. Dumb me.
No need to call anyone dumb, but instead to call to recognition that fact that as commonplace, the corner stores and walkable range amenitites that were abundant in a vanished time, are no longer commonplace. Those instances may remain in hidden spots throughout our city, but the rate of current loss is just disheartening, except perhaps to those that have long since decided to pick their battles.
Challenge to the Johns: name one neighborhood in the city without a corner store.
marine villa.
i’m mentally scanning the neighborhood, but i can’t think of a single corner store, unless you want to count the QT at jefferson/chippewa/broadway, but thats technically outside of our boundaries.
I’m leaning back toward calling you dumb… read what was written. Are there modern Walgreen’s stores on corners, and several remaining corner stores in historic buildings, for instance, around St. Louis? Sure. Look up the word commonplace, and then post back with another challenge… or not…. Wait a minute… what was the point of the challenge again?
Marine Villa without a corner store? That can’t be. We probably should define what counts, cause I guarantee you that somewhere in MV there is a store on a corner in one of the neighborhood’s commercial or mixed use buildings. Okay, maybe the store’s in the middle of the block, but I’d be willing to make a bet we can find a walk-to store within the boundaries of MV, and just about every other neighborhood in the city. Most neighborhoods have many.
For a good sampling of corner stores and a whole neighborhood full of them come on down to Macklind Days this weekend in the Southampton Neighborhood.
There’s a brand new, traditionally-detailed and -sited, retail structure on the NW corner of Lindenwood & Chippewa (with an AT&T and a Qdoba), with storefronts both front and back and off-street parking in back. Guess what, the “front” doors are strictly for show, the “real” access is in “back”, off the parking lot. Autos rule!
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. Retailers aren’t stupid – they give their customers what they want. A minority, probably a very small one, may want walkability (more in the CBD or New Town), but the vast majority want drivability, selection and convenience. Walgreens isn’t replacing stores without drive-thru’s with new buildings that have them because it’s cheap or easy. They’re doing it because the large investment makes them more money!
Look at the picture of the old Krogers. How many vehicles do you see? This is 2009, not 1919. Most adults have their own vehicles and they drive them, especially to shop. The world has changed. For better or worse depends on one’s perspective, but autos obviously rule. At least these guys haven’t discovered St. Louis (yet?): http://www.kumandgo.com/
Okay, so this morning, feeling like an aldermen, I “drove” the Marine Villa neighborhood, in search of corner stores. According to the City of St. Louis, the boundaries are Cherokee on the north, the Mississippi River on the east, Gasconade on the South, and Broadway/Jefferson on the west.
The only operating “store” I found was the Phillips 66 at Lemp and Broadway. That doesn’t count the many stores on the south frontage of Cherokee Row. There were many walkable taverns througout the area, and there were a number of historic storefront spaces for lease. Any of these could be leased and turned into a neighborhood market.
^ i think the point is that these neighborhoods used to be ABUNDANT with corner stores that people could WALK to. now we’re arguing over which neighborhoods have at most ONE of them.
IMO, anything with a parking lot larger than the footprint of the store itself does not qualify as a “corner” store.
A neighborhood doesn’t have to have a corner store on every block to be walkable. The “popsicle test” asks whether there’s a place to buy a popsicle within a five minute walk of your house.
Most city neighborhoods can say yes. Most city neighborhoods are so compact you can walk from the center to the edge in five minutes, and somewhere in that five minute walk radius, there’s a place to buy a popsicle. It would help if we city people stopped beating ourselves up so much.
It would also help if we could find our way to a more sustainable zoning structure that would facilitate appropriate urban form. Oh… wait a minute… I think I just opened up a new line of challenge on what is “appropriate urban form”. Call me silly. Silly me.
Yes you did. There is what we like and there is what works. Is “appropriate” something in between?
The Taco Bell near Broadway and Chouteau is about as downtown and urban as you can get, but it’s a drive through fast food joint with a surface parking lot. Does someone want to say it’s not urban? Try telling that to someone from Poplar Bluff.
When I buy lunch there, my tax dollars go to the City of St. Louis, as do the property taxes on the building and earnings taxes on the people who work there.
I’m not satisfied with pragmatic hole-pluggers like the Taco Bell example. As you said, there is what WE like, and there is what ‘works’. There seems to be an inference there that places what WE like at odds with what ‘works’. I don’t see that there is mutual exclusivity to the quality urban design that WE like (truly walkable streets, distances between places, and attractions that invite rather than say, “buy your burritos and move on”) and what ‘works’. You seem to think that I, and others, have thrown the baby out with the bathwater because we have critical comments to offer in our assessment of our city. I’m not particularly concerned with the parochial perspective of some Poplar Bluff natives when desiring appropriate urban form, because they’re just as likely to see St. Louis on a 1:1000 Interstate Highway atlas and call it ‘urban’.
“A neighborhood doesn’t have to have a corner store on every block to be walkable.”
right, you could still comfortably walk to nowhere.
The “popsicle test†asks whether there’s a place to buy a popsicle within a five minute walk of your house.
1) how many blocks is your average person (some elderly) going to cover in five minutes?
2) i may be able to walk to get a popsicle, but i still have to get in my car to get a candy bar. it’s too bad i need both popsicles AND candy bars to survive.
“The Taco Bell near Broadway and Chouteau is about as downtown and urban as you can get, but it’s a drive through fast food joint with a surface parking lot. Does someone want to say it’s not urban?”
let’s not confuse “urban” as in “located within city limits” with “urban” as in “creates a human-scaled environment, encourages pedestrian traffic, and allows one to survive without a car”.
Move to New Town in St. Charles for a human scaled environment that encourages pedestrian activity. It’s all about new urbanism and walkability. Just listen to their advertising!
I’ll take a gritty Taco Bell under a railroad trestle, near Soulard and a downtown stadium, thank you very much!
^ you’re welcome, but NOWHERE did i suggest that a “gritty Taco Bell under a railroad trestle, near Soulard and a downtown stadium” is not urban. so long as it’s built to the sidewalk and not surrounded by a sea of parking, i can think of nothing more urban! (whether or not it’s aesthetically pleasing is another issue.)
are you saying that if i live in the city i should just accept its auto-ization at the expense of pedestrians (completely antithetical to the historical role of the city, by the way) and if i insist on traditional city living (i.e. dense residential, retail and services and the accompanying auto-free lifestyle) i should move to a fake city in the exurbs?
how does that make sense?
Let me give you a topic…
“urban elitists”
…discuss…
“Urban” comes in many forms and many shades of grey. Higher density is probably a given, along with sidewalks and probably a grid-based street network. What’s less clear is how the automobile gets integrated into the built environment. This is 2009, not 1909. Today, we have as many, if not more, privately-owned motor vehicles as we have humans. A century ago, most peoples’ choices were limited to their feet, streetcars or bicycles, while the wealthier had access to early motor vehicles, horses and horse-drawn vehicles. This one change, over the past hundred years, has had a HUGE impact on how buildings are designed and sited, how business is conducted and how most people live their lives. While some purists may see a lot of charm in doing things the “old” way, the vast majority of us are voting with our butts and driving where we want to go!
So, what is “urban” around here? Soulard? CWE? Hampton Village? New Town? The Wellston Loop area? Pruitt Igoe? Laclede’s Landing? St. Louis Hills? Downtown Webster Groves? Forest Park? SLU? UMSL? Washington University? Bevo Mill? There is no one right or perfect answer – we each have our own standards and expectations. It’s probably a lot like pornography – hard to define, but we’ll know it when we see it! Personally, it’s mostly about density, combined with a certain creative messiness . . .
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