Family-owned store part of Fowlerville Business District for the past 95 years

Curtis Grocery closed in early December

   When Curtis Grocery closed its doors in early December, it marked the end of a family-owned business that’s been part of the Fowlerville Downtown Business District for most of the past 95 years.

   “My grandfather, Clyde Curtis, had been in partnership with Frank Rounsville from 1918 to 1921,” said Ken Curtis. “In 1921 he purchased Rounsville’s interest in Rounsville and Curtis Grocery and renamed it Curtis Grocery.”

   The store at that time was located on North Grand Avenue, on the south part of what’s now Maria’s School of Dance. “The Curtis family had a farm on Chase Lake Road where my grandfather grew up,” noted Ken. “He left the farm to go into the grocery business. He ran it through the Great Depression and during World War II when they had the rationing.”

    Back then the town boasted several small grocery stores, plus a bakery, meat market, and dairy. Until refrigeration became available, much of the product line was comprised of canned and dry goods, other merchandise, and eggs and produce that was purchased from a market or from area farmers and then re-sold. Home delivery was also an expectation.

    “In 1946 my father, Frank, purchased the business,” Ken pointed out. “He had graduated from Fowlerville High School in 1936, married my mother, Frances (Finlan), and they lived on a small farm on Sharpe Road where he had a business. He then served in the military during World War II. The story goes that when he returned, my grandfather said, ‘Here’s the keys’.”

     Clyde, while no longer the owner, worked alongside Frank, helping in the produce department.

   “In 1956, my dad bought the meat market that was located next door to the north,” noted Ken. “The two buildings were remodeled to create one, large store. The business was re-named Frank’s Market.”

  While this doubling of size made the store larger than other local competitors, the emerging trend (as it has been for so many businesses) called for even larger stores. That occurred when Frank bought a couple of retail buildings on South Grand Avenue along with a couple of houses on South Ann Street, tore down the buildings, and constructed an 8,000 square-foot supermarket that allowed customer and delivery access from both streets and featured a larger parking lot.

   This new store opened in 1962 and was now called Frank’s IGA Foodliner.

    By this time Ken, who graduated from Fowlerville High that same year, had been working at the store since boyhood. “I started out mopping floors and helping stock shelves,” he said.

   Ken added that he was not alone. “My mother helped out, as did my older sister, Barb, and later on my younger sisters, Patty, Carol, and Mary,” he noted.

   Ken attended Michigan State University, graduating in 1966. He then served in the U.S. Army for two years. In 1969, after his discharge, he joined his father on a full-time basis and formed a partnership with the goal of eventually owning the business.

   “In 1976 we bought the former basket factory and another small office building and house to the south and this allowed us to add onto the building and then expand the parking lot,” he said.

     All was going fine when, in December of 1978, a fire destroyed the store. The Curtis family worked with Howard Dorrance, owner of Howard’s Market (now Save-on Family Foods), to serve the public and began work on constructing a new building.

   “We re-opened on Memorial Day weekend in 1979,” Ken said. “It was the same size, but had a different look on the exterior and the inside lay-out.”

    In later years, a new generation, the children of Ken and Juanita Curtis—Colleen, Tom, Craig, and Lindsay—began helping out at the store while in school.

   In 2000, deciding to pursue other interests, Ken sold the grocery business to Chris Rosati and leased the building to him for 10 years. The store was now called Rosati’s Market. That ended when Rosati decided not to renew the lease.

   At this point, Ken decided to return to the business with his sons. However, before opening, a number of upgrades had to be done, new coolers and other display cases purchased, and the deli-bakery remodeled and expanded.

   “Rosati’s closed in November 2009 and we opened up in August of 2010,” said Ken. “We decided to use the original name, Curtis Grocery.”

   Over the next six years, Ken continued working at the store with Craig and Kate (Craig’s wife) working as managers. Also assisting as a manager was Larry Schmid, who began working for the Curtises when he was in high school. A couple of other, younger members of the Curstis family also worked at the store, one time or the other, during that span.

    Ken noted that there’s a photo of him and a granddaughter, Sydney Feig, working in the produce section. “She is the fifth generation of our family to work at the store,” he pointed out.

   UNFORTUNATELY, “HAPPILY EVER AFTER”, WAS NOT DESTINED TO BE THE ENDING TO THIS NEW EFFORT. Changing circumstances that have been taking place over the years as well as more recent developments brought on a moment of reckoning for Ken and his family.

   “We were already considering the option of closing when our wholesaler, Affiliated Foods, was purchased by a larger co-op (Associate Wholesale Grocers) in October,” said Ken. “I went to a meeting and was told that the new co-op wanted a three-year commitment with the requirement that we purchase stock in the company. Prior to that, there was not a commitment. I didn’t feel it was financially prudent to go in that direction.”

   Ken added that there are only two other warehouses that he could have gone to, but added that he felt neither would have been able to be competitive price-wise with the larger distributors. “The smaller warehouses have a hard time competing in Michigan against the bigger outfits,” he said.

     He noted that both the community and the grocery business have changed from earlier years. “Before, you used to have one or two supermarkets that served a small town and most of the residents shopped in them,” he said. “Now, there are much larger, mega-stores that offer many more products and other services and have a much larger market area.

    “More and more people, particularly the younger set, have chosen to shop there and are willing to drive a much longer distance,” Ken added. “Our place had become more and more of a convenience store rather than the place where a lot of area families bought the bulk of their food and other groceries. We had a lot of customers who have been loyal to us over the years, just not as many as we needed or that we used to have.

     “For most of the store’s early history, Fowlerville was a farming community,” he pointed out. “The dairy farmers would get their milk checks and the wives would come to town to stock up at the store. Most people, years ago, shopped once a week for their groceries. Fowlerville has gradually become more of a bedroom community. Many people live here, but work outside of town. They have a lot of options between home and work as to where they can shop.”

  Ken added that the cost of doing business—including insurance, credit card fees, and property taxes—has gotten higher over the years, making it harder to operate a small business.

   All of those factors, he said--what had already occurred and what seemed likely to occur in the foreseeable future—coupled with this requirement from the new distributor to make a long-term contractual commitment and also invest money in the co-op’s stock, prompted the decision to close the store.

   “It was not an easy decision,” Ken said. “Closing it, with all of the customers expressing their regrets and telling us that they’ll miss us and the store, has been difficult. But staying open or agreeing to stay with the co-op under their conditions did not seem financially prudent—either for the business or our family.

   “I do want to thank everyone who supported us over the years,” he concluded. “We appreciate it. I also want to thank all of the employees who’ve worked for us over the years as well.”