Kroger on Broadway

Kroger Co. operated a grocery store at 724 Broadway in the 1950s and earlier. This undated photo was taken by G.D. Fronabarger.

The 1954 directory lists Hollie W. Russell as manager. The 1956 and 1958 directories list Cecil J. Bechtlofft as manager. The 1960 directory lists Orvil R. Shamblin as manager.

Kroger closed this store in 1960 and opened a new store at 2148 William in the Town Plaza.

Aug. 2, 1960 Southeast Missourian

Broadway Kroger Store to Close This Week

R.A. Hughes, president of the St. Louis Division of the Kroger Co., announced today that the Kroger store at 724 Broadway will be permanently closed following the conclusion of the day's business this Saturday night, Aug. 6. The new Kroger supermarket located in the Town Plaza Shopping Center on West William will be opened Thursday, Aug. 11, he said. The Broadway Kroger store, owned by the estate of the late Dr. A.L. Fuerth, was erected in 1948 and occupied by the store that year.

In 1969, a newly-built Kroger Family Center opened at 2001 Independence. It was the largest of Kroger's 1,200 stores in the U.S.

The huge 54,000-square-foot facility "transformed a recent wasteland of junked automobiles and tangled vines and trees into one of the attractive affluences of a modern city," wrote G.D. Fronabarger in his business column of June 9, 1969.

In 1976, the store was expanded and called Kroger Sav-On.

Kroger closed in 1982. The building became Plaza Galleria in 1984.

The first Kroger store in Cape Girardeau opened in 1922 at 632 Broadway.

Records indicate another Kroger store opened on Main Street in 1934.

Sept. 19, 1973 Southeast Missourian advertisement for Deevers Realty:

724 Broadway, known as the Kroger Building, 10,000 sq. feet of good building with 24,000 sq. feet of paved parking.

Dollar General Store operates at this location today.

A small sign in the shopping cart reads, "Enjoy Coca-Cola while you shop. Place bottle here." The cart has a holder for two soda bottles.

Other items visible include Armour pure lard, Armour pork feet, Hormel pork shoulder picnic, Waverly Wafers and Kroger crackers. Ground beef special, 3 lbs. for $1.