Apparently even Auto Zone knows that it’s going to be a while before Michigan’s roads are fixed sufficiently to avoid damage to your car. The prolific peddler of auto parts is establishing yet another beach head in Berrien County with a new store being built on the periphery of the Stevensville Meijer store. So long as road conditions remain as rough as they are, the need for auto repairs will continue to be a necessity for some time.
The revelation isn’t sitting well with social media fans of a Facebook food critics page, either. Anticipating that the newly staked parcel of land along Red Arrow Highway across from I-94 might be the beginnings of a new restaurant of some sort, the speculation began to run rampant with rumors, suggestions, and a veritable wish list of “what this area needs,” and clearly the responses showed that another auto parts emporium was not anywhere on that wish list.
I reached out to Lincoln Township Supervisor Dick Stauffer over the weekend regarding what the bulldozers and other earthmovers being assembled on that site might be readying for. Having heard the street talk that a new Auto Zone was coming to the Stevensville neighborhood, I queried Stauffer if that was what would be erected on the Meijer outlot and he confirmed on Monday morning that such was the case.
In the snows of Tuesday, I captured the photo shown above and by yesterday the ground was being rearranged for the construction site of a new 6,400 square foot Auto Zone.
Since the first question was posed Sunday on that fan page, the replies have been all over the board, but the clear disdain for “another auto parts” store was overwhelming. The “critics” were hoping for everything from a Super Target to Arbys and Tim Horton’s.
Regardless of popular opinion on that site, about four months from now they’ll likely be preparing for a ribbon cutting ceremony to showcase the new retailer.
Meijer owned the outlot and sold it at the end of the year to Auto Zone for the new parts store. One other lot remains, but its hilly topography will likely render it un-buildable for any conventional structure.
The new Auto Zone will join existing local stores on Hilltop in St. Joseph, M-139 in Benton Harbor, US-31 in Berrien Springs, S. 11th Street in Niles, and M-51 in Dowagiac.
