07/12/2026
🛍️ Kresge's was the store where a dollar was still a real amount of money and a dime was enough to make a decision worth making. The candy counter alone could occupy twenty minutes of serious consideration — the bulk bins with their scoops, the paper bags that got twisted at the top, the specific satisfying weight of a bag of penny candy that you had selected yourself one piece at a time.
The lunch counter was the other institution. You could sit at one of those stools and order a grilled cheese and a cherry Coke and spend the better part of an afternoon for less than the cost of anything that came later. The counterman knew the regulars and the regulars knew each other and the lunch counter was the five and dime's living room.
Everything in that store cost a reasonable amount. That was the whole philosophy and it was the right one.
Did your town have a Kresge's — and what counter did you always go to first? 💛
