Probably every mid-sized midwestern city has, or had, a local grocer. Though Muncie’s been home to many one-offs along with the Richmond-based interloper Eavey’s, three major players – Marsh, Ross, and Wise- defined our grocery scene for years. I love a good supermarket history, and I was reminded of one a couple of weeks ago when I went to Central Indiana Orthopedics to get my shoulder checked out.
Wise Food Markets was founded in Muncie in 1937 when O.G. Wise opened a frozen food locker and cannery at 1700 N. Walnut Street. A decade later, he converted the cannery into a grocery store. Wise opened a second grocery on East Memorial Drive in 1955.
Duane Wise eventually succeeded his father as president of the company and oversaw the construction of a 24,000-square-foot supermarket adjacent to the original Walnut Street structure in 1977. That location was the first store to install UPC barcode scanners in Muncie, according to the January 27, 1979 edition of The Muncie Star, despite Marsh’s triumph as the first retailer in the country to ever scan a UPC at their branch in Troy, Ohio five years earlier.Â
Wise was an innovator! In 1985, the business reconfigured its Walnut Street site into what was known as the Wise Mini Mall. In addition to the new supermarket, the complex became home to a Pier 1 Imports store and the “A Cut Above” beauty salon upstairs. The “supermarket of crafts,” Wise Crafters, was established in the old grocery store around the same time, while the Wise Country Market -a seasonal produce and garden stand- was built at the southwest corner of the complex. To match its expansion on Muncie’s north side, Wise enlarged its Memorial Drive grocery in 1988.
Marsh established an early foothold on the northwest side of Muncie in 1980 when it built a 32,000-square-foot superstore adjacent to Ayr-Way. By the early 1990s, Wise was ready to expand again to compete with the juggernaut, and work began in earnest on a new Wise Food Market at 3600 West Bethel Avenue during the fall of 1991.
At 42,000 square feet, the $4 million Wise supermarket was much larger than any of its extant groceries. It was designed to be a cutting-edge shopping experience! The big draw was its 24-foot wide automatic revolving door, manufactured by a company from the Netherlands and said to be the largest in the world. A drive-up window, a bakery, and a deli and dining area rounded out the supermarket’s offerings when it opened in 1992.
Unfortunately, more competitors came into play on Muncie’s northwest side after the store was built. The arrival of Meijer further west had an enormous impact on the new Wise supermarket, as did the opening of a state-of-the-art Marsh at McWheel Plaza at the corner of McGalliard and Wheeling further east.
If new competitors weren’t enough, traffic patterns struck another blow to the success of the new supermarket. Although its supermarket was easily seen from McGalliard, Wise couldn’t win a curb cut to provide direct access to its new store! The company was forced to rely on access from Bethel Avenue and Community Drive, which made getting to the place a chore thanks to the four-way stop at Clara and Timber Lanes. Traffic backed up there just as it does today, thirty years later.
Because of those difficulties, the Northwest Wise supermarket closed early in 1996 after a scant three years in business. Wise sold its state-of-the-art building to East Central Indiana Orthopedics, which reconfigured it and opened at the site in April 1997.
Wise Food Markets remained a going concern until later that year when Ross Supermarkets purchased the company for just under $2 million. Ross operated both Wise stores through 2000, when Marsh bought the combined organization. Marsh quickly converted the Wise supermarket on East Memorial Drive into its second Savin*$ store, a low-frills brand similar to Aldi that featured another location in Frankfort. Five other Ross Supermarkets -including the former Wise on North Walnut- were converted to Marsh’s LoBill Foods brand.
Marsh closed the Savin*$ grocery in 2006 amidst a corporate restructuring program, but Wise’s Walnut Street supermarket remained open until 2017, when Marsh declared bankruptcy. Duane Wise passed away in May at the age of 97, but his legacy hasn’t been lost: today, his family still owns the Walnut Street property and continues to operate the Wise Country Market garden store on the site. Although Wise’s big bet at Bethel Avenue didn’t pay off, the neon Wise Owl sign from his East Memorial grocery still stands at the seasonal Wise Country Market.
