In 1966, Marsh Supermarkets made waves around the midwest when it entered the fast-growing convenience store segment. By the time the company was sold to a private equity firm forty years later, it operated 154 Village Pantries around Indiana and Ohio! Many of the oldest have been repurposed, and I sometimes take a picture when I see one.
The fifth Village Pantry stood at 1428 South Walnut Street in Muncie. Although most of the earliest stores were designed by architect George Cox1, this one was part of a 7,500-square-foot strip mall2 anchored by Owl Drug. When it opened in 1970, the 2,500-square-foot store employed seven people and stocked 3,000 items3.
The Village Pantry closed around 1985 and became a Domino’s Pizza. I remember it best as T-Dubs, a great local pizzeria that used local meats and delivered to the north-side call center where I worked in about 2011. Today, the building’s home to a restaurant and vape shop.
Sources Cited
1 Marsh to Build in Southeast Muncie (1966, October 5). The Muncie Evening Press. p. 23.
2 Parcel 1115312006000 (2024). Office of the Assessor. Delaware County [Muncie]. Web. Retrieved March 10, 2024.
3 Marsh Plans New Division (1966, September 19). The Muncie Evening Press. p. 14.
