Yorktown-based Marsh Supermarkets entered the booming, burgeoning convenience store market back in 1966. Fast-forward forty years, and they’d built a network of 154 Village Pantries across Indiana and Ohio! Many of the oldest have found second or third lives as something new, and I try to snap a quick photo whenever I drive past one.
As early as 1950, the southwest corner of Broadway and West Vinyard Street in Anderson was home to the Blue Sunoco Station1. The building may also have served as a dealership for Tucker automobiles2. In 1951, it became home to Phillips Sunoco Service Station. Eight years later, it was Burkhart’s- another Sunoco3.
According to the Madison Township Assessor, the current place was built in 19764. That’s the year that Anderson’s newest Village Pantry opened as the chain’s eighty-third outpost. At 2,400 square feet, the convenience store featured novelties like a deli, an ice cream cabinet, a microwave, a greeting card section, and fresh popcorn. It was open twenty-four hours, seven days a week5.
The Village Pantry at Broadway and Vinyard was Anderson’s sixth. It joined other locations at 2530 South Raible, 3731 South Madison, 3814 Columbus, 112 East 14th, and 1923 North Madison6. I’m pretty sure I remember it being an actual Village Pantry, too! For the last ten years or so, though, it’s been home to Save-On Liquor. I haven’t been inside.
Sources Cited
1 Blue Sunoco In North Anderson (1950, June 9). The Anderson Daily Bulletin. p. 23.
2 Wilkerson, A. Back Home Again…Anderson History. We Grew up in North Anderson, Indiana. (2025, March 10). North Anderson Folks, In 1949 Anderson’s Tucker Dealership / North Anderson Sunoco Service Station was built on South/West corner of [Post]. Facebook.
3 (See footnote 2).
4 Madison County Office of Information & GIS Services. (2025). Parcel ID: 48-11-01-103-127.000-003. Madison County, Indiana Assessor. map, Anderson, IN.
5 Village Pantry opens new store here March 11 (1976, March 4). The Anderson Daily Bulletin. p. 9.
6 Village Pantry (1977, July 30). The Anderson Herald. p. 13.
This started me down a brief rabbit hole in an attempt to find out how many Tucker dealerships there were in Indiana. But I found nothing. I would bet that dealerships were signed up, but with only 50 or so cars built, I would be surprised if any were originally sold here.
I had no idea so few were produced!