I was cruising through the retail apocalypse that is East Washington Street in Indianapolis not long ago when a massive, empty building near the bypass caught my eye. It looked like it had a story to tell, but I didn’t know what it was. I took photos anyway! I later found out that he shell once housed a store you’ve probably forgotten, followed by one you definitely haven’t.
Interstate 465 was completed around Indianapolis in 1970. The same year, Jewel Companies of Franklin Park, Illinois announced plans to build two new Turn Style family centers alongside Eisner Food Stores in the city. Located at 7803 East Washington Street just east of 465, and on South U.S. 31, the 127,000-square-foot complexes combined multiple self-service specialty shops under one roof. Each section was distinguished by its own colors and design motifs1.
Both Turn Styles were designed in what the company called “French Provincial” architecture. They featured mansard-style roofs and park-like shaded entrances. Longardner and Associates of Indianapolis were responsible for the buildings’ appearance2, and the two stores opened on October 17, 1970. A third, at West 38th and North High School Road, came online shortly afterward3.
Unfortunately, the concept didn’t last- all three emporiums were downsized and converted to 25,000-square-foot Osco Drug operations in 19774. Jewel sold the rest of the Turn Style business to May Department Stores’ Venture division the following year5.
The east side of the old Washington Street Turn Style reopened as a 72,000-square-foot Service Merchandise, Indy’s third, in 19786. It was home to an enormous line of jewelry, diamonds, and nationally-advertised merchandise brands7 as part of a chain that dated to 1934, when a small five-and-dime opened in Pulaski, Tennessee.
The first real Service Merchandise opened in downtown Nashville in 1960. It, and future stores, operated under the then-popular “catalog showroom” approach.Customers entered, received an order form and clipboard, and explored as they wrote down the item numbers of the goods they wanted.
Once they were ready to check out, customers at Service Merchandise took their forms to a clerk, paid, and moved to a pickup area. There, their items emerged from the stockroom on a conveyor belt. The setup might sound strange, but it was immune to shoplifting and shrinkage. For a time, the concept was very popular.
Unfortunately, Service Merchandise lost lots of market share to big box discounters like Walmart, Best Buy, and Bed Bath & Beyond as the 1990s came into view. The company reduced the size of its showrooms and discontinued unprofitable product lines like electronics, toys, and sporting goods8, but it wasn’t enough to stanch the bleeding. Service Merchandise filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in 1999, then closed all of its stores in 20029.
I can’t remember Osco in the west part of the old Turn Style store, but I do recall the old Service Merchandise sign out towards Washington Street, which lasted long past the store itself. I also remember some of the nearby businesses and restaurants in what became known as East Washington Plaza. Old Country Buffet was in the corner until 200410, when it became home to International Buffet. Book World, Great Clips, a rehab place, and Skyline Chili rounded out the plaza. Today, practically nothing is left aside from Pasquale’s Pizza and Pasta. I’ve heard it’s good but haven’t been there myself.
Not long ago, the old Osco side of Turn Style had found a strange but fitting second life as the Peddler’s Mall flea market. Wandering through it felt a little like exploring the retail afterlife. On the other side, the former Service Merchandise space housed the Furniture For Less Clearance Center, another bargain-oriented tenant that seemed perfectly at home in the aging complex. Today, though, both halves sit empty. The flea market relocated just east to a former Ayr-Way and Target store, leaving the old Turn Style complex quiet once again. It’s strange how quickly these giant retail buildings can go from bustling commercial hubs to hollow shells waiting for whatever comes next.
There’s not much reason to wander past East Washington Plaza these days unless you’re the kind of person like me who slows down to stare at dead shopping centers and abandoned storefronts like me. Most people blow past the old plaza without a second thought, but my brother spotted something unexpected out front as we drove past, a sign near the new Thortons gas station that announced “Coming Soon: East Washington Plaza Redevelopment.” John’s callout caught my attention immediately: for years, the aging strip mall has felt more like a relic than an active retail hub.
A quick search revealed a brochure that announced the impending arrival of a Saraga International Grocery in about two-thirds of the old Turn Style/Service Merchandise building11. The 68,000-square-foot supermarket -the company’s sixth, and third in Indianapolis12– may bring forth development that the east side of Indy, and East Washington Plaza, desperately need. Here’s hoping it does. Until then, though, much of East Washington Plaza remains one of those strange retail limbo spaces: a place where dead chains, flea markets, empty storefronts, and the faint possibility of a comeback all coexist under the same aging roof.
Sources Cited
1 Turn-Style, Esiner Open Today (1970, October 17). The Indianapolis Star. p. 29.
2 (See footnote 1).
3 2 Turn-Styles Set For Opening (1970, October 14). The Indianapolis News. p. 80.
4 Turn-Style Stores To Be Osco Drugs (1977, June 23). The Indianapolis News. p. 43.
5 Jewel selling Turn Style to Venture Stores (1978, March 8). The Racine Journal Times. p. 12.
6 3rd Service Merchandise Unit Opening (1978, March 21). The Indianapolis News. p. 21.
7 (See footnote 6).
8 Buck, G. (1997, March 28). Service Merchandise To Cut 3,300 Workers. The Chicago Tribune. Web. Retrieved April 2, 2026. \
9 Gerome, J. (2002, January 5). Service Merchandize to close all stores. The Indianapolis Star. p. 21.
10 Williamson, T. (2004, November 25). Eating Out: East. The Indianapolis Star. p. 235.
11 Redevelopment of East Washington Plaza (n.d.). CBRE [Indianapolis]. Web. Retrieved April 2, 2026. 12 (See footnote 11).
I remember Service Merchandise – it operated a lot like an S&H Green Stamp store, only without the green stamps. I remember Osco too – they blanketed Indianapolis in the 80s.
I was raised just south of the plaza back in the 60’s and 70’s. I barely remember Eisner’s, but most of all I remember all of the rest of the places that were located in the plaza.
Which do you remember?
Man, that plaza looks depressing. I’m surprised one restaurant is still there, because this does not look like a place I’d want to visit.
Turn-Style seemed to have an interesting history and footprint, as it was started in the Boston metro, but then expanded to the Midwest, but it doesn’t seem like there were many stores in between. It seemed like there were other chains that had such scattered locations like that, a few stores in Illinois and Indiana, then Connecticut and Massachusetts. Having such a distended footprint must have been tough for their distribution network, which was probably a reason why they went under. Doing a little reading on all these defunct regional chains, a lot went defunct in the mid-late 70s during the economic downturn. Also worth noting: Turn-Style went through A LOT of logos in their relatively short time on Earth.
But Service Merchandise! I remember going to my local one A LOT as a kid. I bought my first pair of speakers at one when I was 14. I loved their electronics department.