This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Editor's note • In this regular series, The Tribune explores the once-favorite places of Utahns, from restaurants to recreation to retail.
Grand Central was the king of general stores.
With more than 30 locations in Utah, Idaho, Nevada, Texas and New Mexico, it was Utah's predecessor to big-box chains like Wal-mart and Target — a place where you could get everything in one spot.
But Grand Central didn't have grand beginnings.
The store was founded by Maurice Warshaw, a son of Jewish parents who emigrated from Russia to the United States when he was a child. Warshaw started out in Clarion, Utah, a Jewish colony near Gunnison in the early 1900s that was created as a place for Jews to "return to the land."
When the colony failed, Warshaw moved to Salt Lake City. After years of living in poverty, working as a trash collector and selling fruit from a cart, he had enough capital to open a produce stand on the corner of 900 South and Main Street. He called it Grand Central in hopes it would be "as busy as a big station."
Warshaw touted the stand as "the first time in Salt Lake City that customers were allowed to pick out their own fruits and vegetables," the entrepreneur wrote in his 1975 autobiography, "Life More Sweet than Bitter." "Other merchants thought I was crazy, but I was sure I knew what I was doing."
Warshaw also was the first to stock Kellogg's Corn Flakes, selling "more corn flakes than anyone had ever dreamed," for which he was awarded a big Kellogg's clock, "to the envy of all other merchants."
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'Everything in one trip' • The success with Kellogg's convinced Warshaw to expand his business beyond produce. He bought Salt Lake City's first neon sign, an investment that required high payments. When two of his market tenants, a butcher and a grocer, refused to help with the costs, Warshaw added his own meat and grocery departments.
The store survived the Great Depression and two world wars. In 1946, Warshaw partnered with his son, Keith, and son-in-law, Don Mackey. The business grew with multiple locations, each operating on Warshaw's top principle: low prices, a stance that riled his competitors.
He was taken to court once by the Utah Fair Trade Commission for cutting prices against Safeway, Sewell and Piggly Wiggly (the judge dismissed the case). In the 1970s, hundreds of Grand Central meat cutters went on strike over wages and other issues.
As Warshaw put his energies into humanitarian work in the 1950s, he left most of the management duties to his son and Mackey. They expanded the stores to stock medicine, clothing, toys, hardware, kitchenware and electrical gadgets.
"It was so fun that you could buy everything in one trip," said Randall Mackey, Warshaw's oldest grandson.
Most stores had a garden section and some had meat and bakery sections. All had Grand Central's famed candy counter, which had an aroma that permeated each store.
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Eclectic wares • Many have childhood memories of Grand Central, shopping there for a "Star Wars" action figure, a polyester dress or a Donny Osmond album.
Barbara Muñoz once had a bad case of strep throat, and after each doctor visit, her mother would take her to Grand Central to pick out a Barbie doll or My Little Pony.
"It had a homey, retro feel to it," said Muñoz, who grew up in South Salt Lake.
It was a place where customers knew the cashiers, and the products were eclectic. "It wasn't like you were going to see the same things in the same place each time."
The store sold such a variety that Clifford Kwan-Gett, a cardiology researcher at the University of Utah, created a predecessor to one of the world's first artificial hearts using parts he bought at Grand Central.
MaryEllen Van Engelenhoven worked at the store on 3300 South and 3000 East in the 1970s and said the candy department was a coveted spot, although the girls who worked there wore "hideous, indestructible" red or blue polyester dresses "that zipped from the waist to the large collar area."
Van Engelenhoven even sold cigarettes as a 16-year-old. They were right next to the candy.
"Most of the display was at arm's length for a customer to help themselves," she said. "Even the cigarettes were self-serve. I'm sure many a pack were shoplifted."
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Customer service • As a boy, David Goates had a newspaper route in Warshaw's then-"very posh" University Heights neighborhood, where Warshaw lived in an apartment after retiring.
Goates would normally deliver the paper to the building lobby, but Warshaw insisted he deliver directly to his door. Goates extended the practice to all the apartments on his route, and it paid off. Each year, Warshaw and his wife Inez would give Goates a big Christmas bonus.
"You don't see customer service in anything anymore," Goates said. "But for him, it was a high priority. He's the one who taught me that lesson at a very young age."
By 1984, the market for one-stop shops was competitive, and Fred Meyer Inc., a growing Northwest chain, paid a premium price for Grand Central. Fred Meyer eventually merged with the Smith's chain, and today, both are owned by Cincinnati-based Kroger Company.
That's why, for Shauna Mackey Angerbauer, Maurice Warshaw's granddaughter and Don Mackey's daughter, walking in some Smith's stores today feels somewhat familiar.
"I recognize layouts or think, 'Oh, I used to work at that service desk,'" she said. "We all worked hard at each different store. I think they're beautiful and wonderful."
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