Kroger grocery store opens in Danville (1954)

A Kroger ad from the January 28, 1954 issue of The Republican
(Danville, Indiana)

According to a January 1954 issue of The Republican, Kroger held a grand opening for its store in Danville on Wednesday, January 20, 1954. While today Kroger's is located in the shopping center at the intersection of Old 36 and U.S. 36, when it first opened in 1954, it was actually located on the west side of the courthouse square (address 20 through 34 South Jefferson Street).

For its grand opening, Kroger touted itself as being "self-service", with wide aisles, refrigerated produce and large departments for dairy, meat and frozen foods. The first 200 "ladies" to come to the grand opening were to receive an angel food cake.

The space on the west side of the courthouse square had formerly belonged to the D.F. Roberts Co. Kroger apparently had a store somewhere else in Danville for a few years before this - the 1954 opening was touted as being a new, bigger store than before.