This stamp is in front of the large building on the southeast corner of East Michigan Avenue and Regent Street. The building was originally an A&P, but I know it best as H.C. Berger, a photocopier dealer. I cut through their parking lot countless times heading home from the bus stop after grad school classes. According to the City Pulse “New in Town” column on November 27, 2013, H.C. Berger had been there since 1973.

In 2013 the Berger family sold the building and H.C. Berger moved to Okemos. Today they seem to have either merged with or been bought by A.B. Dick Document Solutions of Grand Rapids. Their Web site has both names in the logo, but most of the text including the “About Us” page just refers to them as A.B. Dick.

At that time, a convenience store from down the street called Michigan Mart moved in. As reported in the above “New in Town” article, the new owners talked big about expanding it into a local grocery store with produce and a deli counter and the whole bit. Instead, disappointingly, it limped along with largely bare shelves as a party store in a way-too-big building before closing again. It has had a “for lease” sign in the window for ages now gathering dust. (The back of the building and its ample parking is used by Michigan Motors, a very odd supposed used car lot that does not actually appear to sell any cars.) One beneficial thing Michigan Mart did was to remove part of the corrugated siding from the building, allowing the nicer flat stone siding to surface.