QD at Michigan/Harrison Will Become a Party/Convenience Store [UPDATED]

UPDATE, Nov. 8, 2022, 5:15 pm: We have added comment from Quality Dairy Co.’s President and CEO below.

Despite fears from residents of the Chesterfield Hills neighborhood that the Quality Dairy store near them will become a marijuana dispensary, the store will instead become a party/convenience store.

The store is located at 808 Michigan Ave., at the northwest corner of the intersection with Harrison Road.

Speaking for the property management company, Doug Cron told ELi this morning that the property owner “couldn’t come to terms” with QD. The location has been the site of a QD store since 1976, according to Cron. QD has not yet confirmed a closure date.

A 10-year lease was signed in August with a company that owns multiple party/convenience stores in the greater Lansing area. When the new East Lansing store will open depends on when the state liquor license requirements are complete, but it should be in the next few months, Cron said.

Responding to a reader question last week, ELi reported that the location cannot be used for marijuana sales under the current zoning.

Ken Martin, the President and CEO of Quality Dairy Co., confirmed on Tuesday evening the store is closing.

He told ELi that his company expects to open a QD store “not too far away.” He says his company chose not to renew the lease at the existing location and, “We’re finalizing the details for an alternative location.”

“I think the logic that we used was really quite simple,” Martin said about the decision to close this store. “The footprint, the size of the location, did not allow us to really operate as a standard Quality Dairy. We need a much larger footprint. We found everything we did in that store was scaled down from where we wanted to be.”

“Of course, the other thing is coming through the Covid period was trying,” Martin said, “just because there really wasn’t a population to support it to the level it really requires. All things considered, a larger footprint with a better ingress and egress will be a much more successful ticket, and we’ll be able to satisfy a lot more of our consumers.”

Disclosure: Doug Cron is a donor to ELi.