The grocery succession: Martin's, twice seated, under three owners

1947–PRESENT · 12850 SR 23 AND 7355 HERITAGE SQUARE DRIVE

Granger has exactly one supermarket banner in its entire record, and it has had it under three successive owners: Martin's Super Markets was founded in 1947 in South Bend by Martin and Jane Tarnow, in a first store of 800 square feet, and grew family-owned across Michiana for seventy-one years. The chain's two Granger stores — Store #16 at 12850 State Road 23, anchoring Granger Station, and the Heritage Square store at 7355 Heritage Square Drive, opened in the fall of 2006 — made it the designated place's grocery trade entire: no second supermarket banner appears anywhere in the record, and that tested negative prints here as a finding. The Heritage Square opening had a departure folded inside it: the South Bend Tribune reported that Martin's closed its store at 424 W. McKinley Avenue in Mishawaka on October 1, 2006, "the same week it plans to open a store to the north at Gumwood and Cleveland roads" — the chain moving its trade from Mishawaka's old corridor to Granger's new one in a single week.

The family's ownership ended by sale, announced November 20, 2018: SpartanNash Company agreed to acquire Martin's — then 21 stores, some 3,500 employees, and more than $450 million in fiscal 2018 sales — and the transaction closed December 31, 2018, bringing with the stores eight fuel centers, seventeen in-store pharmacies, and the rest of the Tarnow-built estate. Rob Bartels, the founders' grandson and Martin's president, spoke for the family at the sale. The banner, the store numbers, and the Granger stores' trade continued unchanged under corporate ownership — until the owner changed again. On June 23, 2025, C&S Wholesale Grocers agreed to acquire SpartanNash itself, at $26.90 a share, some $1.77 billion including assumed debt; the acquisition completed on September 22, 2025, and by June 2026 the trade press describes Martin's as "a member of the C&S family of companies," one of the banners — with D&W Fresh Market, Family Fare, and others — under C&S's corporate-run store estate. That same month the Heritage Square store completed a round of enhancements and cut a ribbon for them, tied to the thirtieth annual Roofsit, the chain's child-abuse-prevention fundraiser: the Granger store, twenty years after opening, refreshed under its third owner, its store director Bryan Stratton presenting the community check. Two stores, one banner, three owners — family (1947–2018), SpartanNash (2018–2025), C&S (2025– ) — is the whole grocery succession of this ground.

Sources:

1. SpartanNash Company announcement, November 20, 2018 (carried by Mass Market Retailers and Cass County Online): acquisition agreement; founded 1947, South Bend; 21 stores; ~3,500 employees; Martin's a SpartanNash wholesale customer since 2005; Rob Bartels, president, grandson of the founders.
2. The Produce News, January 3, 2019: acquisition completed, transaction closed December 31, 2018; estate as printed (21 stores, 8 fuel centers, 17 pharmacies, Martin's Express, Side Door Café).
3. Company history accounts (Martin's corporate tradition, carried in profiles): founded 1947 by Martin and Jane Tarnow; first store 800 sq ft.
4. South Bend Tribune, fall 2006 (via the Michiana Business Research Library / ProQuest newspaper record): McKinley Avenue store closed October 1, 2006, the week of the Gumwood-and-Cleveland opening.
5. C&S Wholesale Grocers / SpartanNash merger release, June 23, 2025 (PR Newswire; Progressive Grocer): $26.90 per share, $1.77 billion including assumed net debt; completion announced September 22, 2025 (Business Wire, carried by Blue Book Services).
6. The Shelby Report, June 23, 2026: Heritage Square Martin's store refresh and ribbon-cutting; store director Bryan Stratton; Martin's "a member of the C&S family of companies."