CDB Flashback: When the Farmer Needed to Cultivate a New Career

Crain's Detroit Business - May 16, 2005

Farmer Jack supermarkets were a locally owned institution in metro Detroit, evolving from the Food Fair supermarket chain in the 1950s and early 1960s. The Farmer Jack brand - and Farmer Jack himself - first appeared in 1966. In 1989, A&P bought the chain from its local owners and by 1994, all the former metro area A&P stores were rebranded as Farmer Jack - a testiment to the strength of the brand. However, in 2005, A&P put the stores up for sale. Unable to find a buyer for the chain, individual stores were sold off and in 2007, the last Farmer Jack store closed.

In this May 2005 Crain's Detroit Business cartoon, I imagined that the Farmer himself could see the writing on the barn wall and started thinking about cultivating a new career in a different field.

Off the Drawing Board: Over the next weeks, maybe months, I'm taking a look back at 28 years of cartooning for Crain's Detroit Business. None of my cartoons from 1995-2005 were digitized. Back then, I delivered originals to the Crain's offices downtown and picked them up every six weeks or so. Because of that, some of my early looks back may not be in chronological order. They'll be in the order that I stumble upon the originals in my attic, basement or garage!

Thanks for reading!