ROYAL OAK, Mich. – Superior Fish in Royal Oak is closing after 75 years of supplying Metro Detroit with seafood and Red Wings' fans with octopi.
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"It's kind of like being at your own funeral the way that people are expressing how they felt about us," said Kevin Dean.
Dean and his brother Dave have run Superior Fish for years, but with online shopping and large big-box grocery stores, small family businesses have a hard time surviving.
"We've been coming here for quite a while, I can't tell you how many years, but you get to know people," said longtime customer John Butterer. "They have the best fish around. They're wonderful people."
Dean said his best memories of the store involve the Detroit Red Wings and the hundreds of octopi they have sold over the years.
"We had about 17 cameras from all over the world, from Russia, from Mexico, from Japan, and they're all filming people buying octopus," Dean said.
Red Wings fans will have to look for octopi elsewhere because the new buyer has no plans for selling fish, but to tear down the building for new development. It's not an ideal outcome for Dean, who feels emotional over the family business and the community around it.
"My father, John Dean, I cannot say enough about him," Dean said. "He was a small man, but he cast a giant shadow. There's family, there's faith and there's friends, this is all what has made Superior Fish."
Superior Fish's final day is Saturday, June 23, followed by a garage sale of the equipment and furniture of the historic store.;