It may be difficult to believe, looking back 75 years, that L&L Food Centers began as a one-room gas station at the corner of Jolly Road and Logan Street.  But as Lansing's business district grew, and street names changed (Logan becoming Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard), L&L evolved as well, becoming one of mid-Michigan's largest, and best known, family-owned businesses.

The success of the company goes back to a simple concept conceived by Walter and Anna Levandowski back in 1931: Give people what they want and they'll become loyal customers!   That idea prompted the young couple to gradually change the small gas station over to a food store.  That was the official beginning of the L&L Supermarket.  But it wasn't until the couple's son, Stanley, came onboard, that L&L started to evolve into the powerhouse that it is today.  "I wanted to be a doctor.  The grocery business wasn't anything I was really interested in as a young man," remembers Levandowski.  But medicine's loss was mid-Michigan's gain.

After years of renovations, expansions, and even buy outs, the family-owned business became L&L Shop-Rite, and ultimately, L&L Food Centers.

They provided mid-Michigan community with the first-ever direct mailing: a sheet of the week's specials printed by a hand press and mailed to several Lansing communities.  L&L also was one of the first to offer a 13,000-square-foot facility with six check out lanes, employing some 40 workers.

L&L is a family-owned business in every sense, with the children providing most of the labor: bagging groceries, stocking shelves and running the cash register.   Stan II and his sister, Stephanie, seem to share their parents' business interest most, Stephanie with the accounting end and Stan the day-to-day operations.  Under their direction in 1998, the family decided to buy five Goff stores and drop the Shop-Rite name, opting instead to become L&L Food Centers. Today the family owns seven stores in the mid-Michigan area, employing more than 700 workers.  Their contribution to the community over the past three-quarters of a century is also a big boost to the economy in Lansing. "The amount of investment that's flowed through the community due to L&L is in excess of $500 million," said Stephanie (Levandowski) Birmingham.

As for the future, the family plans to continue to focus on updating and remodeling current facilities in answer to the needs of their customers.  "We're all about Lansing," said Stan Levandowski II, President of L&L Food Centers.  "We want to give back to our community.  Our larger competitors often give back, but to other parts of the state or the country.  We and our employees are all about giving back to the Lansing area."

L&L continues to sponsor charity fundraisers for the Potter Park Zoo, the American Red Cross, the Greater Lansing Food Bank, and the Haven House Shelter.

		By Jo Anne Paul-Stanton