Until the arrival of large discount grocery chains after World War II, numerous grocery businesses thrived in Anaconda. Some merchants sold a vast array of goods, and others specialized in dry goods, produce, or meat. Many groceries catered to specific ethnic groups. Thorsen Bros. grocery next door served the Norwegian community. Otto Kretzer’s Washoe Meat Market, a few doors east, offered a variety of meats and German sausages, and French-Canadians Albert MacCallum and August Cloutier’s “French Store” in this building appealed to residents in Frenchtown. Their general store started here in a small wood-frame building in 1885. The business grew quickly, and the partners expanded the building by 1888, adding a warehouse to the rear, a saloon next door, and brick veneer cladding. By 1895, MacCallum and Cloutier took over the saloon space, and added another warehouse. Just three years later, they built an enormous two-story brick building across Chestnut Street. In 1915, this building’s longest-lived business opened. The Metropolitan Meat Market provided fresh meat products to Anacondans until 1952.