A Northern Michigan cherry brand famous for its trunk-sale origins is finally putting down roots in Metro Detroit. Cherry Republic plans to open its first store in the region at 243 W. Maple Road in downtown Birmingham, filling a storefront that sat empty after a longtime local business moved out earlier this year.
The Birmingham location had been home to Detroit Guitar for 15 years before that shop closed on May 1 and relocated to a larger space in Royal Oak, according to Downtown Publications. Cherry Republic Vice President of Marketing and Impact Sara Harding confirmed in July that the company intends to open the new storefront in late September, and according to MLive, the company is targeting the end of September or early October, ahead of the holiday shopping season.
Jason Homa, Cherry Republic's vice president of sales and service, told the outlet that the company had been eyeing the Detroit area for more than a decade before settling on Birmingham. The city was chosen after Cherry Republic considered several towns, Homa said, and Birmingham stood out partly because it's a place locals take out-of-town visitors for dinner. The report notes that Cherry Republic typically locates its stores in Michigan tourist destinations, and that each location is designed to reflect the character of the town it's in.
A Smaller Footprint, Same Cherry-Packed Shelves
The Birmingham shop will be one of Cherry Republic's smaller stores, per the same account, but it won't skimp on inventory. Shoppers can expect chocolate-covered cherries, cherry salsas, jams, gummies, pretzels, barbecue sauce, coffee, and cookies among the offerings, the report states. Company-wide, Cherry Republic sells more than 200 distinct cherry-infused products, according to Cherry Republic, ranging from cherry wines and sodas to salsas and BBQ sauce.
Homa said Cherry Republic does not want to water itself down as it grows, and wants to remain special for customers even as it expands beyond its Northern Michigan roots. The company currently operates stores in Glen Arbor, Charlevoix, Traverse City, Mackinaw City, Frankenmuth, Holland, Ann Arbor, and Lansing, according to the MLive report — towns that, aside from Ann Arbor's draw as a college football destination, lean heavily toward tourist traffic.
Birmingham's Retail Recruitment Machine
Downtown Birmingham's commercial strip is managed by a Principal Shopping District funded through assessments on commercial properties, and the district actively recruits national and boutique retailers to keep foot traffic high along West Maple Road, according to Metromode. That recruitment effort helps explain why a high-visibility vacancy like the former Detroit Guitar space wouldn't stay empty for long.
Cherry Republic was founded in 1989 by Bob Sutherland, who got his start selling cherry-themed T-shirts out of the trunk of his car in Glen Arbor before opening his first physical storefront in 1995, according to the Glen Arbor Sun. Sutherland detailed the brand's 37-year history in a memoir titled “Here All Along,” published this July. The company has built its reputation over three decades on customer support and a folksy, Up North identity that Homa suggested the brand is wary of diluting as it moves into new markets.
Beyond Birmingham: A Pop-Up and Possible Out-of-State Debut
Birmingham won't be the only new Metro Detroit stop for Cherry Republic this year. The company also plans to open a pop-up shop at The Mall at Partridge Creek in Clinton Township in the coming weeks, per MLive, and it plans to use the response to the Birmingham store to help decide whether further expansion in Metro Detroit makes sense.
Looking further ahead, Homa said Cherry Republic could open its first store outside Michigan within the next year, with Washington, D.C. and southern Florida both under consideration. No official plans have been made for an out-of-state location, the outlet reported, and the idea remains part of the company's broader expansion thinking rather than a confirmed next step.
A Tougher Harvest Behind the Retail Growth
Cherry Republic's retail ambitions are unfolding against a difficult year for the crop that built the company. The USDA projected in July that national tart cherry production would drop 36 percent year-over-year to 91 million pounds because of spring freeze damage, according to Cherry Times, with Michigan's harvest forecast falling nearly 25 percent to 83.1 million pounds — its smallest crop in six years. Unseasonably cold spring weather during flowering severely damaged orchards across the state.
Michigan grows roughly 74 percent of the nation's tart cherry supply, with most commercial acreage concentrated in the northwest Lower Peninsula near Traverse City and Leelanau County, according to the Agricultural Marketing Resource Center. USDA cold storage data from May showed U.S. holdings of mature pitted tart cherries at their lowest levels since 2013, Cherry Times reported, creating supply constraints for processors heading into this year's harvest and pushing grower prices higher.
Cherry Republic has been investing in its supply chain even as the crop tightens. In March 2025, the company secured a $150,000 state grant from the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to help fund a $2.8 million, 16,000-square-foot expansion of its Leelanau County distribution center, according to Farm Progress. That expansion allows the company to purchase and store an additional 1 million pounds of cherries annually. Cherry Republic also donates 1 percent of gross sales to Michigan environmental, agricultural, and community organizations, having contributed more than $4 million to date, a pledge Sutherland adopted in 2000 after meeting Patagonia co-founder Yvon Chouinard.
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