When Doug Busch was a boy and began sorting bottles at his father’s grocery store in Clinton, there were only three varieties of cat food, and bottled water was limited to distilled and used only for ironing.

“If someone would have told me you could sell water in a bottle, I wouldn’t have believed them,” said Busch, co-owner of the 15-store Busch’s Fresh Food Market chain and community development director.

Busch's Fresh Food Market, which operates 15 stores in the southeast Michigan area, is known for their specialty line and carry more variety than the national chains.

Janet Miller | For AnnArbor.com

On Tuesday, Busch’s started celebrating its 35th anniversary, bucking the trend of big box swallowing independent supermarkets and surviving growing competition that comes when even retailers such as Target and the corner drugstore offer a growing display of groceries.

“We’re still here, surviving and doing well,” Busch said.

Busch’s has seen dramatic changes in 35 years, he said. Variety has become king: The number of items a store stocks has quadrupled, from about 10,000 to about 40,000, Busch said. Even as the big-box chains such as Walmart trim product line in reaction to the weak economy, Busch’s has resisted, Busch said.

Busch’s is known for their specialty line and carry more variety than the national chains, he said. While big box may have more square feet, they stock fewer lines.

“People judge you by the number of facings (the number of a certain product that faces out on the shelf). (A big box) will have 10 to 15 facings for each product and we’ll have two or three. But we have a lot more items, a depth of brands,” Busch said.

Other changes over the decades have been just as significant: Prepared foods and produce have muscled out center store with its dry and canned goods - and although the recession saw a small reversal last year, prepared foods is rebounding, Busch said.

“We’ve turned into a convenience society,” Busch said. “When Lunchables (Oscar Mayer/Kraft Foods, Inc. children's meal combinations) first came out, I wondered who is going to buy cut-up food.”

Natural, organic and now local foods have gained shelf space. While customers were jumping on the organic bandwagon a few years ago, buying local now carries more weight, Busch said.

Busch’s began in 1975 when Joe Busch and business partner Charlie Mattis opened J&C Family Foods in Clinton and Saline. Mattis left the partnership, the name was changed to Busch’s and the privately held store grew to become the largest independent supermarket chain in southeast Michigan. Joe retired in 1986 and the company is run by three of his sons, including Doug, co-owner Tim and John, who is president, CEO and co-owner.

Today, company headquarters are split between Ann Arbor and Saline. The 35,000-square-foot Ann Arbor store (store number four) on South Main Street opened in the early 1980s, when there was little else in the area, Busch said.

“It was a field of dreams. We believed that if we built it, they would come. There was a niche we could fill.”

That niche included offering fresh, local produce (even before local became an industry buzz word), purchased five days a week from the Detroit Produce Terminal, adjacent to the Eastern Market. That included having a butcher on staff to custom cut meat and selling choice rather than the lower graded select.

Busch’s has been active with community involvement, Busch said. Its stores are involved in some 400 events a year, from supplying a school’s ice cream social to participating in small town parades.

Busch’s was on a growth trajectory until the Michigan economy came to a stand still. The newest store, located in West Bloomfield, opened in late 2008 and Busch’s has no immediate plans to opened store 16. Once the economy improves, that will change, Busch said.

“Our growth has always been organic, looking for our niche. It’s always been where we see an opportunity, often in an up and coming community," he said.

Square footage varies with the store, from 29,000 to 45,000 square feet.

Still, the company has no plans to expand beyond Michigan, or even beyond driving distance of its Ann Arbor-Saline headquarters, Busch said.

Said Busch: "There’s lots of opportunity in southeast Michigan.”