So Long, Nickles!

Another piece of old-time Lorain has apparently bit the dust. The Nickles Bakery Thrift Store at 3215 W. 21st Street has closed. I drove by there a week ago and noticed the sign. (In the photo above, the sky looks appropriately bleak.)

I'm a little bit surprised that the store is closed. With economic times as bad as they are, stores like these were a big help. As I noted back here, you could buy an awful lot of baked goods in there for just a few bucks.

The store dates from the mid-1970's, and used to be a weekly stop for our family on Saturday mornings back then. In addition to the bread (including my favorite – Hillbilly Bread) my Mom used to buy huge white boxes of cream sticks.

My other favorite from the store was Corn Toasties. The Nickles company had stopped making them a year or two ago. But then, unexpectedly, they showed up in the store a few weeks ago. I was so excited I almost bought all they had that day. (I generously left a couple packages on the shelf for other Toastie fans.)

It was back in February that the Wonder Bread - Hostess Bakery outlet store on Colorado Avenue closed (click here for the story), so that leaves Lorain with just the Schwebel's Bakery Outlet Thrift Store out at 5075 Pearl Avenue.

Here's a link to the Nickles Bakery website. It's got a store locator just in case you're having trouble finding your Nickles Donut Fair Glazed Twirls (my buddy Chuck's favorite) or Banana Flips.