Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Lawson's Fourth of July Specials Ad 1962

Just in time for the July 4 holiday, here's a full-page Lawson's ad that ran in the Lorain Journal on Monday, July 2, 1962. It looks like they had all the ingredients for a great picnic covered.

Although I'm usually not too nostalgic about chain stores, I am about Lawson's. The ubiquitous stores were clean and well-stocked, and really set a standard for consistent quality.

Compare that to the some of the rather disgusting independent 'convenience' stores today that exist only to sell lottery tickets and liquor. (In Cleveland where I work, you would have to be insane to purchase any of the prepared foods in these filthy markets.)

Photo courtesy of Circle K
The Lawson's chain was eventually sold to Dairy Mart and re-branded. It's too bad, because Lawson's believed in the power of advertising, and the company had really created a strong and memorable brand.

There are still a few Dairy Marts in Lorain County, which is fine with me since I can purchase the original Lawson's Chip Dip there. It's also available at Circle K stores.

Here's a link to the Lawson's Wiki entry, which reveals that the store chain lives on today in Japan!

5 comments:

-Alan D Hopewell said...

My wife works in a convenience store, and she often complains about the poor quality of the products they sell, and the recurring zombies who seem to exist on beer, cigarettes, and scratch-off lottery tickets.

Lawson's was great-good quality items, not too expensive, clean, everywhere.

Dan Brady said...

I guess I was a little unfair about the independent stores; they're not all bad. There's some good ones in Lorain County (such as Brownie's in Sheffield Lake) but in Cleveland, the cleanliness of these stores leaves a lot to be desired. (I once watched a worker behind the deli counter in one of these stores spit a huge loogie into a sink--yechhh!!!)

Ken said...

I haven't seen a convenience store with a deli in decades! I remember stopping at Lawson's on my way to work with empty bread sandwiches in my lunch box so I could get some meat to put in them. Sometimes the corned beef (never had corned beef like that before or since- probably some of that strange, white, congealed fat is still clogging my arteries 30 years later) but most often I got the Dutch Loaf, whatever that was. Whatever it was, I loved it! I could never figure out why it was so much cheaper than everything else, because I thought it was fantastic! I could eat it every day. It might have been made of stuff that sluiced through the grates in the slaugherhouse, but I wish I could have a half a pound of it today.

Chris Sobieniak said...

Apparently Hawaii is blessed with Lawson's now!
http://www.ohio.com/news/top-stories/lawson-s-returns-to-the-u-s-1.319016

Wireless.Phil said...

We had the one in Sheffield Lake, but I don't remember much about it, I stayed in the car and dad went in.