Gang's Food Market Grand Opening – July 28, 1950

Here's an ad promoting the Grand Opening of a well-remembered Sheffield Lake business: Gang's Food Market. The ad ran in the Lorain Journal on July 27, 1950 – 63 years ago tomorrow.

A 1966 view of the expanded building

I've written about this business before, back here and here.

What's interesting to me is the photo of the building as it looked when the business opened. It's pretty small, and was obviously expanded to the east at a later date (see photo at left).

It's depressing to drive by the empty building today. It didn't make it as an internet cafe, which is just as well since they are being forced out of business anyway.

But what's really sad is that the era of the small grocery store chains is pretty much over. It's too hard to compete with the huge chains like Giant Eagle with their loyalty card programs.

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A current controversy in Sheffield Lake is that Dollar General wants to build a new store just to the east of the empty former Gang's building on an empty lot. Nearby residents are understandably upset although the property is already zoned for commercial use. (Here's the story).

But considering the fact that the neighborhood had the Gang's grocery store for decades, followed by the appliance stores and the internet cafe (as well as a few other small businesses), I'm not sure that a Dollar General is going to look all that out of place there. But I can appreciate that many residents are against it (including the spouse, who grew up in this town).