Jay's New Sparkle Market Grand Opening – May 1962

Over the years, I’ve written a lot about how Oberlin Avenue’s commercial strip slowly evolved on Lorain’s West Side, beginning in the early 1950s, thanks to business pioneers like Frank “Jay” Jursinski.

Back on this post, I featured the March 1952 Grand Opening of Jay's IGA Foodliner.

Originally the store was all by its lonesome self on the southwest corner of Oberlin Avenue and Meister Road (right where Whalen Drugs would later be located in the same building).

Slowly, a small shopping center grew around Jay’s with the addition of an early version of Willow Hardware. By April 1955, Jay moved his grocery store – now called Jay’s Food Center – within the growing shopping center to a larger space.

And by 1962, it was time for Jay to move his popular store to a larger space and change its brand affiliation again.

Jay built a beautiful new store for his business, now called Jay’s Sparkle Market, near 38th Street and Oberlin Avenue.

From the April 29, 1962 Lorain Journal

And here’s the Grand Opening ad for the new store, which ran in the Lorain Journal on May 3, 1962.

Jay was ahead of his time with many innovative ideas that would be right at home in today’s supermarkets: a deli department with home cooked foods and salads all prepared and ready to take home; a sea food section with fresh fish; home made pies and donuts made in-house; imported wines and beers; a gourmet food section. All available in Jay’s air-conditioned store with a U. S. Postal Sub Station right next door as part of the complex.

I’m not sure what happened, but by May 1964, Jay’s Sparkle had become part of the growing Meyer Goldberg grocery empire, which longtime Lorainites still remember today.

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I’ve written a lot about Jay’s, including its changeover from Food Center to Sparkle, as well as when Aunt Jemima dropped by.