Monday, November 15, 2021

Clarkins Comes to Lorain County – Nov. 1971

Do you remember the Clarkins chain of discount department stores?

Longtime residents of Lorain and the neighboring cities probably remember the store on Leavitt Road, where the Lorain City Airport (Long’s Airport) used to be.

But the honor of the first Clarkins store in Lorain County goes to Elyria. The store opened on Wednesday, November 17, 1971.

The Journal did its part by dedicating two full pages to the Grand Opening. The first page ran on November 15, 1971 and featured photos of several Clarkins employees, including Pam Justin, Rosemary Drayler and Jose E. Torres.

The second full page highlighting the new store ran the next day on November 16, 1971. This one featured even more Clarkins employees, including John Scott, Marie Paynowski and Jean Murry.

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On April 30, 1981 – a little less than ten years after the Elyria Clarkins store opened – it was announced in the Chronicle-Telegram that both it and the Lorain store would be closing along with all of the other Ohio stores in a few months. 
By June 19, the final closeout sale for all eleven Ohio stores was underway. More than a thousand Clarkins employees lost their jobs.
The Lorain Clarkins store was converted to a factory for the PC Campana group with the help of a $200,000 state grant that was approved by the Ohio Department of Economic Development in March 1987.
A recent view of the former Lorain Clarkins store
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7 comments:

  1. -Alan D HopewellNovember 15, 2021 at 9:34 AM

    I never shopped at the Elyria store but the Lorain store was a favorite place for me to buy clothes and records.

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  2. AnonymousNovember 15, 2021 at 9:44 AM

    I bet Jose didn't know he was holding gold in his hands.Those original Hot Wheels Sizzlers sets are very valuable now.That set he was stocking up the shelves with will bring a couple hundred dollars easy in new old stock condition.If people knew then what they know now we'd all be as rich as Jeff Bezos.

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  3. Dennis ThompsonNovember 15, 2021 at 11:23 AM

    I went to the closeout sale at the Lorain store. They sold everything but the walls. I bought the manager's desk and used it for many years.

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  4. AnonymousNovember 15, 2021 at 12:14 PM

    I like how they listed the management team with a brief statement on where they stole them from...Big Town, Higbee's, Kmart. Also, Look how young the entire management team was. Only one of them was over 30.

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  5. Mike KozlowskiNovember 15, 2021 at 5:26 PM

    ...I'm not sure I ever forgave them for building over the airport. ;)

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  6. LisaNovember 15, 2021 at 8:58 PM

    I remember the Elyria Clarkins very well. I walked there almost every week with my friends, stopping off to visit my grandmother on the way home. My friend worked in the Record Dept.

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  7. MarkNovember 16, 2021 at 9:57 AM

    I vaguely remember going to the one in Lorain.. it must have been not too long before they closed down.

    ReplyDelete