Lawson's Ad – August 6, 1962

It's been a fairly food-filled week here on the blog, with 1962 ads for a grocery store and a meat market. 

Along those lines, here's a full-page ad for Lawson's that ran in the Journal back on August 6, 1962. Lawson's had been open in Lorain since June 1959, and the convenience store had been advertising aggressively ever since.

Lawson's bright, clean, well-stocked stores had become a magnet for shoppers, who didn't mind spending a little more for the time saved by avoiding the long grocery store lines when they only needed a few items. Shopping at Lawson's was quite a different experience than wandering into one of today's independent (and often filthy) convenient stores, which exist mainly to sell liquor and lottery tickets, with groceries (at astronomical prices) merely an afterthought.

The Lawson's ad has an interesting angle, posing the question: Which bread do you prefer?

The choices were New Style ('smooth, silky bread with an extra-fine, cake-like texture') or Old Style (described as 'the more familiar, conventional texture of bread made from slow-rising dough'). I'm guessing the New Style was similar to Wonder Bread, and Old Style more like Hillbilly Bread.

So what kind of bread did my mother buy? I guess the answer would be Deluca Bakery, since it was right there on Oberlin Avenue. Of course, she also shopped at the Nickles Bakery outlet store on W. 21st Street, so she bought whatever they had (including Hillbilly Bread).

I do remember Mom buying Wonder Bread (or something similar) from time to time. We used it to make little dough balls when we were going fishing.