Happy New Year From the Ontario Store – Dec. 29, 1962

The Ontario Super Mart (or Ontario Discount Department Store, as it was later known) seems to be fondly remembered by many. Not just in the Lorain area – where the chain started out at 1922 Broadway in 1958 and later moved to Elyria Avenue and State Route 254 – but in Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland as well, thanks to expansion. 

Click here to read a nice history of the chain, and its acquisition in 1964 by the organization that would become Cook United. For the local angle, here's the article that appeared in the Journal on Sept. 22, 1964. (Note that Cook also owned Pick-n-Pay, the subject of yesterday's post.)

But that was still a few years away, when the full-page New Year's themed-ad below appeared in the Lorain Journal on Dec. 29, 1962.

It's a great ad, designed to keep the store in the minds of Lorainites despite the move outside city limits, halfway to Elyria.

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My original post on the Ontario Store in 2011 continues to be a popular online destination for people who remember Ontario and the various rebranding it went through here and around Ohio. By 2020, there were more than 40 great comments left on the original 2011 blog post; currently there are more than 60, and there's no sign of slowing down.

Lorain used to be a great place to launch a business, as it was the home of several original stores that led to the creation of regional chains. Besides Ontario, there was Muir's, and Kline's. 

Of course, that made their eventually closings even more bittersweet.