Tuesday, January 9, 2024

Avon Lake Food Center Ad – Jan. 7, 1954

From seventy years ago, here's a nice nearly full-page ad for the Avon Lake Food Center, which was located in the shopping center on Lake Road. As you can see, our old pal Sparky – mascot of the Sparkle Markets grocery store chain – makes an appearance in the ad, albeit without his name on his hat. Perhaps that's because the Food Center wouldn't officially become part of the Sparkle Family until January 1957 (which I wrote about here).

The ad ran in the Lorain Journal on January 7, 1954.

Note the location of the store is given as 'Stop 65,' the old interurban designation that lives on today there. Surprisingly, the items for sale in the ad are simply staples of everyone's pantry and fridge: sugar, catsup, butter, etc. Perhaps that was just to get you in the store, where you might be buffaloed into buying some of the 'choice cuts of Ohio Steer Beef.'

But what's really interesting in the ad is the free Royal Scot Plaid dinnerware offered as a part of a cash register receipt redemption program. I tried unsuccessfully to find some on eBay. Maybe there's still a lot of it being used in Avon Lake to this day.

But the ad got me to remembering when grocery stores offered all sorts of incentives to shop there regularly. I know Mom bought a whole set of Funk & Wagnall's New Deluxe Encyclopedias (buying a book a week) at A&P around 1966. We used those things for years. And I remember trying to put together a set of dishes from the Avon Lake IGA back in the 1980s.

These Funk & Wagnall's Encyclopedias should look familiar
to many of you if your mom shopped at A&P in the 1960s


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7 comments:

  1. -Alan D HopewellJanuary 9, 2024 at 4:59 AM

    Plaid dinnerware? Seriously?
    My mom got me a set of these, from Pick -N-Pay...

    "Vintage 1961 Art Linkletter’s Picture Encyclopedia For Boys And Girls Vol 1 Book | eBay" https://www.ebay.com/itm/324711292304

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  2. Don HiltonJanuary 9, 2024 at 8:55 AM

    "buffaloed into buying some of the 'choice cuts of Ohio Steer Beef.'"

    I see what you did, there.

    Didn't Laugh-In make the old' F&W famous?

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  3. Dennis ThompsonJanuary 9, 2024 at 12:14 PM

    Alan, mid century dinnerware was quite splashy. Watt Pottery is my expertise but Red Wing had the most diverse pattern. One of my favorites was Tampico, with wine bottles, slices of watermelon and hanging fruit. Purinton also made plaid wares.

    https://www.etsy.com/listing/697031698/vintage-red-wing-futura-dinnerware

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. -Alan D HopewellJanuary 9, 2024 at 2:15 PM

      I well remember mid-century dinnerware, and I found it tacky even then; a personal choice.

      Delete
  4. BusterJanuary 9, 2024 at 2:20 PM

    I suppose the Food Center expected quite a rush for those plaid dishes, but free parking for 2,000 cars? Only if you put most of them in the lake.

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  5. AnonymousJanuary 9, 2024 at 4:50 PM

    We always had Corning's Corelle dinnerware when I was a kid.And I still use Corelle now as they are super light.But there have been studies confirming that the paint used in the different designs on the older plates and cups contain varying degrees of lead.So maybe things weren't so good in the good old days.

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  6. BusterJanuary 9, 2024 at 4:54 PM

    I use Corelle myself these days, but we had that fancy dinnerware back in the 50s, which may account for my wife complaining about the "lead in my pants" these days.

    ReplyDelete