It was a discount department store not unlike Kmart. Local stores included one in Avon Lake across from Discount Drug Mart on Walker Road, one in the Northridge Plaza in North Ridgeville, and one in Vermilion in the South Shore Shopping Center.
Above you see the Grand Opening ad for the Vermilion store that appeared in the Journal on October 22, 1972.
The Vermilion store dodged the closing bullet for a while. An article in the July 10, 1993 Morning Journal noted that "The Fisher Big Wheel in Vermilion has survived another round of closings from the Pennsylvania-based regional discount retailer.
"Company officials in New Castle, Pa., announced the company and its wholly owned affiliates filed for protection under Chapter 11 of federal bankruptcy laws yesterday.
"Ten stores will close, according to a company lawyer who didn't name the victims. However, Mike Amantea, manager of the Big Wheel store in Vermilion, said his store was not among them.
"Big Wheel Holding Co. Inc., and Big Wheel of Michigan, Inc. operate 65 retail department stores in eight states.
"Last year, the company slated the Vermilion store for closing. But it changed its mind after an outpouring of support from the community.
"Big Wheel has 23 stores in Ohio, 17 in Michigan, 11 in Pennsylvania, three in New York, three in Connecticut, five in Indiana, two in West Virginia, and one in Rhode Island, according to papers filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.
The Vermilion store eventually closed. But the vacant Big Wheel building found new life for many years as the home of Alco, a national discount department store, in October 1998.
Today, the building is home to Harborview Self Storage.
I never shopped at the Vermilion store, but the Avon Lake store was a regular stop when I lived on the east side of Lorain. It was convenient, and I remember some great fireworks there too on the Fourth of July for several years.
3 comments:
I still have a pair of binoculars I won at a raffle Big Wheel was having in 1977 when we moved to Vermilion fron South Lorain. I remember hearing the kids from The Lagoons say “We went to Big Wheel to play Space Invaders.” They had those big video game machines in the lobby. It was a nice store.
Yes I remember Big Wheel.I remember when they went out of business that they had R12 refrigerant on the shelves for .99¢ a can.R12 is the freon that goes in ac systems in older automobiles.Then big government said that R12 made the ozone layer bigger than it should be so R12 was updated to R134A.Now they are phasing R134A out and R1234YF is the new standard starting around the first of the year.Anyways,the old R12 goes for $25-$30 bucks a can now at swap meets and such.When Big Wheel was dumping theirs I bought $200.00 worth of the R12.I still have about 150 cans after about 30 years of recharging older ac systems.
I grew up in Avon Lake, we lived on Moore rd just north of Big Wheel, I loved that store, they had a pinball machine on display in the toy department one year, my dad and I would play it every time we’d go in there,, and that Christmas Santa brought me one, What a great memory, thanks for reminding me
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