"Lucky Buck" Bargains – March 6, 1956

By the mid-1950s, Downtown Lorain merchants were working hard to attract shoppers, especially since the stores were competing with O'Neil-Sheffield Center, which had opened to much fanfare in May 1954.

Thus a variety of creative promotions were launched over the years, including Crazy Days Sales, and the one being discussed in today's post: Lucky Buck Day.

Here's the full-page ad explaining the promotion, as well as the page listing participating stores and Lucky Buck Bargains, that ran in the Lorain Journal back on March 6, 1956.

Here's the premise as noted in the ad. "The serial numbers from 25 one dollar bills known to be in circulation in Lorain will be displayed in cooperating stores from 1 p.m. 'til 8:30 p.m. Wednesday.

"If the serial number on one of your dollar bills is listed as a "lucky buck" you'll get double your money's worth when you buy a "Lucky Buck Bargain."

"You can shop all over town with the same Lucky Buck – buy in as many stores as you like with the same dollar bill."

I'm not a statistician, but I imagine that the odds of having one of the 25 Lucky Bucks in your purse or wallet would be pretty poor. How did the merchants know the serial numbers of those particular dollar bills anyway? A bank had a record of them, I guess. Or perhaps some major employer in town paid their employees in cash and the numbers were recorded. But in a town with a population between fifty and sixty thousand, it just doesn't make cents sense.

Even if you had one of those dollars in your possession, how did the merchants know for sure that you didn't bury it in a Hills Bros. coffee can (or more appropriately, Chock full O' Nuts) in your backyard for safekeeping?

Unfortunately, the Lucky Buck Bargains as seen on the full page above don't seem very enticing: Swiss Steak; garden hose; printed plastic drapes.

It would be interesting to know if the promotion was a success.