Food Fair Ad – May 6, 1954

It's Friday – the traditional Brady grocery-gathering day when I was growing up – so I'll close out the week here with this full-page Food Fair ad. It ran in the Lorain Journal back on May 6, 1954.

It's been a while since I wrote about Food Fair. The small independent grocery chain once had a strong presence in the county, with stores in Amherst, Avon, Avon Lake, Lorain, Sheffield Lake, and Vermilion. It's pretty impressive, as they were up against other local giants (like Meyer Goldberg) as well as the national and regional big boys (like A&P, Pick-n-Pay, etc.). But Food Fair had a nice niche as the small, friendly Mom and Pop store.

The Journal ad from May 1954 is kind of offbeat. It's a Spring sale, but the clip art showing the typical, idyllic 1950s outdoor gathering looks a Summer shindig. I guess the apron-wearing head of the household just barbecued a delicious chocolate cake. (Is that a young George H. W. Bush on the left forefront?)

The ad interestingly downplays the brand names of the sale items, which appear in tiny type, while the items themselves (Goose Liver, Peanut Butter, Sweet Pickles, etc.) are in large, bold type. Only a few brands such a Kraft are highlighted.

That approach to selling is right at home in today's world. I think most consumers largely ignore brand names in favor of what is cheapest more than ever on a majority of their purchases. Many major brands don't even bother to advertise anymore. Thus our pantries have brands like Clover Valley™and Great Value. But it's all about just trying to save money for more important purchases.

It doesn't look like the Food Fairs in our area were part of the same-named regional giant that had stores in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, Maryland and Florida. The local stores seemed to disappear in the early 1970s, with longtime owners retiring or selling out, and the remaining stores becoming Eagle Super Markets.

The final version of the logo, circa 1960s-1970s

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UPDATE (May 12, 2024)

Here's an article from the April 5, 1970 Journal about Gilbert's Food Fair changing hands.

Further Food Fair Fun

Last time, I showed you an old Food Fair ad from 1951 that included a listing of all the different locations (above). (By the looks of that artwork, I think the commercial artist was either drunk or didn't own a T-square. But at least you can read the locations!)

Four years later, the chain had expanded even more. Here's a 1955 listing (below) from my blog about the history of Food Fair back here.

Here's another store roster from November 1963.

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Recently, I headed out into the snowy wastelands of Lorain in a rental car to grab some shots of still-standing ex-Food Fairs.

Here's one that was right at 448 Broadway: Bobel and Hersh Food Fair.

Here's another shot of the Jacoby Brothers Food Fair at 1149 Oberlin Avenue (the summer shot was back here). I still think it looks like it belongs in a western town movie set.

The  Brownell Food Fair was at 1302 Ninth Street; here's what's at that location now (below). There was also a Brownell Pharmacy at 1300 Ninth Street. I guess they were both in this building. Anybody remember these two businesses? They lasted until the early 1960's, but the building was vacant by 1964. It's been used for a variety of businesses since then, including a roofing business.

And lastly, here is what used to be Slutzker's Food Fair at 958 Washington Avenue (below).

After driving by these old buildings all these years, it's kind of interesting to find they all had something in common.

It seems that these Food Fair stores morphed into Eagle Super Markets in the 1970's. Here's a portion of a July 1975 newspaper ad showing the new, reduced roster of stores.

Next: the most successful Eagle Super Market!

Memories of Gilbert's Food Fair & Trains

April 19, 1951 Ad in Lorain Journal

I recently got an email from regular blog reader and pal Bill Latrany. Bill had read my series of posts that mentioned the Hafely Building, and this got him to thinking about Gilbert's Food Fair, which was located in that strip. (The above ad lists the Gilbert's store as one of many Food Fair locations.)

Bill's grandparents lived on Missouri Avenue, and thus he was well acquainted with Gilbert's. But Gilbert's is only the stepping-off point for Bill's reminisces of the fun he had with his grandfather enjoying the trains that passed behind the small grocery store. His email was such a well-written slice-of-life that, with his permission, I'll reproduce some of it right here.

Bill remembers: "My grandfather and I would walk to Gilbert's corner grocery store. Sometimes we would go to the park just to the 'east' of the mini-shopping center, but most often my grandfather and I would get a popcicle or pushup from Gilbert's, then go on up the slight incline to the railroad tracks and wait for a train." 

"I remember the old wooden boxcars and the old steam engine just at the time of switching from steam to diesel...and waving at both the engineer and the caboose keeper.  Seeing the trains approaching from around the bend, miles down the track, was excitement which triggered off a series of events. You first saw the engine light, heard the train whistle blowing for the crossings prior to reaching Missouri Avenue.  The lights on the crossing signal would be tripped and standing next to the gate you could hear the gears grinding away as the arm was lowering.  There was a long moment of silence until the engine came roaring down the track and blasting the horn, accompanied by a bell.  Watching the weight of the engine and the cars rolling along the track make the steel track itself appear to be doing pushups with each passing wheel."

"Wonderment would have me in a daze as I would wonder where those huge colorful boxcars were coming from, and where they were destined.  The old red wooden caboose was the end of the line of cars, and I often dreamed about what it would be like to sit in a lawn chair on the back platform of the caboose and see the countryside of Americana.  Hearing old Depression stories from my parents and grandparents, I would keep a watchful eye for hobo's hitching a ride under the boxcars and tanker cars, but never spotted one."

"After the train would pass, and the event being wrapped up with the grinding of the crossing gate drawn into an upright position, the blinking lights were once again put to sleep until another train came to pass.  Sometimes a double treat of several trains in succession would compliment the event, but that was rare.  I remember being halfway back to my grandparents home after watching a train, to hear the distant whistle of another 'choo choo' coming, and my 65-year-old grandfather and I would race back to the railroad crossing for yet another exciting moment.”

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Bill does a great job of recreating the pleasure and excitement that he felt as a child, seeing a train up close with his grandfather. I hope Bill doesn't start up a nostalgia blog of his own!

I had to chuckle at his mention of watching for hoboes under the train. I used to watch for them all the time while I was growing up.  I saw one once – in the 1960's on a train as it rolled through the Oberlin Avenue crossing next to the Lorain Creamery.

Unfortunately, if this economy doesn't improve pretty soon, Bill and I will soon be able to do some serious hobo-spotting! Let's hope not!

Special thanks to Bill Latrany for his story.

Next: More Food Fair (& Eagle Market) Fun!

Food Fair

While looking at some old October 1955 Lorain Journal microfilm at the library, I saw a huge ad for a grocery store called Food Fair. Above is a portion of the ad, showing the various locations of the stores in Lorain, Avon Lake, Sheffield Lake, Avon and Vermilion.

I found this interesting because although Food Fair had a lot of locations in the area, the chain disappeared without a trace locally in the early 1970's.

Image courtesy of www.groceteria.com

An online search for information about the forgotten grocery store chain proved inconclusive.

According to this wiki entry, there once was a national chain called Food Fair that had over 500 units. And this blogger even has some great images of a chain of Food Fair supermarkets. (A promotional Food Fair needle pack is shown at left.)  But the huge, sleek Food Fair stores on those websites don't seem to correspond with the Mom & Pop stores in the Journal ad.

To prove my point, here are how a few of them look today. (Click on each for a larger view.)

Shown below is the former Jacoby Food Fair at 1149 Oberlin Avenue. In the early 1950's it was Jacoby Brothers Meats before becoming a Food Fair around 1954; by 1972 it was the Oberlin Eagle, part of the Eagle chain of small supermarkets (not to be confused with Giant Eagle.)

I think of a false-front movie set western saloon when I look at this store.

Here's Jeancola's Food Fair, located at 2402 West Erie, at the end of Leavitt Road. It was just listed as a grocery store before becoming Jeancola's Food Fair around 1955. Similar to the Jacoby store, this market dropped its Food Fair affiliation around 1972 and became Jeancola Market.

Lastly, and closest to my home, this is the former Gang's Food Fair at 4646 E. Lake Road in Sheffield Lake. It appears to have been built as a grocery store and appeared as Gang's Market in the city directory for the first time in 1954. It became a Food Fair the following year and lasted until around 1970 when the building became vacant. Two years later it became the well-remembered Ilg TV and even later became Schuenemann Television Appliance Center. After that small chain of a appliance stores closed, it has had a variety of uses in the last decade. The latest proposal? It is tentatively slated to be the location of the first internet café in Sheffield Lake.

As you can see, none of these stores seem to have any sort of visual connection with the national Food Fair stores seen on the websites indicated above. Also, none of them share a strong Food Fair brand strategy. Each simply listed the owner's name or some other identifier, followed by the words 'Food Fair'.

I could be wrong, but my guess is that this Food Fair group of stores was a small regional chain that got around the legal aspect of sharing the name with a national company by tacking on the owner's name, etc. Whatever the case, the name Food Fair disappeared locally by 1972.

Perhaps someone associated with one of these local stores can shed some light on this subject. If anyone out there does have some connection with the Food Fair chain, please leave a comment below. Thanks!