So Long, Nickles!

Another piece of old-time Lorain has apparently bit the dust. The Nickles Bakery Thrift Store at 3215 W. 21st Street has closed. I drove by there a week ago and noticed the sign. (In the photo above, the sky looks appropriately bleak.)

I'm a little bit surprised that the store is closed. With economic times as bad as they are, stores like these were a big help. As I noted back here, you could buy an awful lot of baked goods in there for just a few bucks.

The store dates from the mid-1970's, and used to be a weekly stop for our family on Saturday mornings back then. In addition to the bread (including my favorite – Hillbilly Bread) my Mom used to buy huge white boxes of cream sticks.

My other favorite from the store was Corn Toasties. The Nickles company had stopped making them a year or two ago. But then, unexpectedly, they showed up in the store a few weeks ago. I was so excited I almost bought all they had that day. (I generously left a couple packages on the shelf for other Toastie fans.)

It was back in February that the Wonder Bread - Hostess Bakery outlet store on Colorado Avenue closed (click here for the story), so that leaves Lorain with just the Schwebel's Bakery Outlet Thrift Store out at 5075 Pearl Avenue.

Here's a link to the Nickles Bakery website. It's got a store locator just in case you're having trouble finding your Nickles Donut Fair Glazed Twirls (my buddy Chuck's favorite) or Banana Flips.

Good tastin' - nourishin' too! That's Hillbilly Bread!

There are several things that I like to buy at Nickles Bakery. They include Texas Toast, New England Split Top Weiner Buns, Donut Fair Donuts (sorry, Bob) and –  Hillbilly Bread!

   (If you click here, you can visit the Nickles Bakery corporate website and see all the goodies they make right here in Ohio.) 

   I'm disappointed that Nickles no longer makes Corn Toasties. Corn Toasties were little round cornbread cakes for your toaster that came stacked in plastic trays. I used to load up my freezer with them like a World War II - era food hoarder.

   At least Nickles still makes Hillbilly Bread. It's just a nice, soft wheat bread, but I love the package design. The hillbilly character is great, and hasn't changed over the years.

   Just like Nickles Bakery. 

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Click here to read my 2019 post about Hillbilly Bread.

  

A "Nickle" for your thoughts about Nickles Bakery

One bit of classic Lorain that is still around is the old Nickles Bakery thrift store at 3215 W. 21st Street. It has been there since the mid-1970s and looks the same as it ever did. Every so often I wander in there on a Saturday morning and suddenly it's 1975 again.

   Usually the store has a pretty good selection of discounted as well as fresh baked goods, and you can buy an awful lot of stuff for a few bucks. You also get a little Savers Club card that is stamped to reflect each dollar spent - and when the card is full, you get a free day-old baked good item!

   In past winters, I would go in there and buy a shopping bag stuffed with "bird bread" - bread that they sold super-cheap strictly as food for our feathered friends. The bread packages were usually ripped or damaged in some way. Sometimes there would be some flattened donuts or crushed creme sticks stuffed way down in the bag with the bread. I would chop it all up and put it out for the birds with the bread.

   After watching the birds chow down on cruellers and creme sticks, I decided it's a good thing they don't have teeth.