Old Grocery Chains (Cincinnati, Dayton, Xenia: purchasing, university, live)

[rustic39]

Originally Posted by Ohioan58

Big Bear had a store in Lebanon on US 42/Columbus Avenue up through about 2005 or so - it's vacant now. What I know about Big Bear is that the Lebanon location was probably their westernmost store, and the chain was very big in central Ohio, in Franklin and neighboring counties.

AFAIK the chain is defunct in Ohio today.

The last Big Bear closed in 2004; the Lebanon location went dark after Kroger opened a new store across Columbus Avenue.

[drew3806]

Originally Posted by t45209

No one has mentioned Fazio's. We used live in Montgomery, and my grandmother used to drive all the way out to Milford to shop in that place. The building is still there on 28 across from the big shopping plaza and the meat market. I forget what occupies it now.

There was a Fazio's on Colerian Ave in the 70's where I grew up in the Colerain/Bevis area, where the Victory gym is now, near the Armed Forces recruitment station by Northgate mall.

I recently brought it up to my uncle who has a crazy story about everything and he said that store was a mob front to fence goods & launder money. He said he would buy all kinds of stuff for pennies on the dollar there. Can't verify the veracity though, the Sixties were good to my uncle, and he has all kinds of crazy ideas and stories. LOL.

[motorman]

Careful, guys & gals -- these nostalgic journeys can really hurt! Live in THE ETERNAL NOW or else! Oh, never mind - I wanna share a memory of my own by going back to Kennedy Heights, circa 1955-1960, at the intersection of Montgomery Rd. and Kennedy Ave. At that time it was a little shopping hamlet with a White Villa (or Parkview Market) as its "anchor." This was a grocery run by an Italian family named the Delgado's, I believe. Remember Tony the butcher, anyone? A couple of stores down was Earl's Barber Shop (which later moved to Deer Park). Across the way was Howard Early's Music Center and up the other way was a Sugar N' Spice restaurant. Across Montgomery was the old Kennedy-Silverton School. These were the days, my friends. On the radio Gogi Grant opened with "The Wayward Wind," and a kid like myself might be listening to a fight with Archie Moore or Floyd Patterson later at night... WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED SINCE, heh heh?!

[goyguy]

Find out on the thread about "mid-century Montgomery Rd" which was hoppin' earlier this year.

[kjbrill]

Yea, I didn't need the remembrance of Gogi Grant and The Wayward Wind. Once in awhile I will break out my box of 45s and spend a day playing them. I still have a turntable with a decent needle, but it is single play (no changer). Wears you arm out on the 45s. Takes me about half a day to get through my Elvis 45 stack. Then I will take the other stack and pull Gogi Grant, Connie Francis (Who's Sorry Now), and the other gal singers I was in love with then.

If I feel particularly nostalgic I will dip into the collection of LPs. Many of these are Broadway and Hollywood musicals such as South Pacific, Carousel, and Oklahoma. The other half of the collection is the big band dance sound of the 40s. I have everything from Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey, Guy Lombardo, Woody Herman and his Thundering Herd (first heard live by me at the old dance pavilion at LeSourdsville Lake), through Ted Heath and his big band from England post WWII.

We can be faulted for our nostalgia, but not for our taste.

[motorman]

Thank you, goyguy, for directing me to an older thread on Montgomery Rd! I spent 20 youthful years in that corridor from Pleasant Ridge to Silverton, and so many warm memories gush over me anytime I even think of it. And I also appreciate your many detailed posts about Cincinnati's history -- you leave no stones unturned when you reflect upon its past.

[motorman]

Kjbrill -- your last statement, above, was priceless! To that I would add that everyone of us guys wanted to get some lipstick on our collars, no matter how it happened. As for myself, the "first time" I listened to the radio and realized "a woman" was singing was when I heard Jo Stafford's "You Belong To Me." Deep nostalgia reigns every time I hear that particular song. (May I apologize to those of you who turned to this thread to focus on old grocery stores; my only mitigating excuse might be that our pasts are so interwoven with many memories that can easily sidetrack us.)

[goyguy]

Besides, before satellite radio any one of those songs could've been heard in their Muzak version while you wheeled a squeaky-wheeled grocery cart down the supermarket aisle! I doubt lacking "piped-in" music was what killed independent food stores, though.

[Andrew Odoardi]

Originally Posted by kjbrill

Even though this thread is about chains, mention needs to be made about all of the independent groceries which used to exist. Years ago, my parent's dealt with a family owned Witte grocery on Ohio Ave. in Deer Park. Even after we moved to Madeira, my mother would phone in her order to Witte's on Friday and my father would pick it up on his way home from work. What I distinctly remember is they would use the boxes their inventory came in rather than bags. My parents continued to patronize them until they closed. There was a sense of loyalty back then which just does not exist today.

Remember Obermeyers in Golf Manor....

[Sarah Perry]

Although I live on the west side, luckily I'm in the area of the Dillonvale IGA fairly often. I love that store. The service and quality of the in-store prepared food is like stepping back into a happier past. Get the fried chicken about 11 a.m. when it's fresh. TDF.