New location lists: Cleveland and Columbus

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Groceteria
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New location lists: Cleveland and Columbus

Post by Groceteria »

Several new location lists added to the main website in recent months, including:

Akron OH: http://www.groceteria.com/place/ohio/akron/
Cleveland OH: http://www.groceteria.com/place/ohio/cleveland/
Columbus OH: http://www.groceteria.com/place/ohio/columbus/
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Groceteria
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Re: New location lists: Cleveland and Columbus

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Doing some overdue updates to Cleveland to fill in some gaps. I've made additions to the city (a few more to come later) and I'll work on the suburbs over the next week or so. I've also taken the map live, which I apparently forgot to do before.

https://www.groceteria.com/place/ohio/cleveland/
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Re: New location lists: Cleveland and Columbus

Post by rich »

For Cleveland:

Farmview => Pick-n-Pay. Farmview were dairy stores that had a mostly Jewish clientele (they probably were Kosher).

Foodtown began as a co-op but was an actual chain by the time ACF-Wrigley (later known as Allied Supermarkets) of Detroit bought them in the 50s. A few years later, the stores were sold to Pick-n-Pay, although several that were near existing or under construction Pick-n-Pays were sold to others (A&P in the case of Lake Shore Blvd in Willowick and a Super Valu operator on Lake Shore in Euclid). Some of the people involved with Foodtown such as Julie Kravits later played roles in the Stop-n-Shop co-op, Fisher Foods (with the Fazio group), and Pick-n-Pay (before its merger with First National). Oddly, the Toledo Food Town also began as a co-op but later became a publicly traded company---that Food Town took it's name from Wally Iott's stores in the co-op.

There's some odd stuff with Pick-n-Pay: 1736 Coventry (Cleveland Heights) probably was a Farmview, the other store on Coventry lasted into the 1980s as a Pick-n-Pay and was listed for years as Store #1, although the first Pick-n-Pay was on E 185th Street, but not at the address you have---perhaps that was an old Farmview, but the first store opened a few blocks North in 1939. It had a Black porcelain facade and lasted into the 1960, being replaced by a store at 18501 Neff Road. The old store had a long later life as Gale's Bi-Rite, with Gales expanding into several adjacent store fronts. The Neff Road store also had a long life and was the last store to keep the Pick-n-Pay name. First National wanted to replace it with a bigger store, but there was a zoning dispute that prevented that from happening.

You're missing at least one Fisher Foods in the 26400 block of Lake Shore Blvd in Euclid. It probably was built in the 20s and lasted into early 50s. It later had a life as Sgro's, a charter Stop-n-Shop member and then as Holzheimer's, a small local chain that was variously a Bi-Rite, Eagle and IGA. The Holzheimer brothers (one was a neighbor of ours) were forced out of Fisher Foods management when the Fazio & Seaway people took over, so they never joined a Seaway-related co-op.

Sav-Mor was a co-op that operated in African-American neighborhoods--they only ever advertised in the Black press and on R&B radio stations. The owners typically were white (the father of a college friend owned one)---mostly small neighborhood stores that formerly were chains. Eagle and Square Deal would have been their "white" counterparts. Seaway Foods supplied most of the co-ops but there were periods when they were on the outs with one group or another (Eagle and Bi-Rite being ones I remember). The Bi-Rites often were competitive with chain supers and the although they began with quite a few small, neighborhood stores, the Stop-n-Shops were very competitive with the chains and often much better for perishables.
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Re: New location lists: Cleveland and Columbus

Post by decorpackage »

I figured I should throw this here.. The library in Akron has a good amount of city directories available online, with the newest being from 1968-1969: https://www.akronlibrary.org/locations/ ... irectories
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Re: New location lists: Cleveland and Columbus

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Thanks! I’ve looked at the Akron directories online in the past, and unfortunately they were published by one of those companies that didn’t list individual branch locations. They just say something like “123 Main St. plus branches“ for most years, which makes me a little crazy. It’s a shame because I’d really like to do Akron at some point. A lot of the Steubenville directories are the same way.
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Re: New location lists: Cleveland and Columbus

Post by decorpackage »

Groceteria wrote: 29 Jan 2022 11:20 Thanks! I’ve looked at the Akron directories online in the past, and unfortunately they were published by one of those companies that didn’t list individual branch locations. They just say something like “123 Main St. plus branches“ for most years, which makes me a little crazy. It’s a shame because I’d really like to do Akron at some point. A lot of the Steubenville directories are the same way.
Yeah, I noticed that after the fact. It's a bit strange to me since "Marchand Markets" started to be listed in 1937 (and after) with all of their locations, while a company like Kroger basically says that ["plus branches" in comparison. However, it seemed like their locations are actually all listed if you manually (assuming search doesn't catch them all) go through the section involving the street addresses. Maybe?

In regards to it being by one of "those companies", any idea if anyone else published a city directory for these places? [Note: I mean, I guess I'll find out eventually - I'm planning to make it out to Akron and surrounding areas this spring for research.] I've been at some libraries recently and it sometimes seems like only one company would of covered the place. I know some places seemingly didn't have anything as I turned up empty handed - like everywhere in Fulton County, OH!

Oh, and last note.. in regards to some of those companies - which companies for these city directories do you prefer over others? From what I've seen personally, I tend to hold Polk's as the gold standard. On the other hand.. something like Robinson's is kind of iffy since I notice they are hardly consistent for listing businesses under the business section, making it painful for doing the "5 year marks" that I enjoy from this site so much.
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