Columbus Neighborhoods: The History of Big Bear Stores
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- Опубликовано: 7 дек 2016
- Former Big Bear Co. president Stephen Breech and historian Doreen Uhas Sauer reminisce about the Columbus company, its growth to 65 grocery stores and numerous department stores across multiple states, the sale of the company and its eventual demise.
From a newlywed in 1981 to a widow in 1992, Big Bear was the only grocery store for us. Even just seeing the sign makes me nostalgic and misty. I know that sounds corny, but it can't be helped. Thank you for the upload!
My mother shopped almost exclusively at Big Bear, with maybe a stop at the A&P once in a blue moon.
Im a Columbus native. Lived here all my life and love this place and it's rich history.
Big Bear Farms is now a neighborhood in Powell with large homes. Close to the Columbus Zoo. The large Silos were saved and sit in a large shopping center by Giant Eagle by Powell Rd. Powell, Ohio
Please tell me they're still there?
@@wiersandlines Yea. They are a historical marker and will never be removed.
They've been painted over with the Giant Eagle logo on them but yep, they're still there.
🐻 😥
We were always a Big Bear family on the eastside of Columbus. My father went to Hearts for everything. The closing was a surprise to everyone I knew at the time. It was a painful lesson for those involved however we can all learn from it, never trust anyone or any company with your financial future. Prepare for retirement with strong decisions and think of "retirement plans" as bonuses to your financial achievements at home.
I worked at Big Bear in Graceland in 1960-61. It was a blast. Jerry Blackburn was a terrific supervisor. The carry out boys were called “coolies”.
I was there around late 80’s late 90’s. Graceland Shopping center? They ended up tearing a lot of the buildings down, they took the Big Bear, and over the old buildings of Odd/Big lots, made a detached Big Bear Plus, a couple stores down from the previous Big Bear.
I was never sad to hear of a store closing until Big Bear went under. Everything there was really good. One could buy a fully cooked dinner with all the trimmings: roast beef, chicken, spaghetti, meat loaf, etc. At least at the two stores on the west side I shopped at. Publicly owned stores became a way of life, I suppose, but it surely ruined a great local supermarket.
My 1st job was Big Bear Plus #262 when I was in High School. The original building of that store can be seen in this program at 4:55, with the Harts being added sometime later. Worked there for most of the next 4 years with the exception of a month of so at Town and Country Big Bear location and equally brief stint at Kroger. A lot of lifelong friends and memories made! I live close to my old store which is now a Rose's and makes me a bit sad every time I drive by it
Care🥰🥰
I remember the Big Bear on Broad St, the far west side, just before Galloway. I think it’s a Giant Eagle now (my memory is sparse and I’ve lived in Texas for 7 years). I’ve always loved sweets and baked goods and Big Bear used to have a donut called a Dream Boat. It was enormous and my brother and I loved them. Every once in a great while my mom would let us get one.
Yes it's still a giant eagle. One of the last ones in Columbus. Miss that big bear
Yes, I used Big Bear Plus bakery on High Street Graceland shopping center, after it had moved a couple buildings over from being just a Big Bear, in what use to be a Big/odd lots, but a new build.
Raspberry pin wheels, like a quarter a piece or 5/$1 I believe.
I was hired as a bag boy in the summer of 1960 and worked at store number 7 on Cleveland Ave and Minnesota Ave.
My first manager was a wonderful man, Jack Block. He taught me so much about the grocery business.
Oddly enough, after store number seven closed, I was full time then, I was transferred to the store at Neil and Goodale Aves. And my manager was...............Jack Block.
God I loved that company and the personnel. It was the best grocery in the Columbus Ohio area.
My mom worked in a Big Bear, and I remember my kid's choir group went to sing caroles at a Big Bear Plus. I don't know why, but at the time it felt so special and exciting. It's a nice memory. RIP big bear.
I'm from the suburbs of Cleveland, and I always looked forward to visiting my grandmother in Columbus...because of the White Castle nearby and the BIG BEAR store.
Very Cool!
I worked for Gold Circle Foods in Columbus on Olentangy River Road. That was 1969. I was 18. The building is now a Kohl's. I was paid very near minimum wage. It might have been 5 cents above it. I stocked shelves and bagged groceries. I worked there for two months. When I announced I was quitting, I was asked to stay with the promise I would soon get a dime raise. I was not swayed. I remember the high point was sale of a dollar off 10 lbs. cans of Folger's coffee. The store ran out of the 10 lbs. cans of Folgers so customers were coming to the cashiers with two 5 lbs. cans or 10 lbs. cans of Maxwell House or some other coffee. The only thing on sale were the 10 lbs. cans of Folgers. One big guy got very abusive and threatening. He said something really spooky to the cute little cashier, something like, "I ought to push this can of coffee down your throat." I actually got angry and I told the guy he had to leave... or else. He growled something and stomped out. I've never been so brave before or since. If the cashier had not bee pretty I probably would not have gotten brave then.
@jason9022 This is fresh out of high school in the Midwest in 1969. So no, I didn't get some, at least not then. I was able to cop a feel from a different girl after a Rascal's concert about a month later.
I remember Gold Circle and I lived close by in UA. Wasn’t there an AMC theatre on Olentangy River Rd. close by?
@Jessica LT There was a theater up at University City shopping center. I saw the movie _The Sterile Cuckoo_ there in 1969 and _Airport_ there in 1970.
@@jimsstuff2201 I saw The Sting probably five times at University City, along with many other movies in that era. I think The Sting played there for a solid year or longer (they used to post on the marquee how many weeks a "held over" movie had been playing). Of course back then the only way you could see a first run movie at all, let alone several times, was to go to a cinema. The really good movies made a lot of money from repeat business. I think University City may have started out as a single screen, but at some point in the early '70s it became a two-screen "twin" theater. Most of the time both screens were new releases, but other times if they were getting a lot of repeat business on a particular movie such as The Sting, one screen was used for the "extended engagement" movie as long as people wanted to keep paying to see it, while the other screen was used for new releases.
Man big bear was the best they had the best customer service and to this day my parents can’t talk about groceries with out saying I miss big bear 🐻
I lived in Columbus when Big Bear closed. I certainly felt the sadness that others felt when it shut down, although I didn't have the memories. Giant Eagle bought up about a dozen of them and moved into Central Ohio soon after.
Thank you for your Giant Eagle Big Bear connection. You're the only other person that I've ran across who realized that Giant Eagle is basically Big Bear reinvented
Yeah but Big Bear had better prices than Kroger.
And now Kroger has better prices than Giant Eagle. 😕
That "old building" on Lane Ave. was, to the best of my recollection, formerly a roller skating rink. I used to get to go with my Dad on Sat. when he did the family grocery shopping. There was a fairly large magazine rack and no one ever seemed to object to me sitting there and browsing thru some. This would have been about 1950.
Aww I miss big bear. This was super interesting
I spent 10 years working at Big Bear Plus 251 in Wintersville Ohio. Loved it. great fellow employees, great costumers!!! Miss that store!
Me too I worked for them for 7 years
Thank you for posting this. I shopped at the Big Bear Stores in West Virginia and was very sad to see them go. They were a big part of the community for so long.
Where was a Big Bear in West Virginia?
@@ChrisBakerauthor Wheeling and Parkersburg
@@averagecitizen8491 I don't ever remember a Big Bear in Wheeling. If there was one, it must have been before my time.
Thank you so much for walking me through the beautiful past.
I worked at graceland big bear,midnight stock.just a kid but they treated you good and we were happy to work there
I was there from 85 to 96, fun place to work.
I can remember shopping with my mom at the Big Bear at the Miracle Mile on East Broad and at the Northern Lights Shopping Center. That first Big Bear on Lane later became a "Buckeye Stamp" store.
When my family lived in Whitehall back in the 1950's, we used to shop at the Big Bear that was in the Miracle Mile and when we moved up, in the Oakland Park neighborhood, we shopped at the Big Bear in the Northern Lights shopping center. Our parents let my sister and me collect all of the Buckeye Stamps that our mother brought home and we would redeem them at the "Buckeye Store" on Lane. Those were the days.
Big Bear's Bakery to this day has never been replaced at any store with its quality and true Grandma homemade flavors
I remember being a toddler sitting in the shopping cart when my mom shopped at the Big Bear in Grandview, at Fifth and Grandview avenues. It seemed like a huge place. Mom had books of those Buckeye Stamps and would occasionally get something.
When I was a student at OSU, I frequently shopped at the old store on Lane Avenue. I think it must have been a roller rink at one time. It was my favorite Big Bear.
In grade school we took a tour of the Big Bear warehouse on Goodale Boulevard. In the banana room, the guy explained they treated the bananas with some kind of gas, and he said sometimes they'd find huge spiders in the hanging bunches. This made some of the girls nervous . . .
Yep--glad to see another who remembers it as a former roller rink.
My mom still has some of those orange stamps somewhere put up in her house. 😊
R.I.P Grandpa you will be missed
8:23 was the great eastern store in Whitehall. .loved that place
I found this video because I always tell my kids about BB. That location is the one we used to walk to in the 90s.
I miss Big Bear too, grew up south Columbus,went to the great southern shopping center.then started delivering to the stores like Kroger,Big Bear and others.my Thursday route was all big bear's,about 5 of them.❤❤❤ Kroger was the first to open 1883 in cincinnati.had friends I grew up with got their first job either Big Bear or Kroger.
I remember the Big Bear. It was a great store
I loved going to Big Bear, as a kid. We shopped at the one in Columbus.
To be fair, there was more than "one" Big Bear in Columbus. Clintonville, Northern Lights, Whittier Street, Neil Avenue, the Hilltop, Great Southern, Town & Country, Livingston and James, Karl and Rt. 161, and a few more.
We had one in Northern Lights Shopping Center, Columbus, Oh, years ago.
Big Bear had the world's best doughnuts...
I lived across from the Big Bear Bakery at 10th & High St for 6 years in the late 70's early 80's, everyday I would wake to the smell of bread baking.
I remember the days shopping at BIG BEAR 20 plus+ years ago
My first job at age 16 was a "cart boy" after school at Big Bear owned Hart's Family Center in Bridgeport, OH in 1974. We would take the carts from parking lot & line them up inside. When the store got busy, they would have us go to check out counters & bag customers' merchandise to help cashiers. Still have stub of my 1st paycheck! Oh, to be young again!
There was a little waterfall/cataract in front of that Hart’s. (Wheeling Creek ran by the parking lot.) I remember my dad taking me to look at it when I was a kid in the 80s.
I remember my mother collecting the stamps and we went down to the Lane Avenue store to pick up items. I can't remember what she got from them (maybe a toaster?). That was so many long years ago.....
We had what was called Green stamps, to turn in when books were filled for kitchen items. Showing my age.😊
The primary stamps were Green Stamps and Yellow Stamps. If you bought $100 in food, you got reams of stamps worth about ten cents for the whole purchase. But you licked and licked and the kids liked too to fill books of stamps. One book of stamps would not buy anything. If you licked enough and bought enough then after a year or two you could bring a big bag of books to one of the two redemption centers in the county wasting a ton of gas and exchange them for an ugly cheap lamp that didn't match anything. I.e., it was a racket. But it was very much frowned upon for wives to work. They collected the stamps. A husband might laugh, but if he redeemed those books, it was tantamount to declaring war on his wife. That would have been worse than cheating.
Miss Big Bear, always shopped there. Used to go with my mom and helped her put the green stamps in the books. Very fond memories.
The BB on Lane Ave had been a roller skating rink slash dance hall in the 40s. The BB in Graceland was built smack dab on a sacred Indian burial ground. Just a hundred yards or so west of the store, I crashed my bicycle in a groundhog hole in 2016. I had to ask myself if I were still alive. Within a 100 yards of that crash, my father had broken his face so bad on a minibike that he could move his upper teeth by pushing down on his cheek bone back in '72. 300 years before, the Olentangy Indians had had a village where the Graceland Shopping Center is. Big Bear (now Giant Eagle) sits squarely on top of the burial grounds at the center of the store.
WoW!!! 😮
My first job :)
Didn't realize BB had such deep Columbus roots!
I remember Big Bear in San Diego CA in the 70s!
That’s a different chain no relation
Does anyone remember the Big Bear / Grocery Warehouse located in Grove City? Big Lots is now occupying the GC location.
I never even knew Grove City had a Big Bear warehouse..I only knew of the 3rd Ave. location in Grandview! In fact, I always thought the only major warehouse/DC in Grove City was Walmart"s! And, Big Lot's occupies it now?..thank's for the info!! 🤝
2:20-2:27
5:43 is my favorite part of the video ‼️💯
There was one on Main next to Hart long ago my friend Charles remember them very well there was one in the 50s across the old shoe factory on N Columbus St in Lancaster Ohio
We shopped at the Big Bear in Graceland Shopping Center. My parents brought me home as a baby just down the street. A couple of doors down from BB was Iseles ice cream. Mmm mmm! What became Klondike ice cream bars from a dairy farm in Mansfield Ohio about 40 miles north of Cols.
Worked for Big Bear for 16 years,miss those days.
I miss the sauce on the barbecue chicken they had.
This store was in Portsmouth Ohio. Now its a lute supply. Its a lumber company. It also was a hearts also.
I live in Big Bear Farms, silos are still here but i wish big bear was still around as well. Powell OH is growing rapidly now days.
Wow that “8:23” looks like Jim at Town & Country I worked there for about 5 years. They told me about the good old days when Big Bear took care of their employees. Sad to see it go. They just demolish the whole rest of the building on Broad Street.
My first job oh how I miss it. Big Bear had really great managers Michael Wyatt and Rick Rhodes!
I worked at Big Bear- West Park Shopping Center from 1970 - 1974 - Helped close it up. Went down the sidewalk to Krogers and got hired on the spot.
- used to go to Big Bear all the time.
I still miss big bear.
Miss big bear
My first job was at the Big Bear on Fifth & Grandview. I was fired for my "Beatle" haircut - deemed "radical" in a world of "flat tops".
I used to go into that Big Bear on Lane Avenue near Ohio State. I swear I always thought it was a reconverted roller skating rink.
Woody Hayes used to eat there regularly when he was the coach at Ohio State.
It WAS a converted roller rink. At one time it had been a dance hall, roller rink, and an arena for horse shows and events prior to becoming the first Big Bear store. I worked for Big Bear as a bag boy, then was "promoted" to cashier ($5 an hour - woo hoo) while in high school in the '70s. The cashier training center for BB's central Ohio district was in the basement of the Lane Avenue store. We got the behind the scenes tour of the store and lectures on how the Lane Ave store and the Big Bear company in general came to be. It still looked like an old timey roller rink with the humongous domed roof and the oval-shaped, wood-planked main floor.
columbusneighborhoods.org/story/big-bear-386-w-lane-ave/
It was.
only time I was there was the auction in early 80's ..garth semple sold the place to the bare walls that day B4 it was razed
I remember big bear in Chillicothe we had 2 . 1 in Central Center and the other one in Shawnee Square
There’s a couple of Big Bears still open in atlanta
I miss Big Bear Stors.
I liked Big Bear. It was my first job as a teenager.
Me too!!
Were it still around, Big Bear would be huge for our area.
One of my first jobs
One of my favorite jobs!!
I love Big Bear Stores.
By GPS that Graceland Big Bear was put directly on top of an old indian burial ground. Swear to God. I lived on High St less than a mile away. My dad buried our first dog in the trenches dug to build Woolworth's.
Big money and greed always takes down places that families relied on for jobs and products
We had a big bear market on campo road in spring valley Ca.
I'm in my mid-60 East I remember Big Bear store as well. I am convinced that Giant Eagle is a big bear reinvented.
When Giant Eagle first came to Columbus every Giant Eagle store was it the site of what had been a Big Bear store.
Some of giant eagles off-brand products Top Care was Big Bear's off brand
I used to love going to Big Bear. 😊
Giant Eagle is more expensive though. I hardly go there.
I go to my 2nd favorite store now, Kroger's. 😐
Pretty sad. Big Bear was just a part of the landscape growing up here in Columbus. I moved away in 1991 and came back a few years ago and it was just gone.
When I was a child (early 1950s), there was a Big Bear market in Austin, TX. Same company?
All I remember about Big Bear as a 20 something was their prices were double what other stores charged. I think Giant Eagle is the new Big Bear now
It was towards the end cause penn traffic was trying to get as much money from the dying corpse as possible
I loved Big Bear
I grew up in Columbus and my first job at 8 years old was shopping for two little old ladies at the local Big Bear. 1957.
Sad the demise of such a landmark company. Thanks for the whole story.
Dv
Thank Penn Traffic
I miss big bear had the best meat and smile face cookies
Big Bear was there for the poor people in the 80s. I always wondered what happened with them. Corruption. Damn
Does anyone remember the harts in the basement of w broad location?
Yes, went to the W. Broad location many times. Loved the Big Bear statue at that location. Went to Harts many times in the basement. A Harts and Big Bear store were also near to each other at the Central Point location way back when.
@@jayyaj4845 apparently you have been raised in central Ohio and should remember gold circle children's palace sun TV Lazarus fillpo the clown the Paul baby show Linden air theater and I know this is a long shot as many of my friends don't remember but on 5th Avenue there was a little place called the whistle stop pop shop that you could get soda in every flavor and watch them bottle it that was back in the day of returnable bottles and the Borden dairy company delivered to your front porch on a daily basis and there was two news papers a morning and a evening edition from two different publications and as far as TV goes there was only 3 channels to choose from unless you counted PBS and was down for some hard press the clock at least I think that's what it was called local high schools competing in a trivia contest for a battle of wits and superior intelligence yeah whatever I was always an underachiever and didn't go out for that nerd shit hell I had a hard time remembering phone numbers because that was before cell phones that you can scroll and find what you're looking for yeah I babble on but I sure miss the days when life was simple
The BB bakeries made the best Buckeye candy
Sounds like a great store until the goons got it
Was until Penn Traffic came in and closed us down just like Gold Circle.
We remember the big bear, flipo the clown, Firitz the night owl of Columbus Ohio
Chris Schneider yes! I watched them both and when younger, Lucy’s Toy Shop.
Jerry Beck's all night theatre
Penn traffic killed big bear.
Yes and Gold Circle too. When they came to unionize us we should have voted it in..Big Bear might still be alive today.
I thought Gold Circle was a part of Federated.
Based in suckacuse new york. It's a shame the family that owned BB had to sell it to that incompetent corporation
If the bagboy at Big Bear Graceland Sctr Cols Oh in 1959/60 carried your cart out to your car, the standard tip was a quarter. 'Course if some stingey old bag tipped a dime, she'd better not get that boy next time. Broken eggs, melted icecream, smashed bread, all done with a smile.
The first big box store huh
When the family sold out to that company in suckacuse new york Penn traffic it went down
Wow...nostalgia with zero diversity in that front store photo. Not surprised but looking at it today is like whoa 😮
Long live the big bear!
No they actually closed about 30yrs ago
@@ironbran12 16 years ago
@@redbeard6220 longer than that here sir.
I miss big bear.I worked at the big bear in mt vernon,ohio.I made a good living.
Same here worked in Columbus store for 7 years
Men with small hats came and raided Big Bear.
They borrowed how much money? And the interest rate payback was how much money? It sounds like a business model custom designed for failure. Of course the people doing the actual labor get stuck right in the middle.
To much conversation!! If it was real, he'd get right to it!!!
That Broad st store was a flat out dump.
Are you talking on the Hilltop?
@@dickrush6463 Yeeeeeeeep.
Disagree.
greed
use to call it the huge nude
look i liked big bear i got memories too but hey they fucked up they went upscale they screwed themselves and that's fucking walmart and kroger these days!!
No Penn Traffic was to blame for Big Bear's demise.
what the HELL is wrong with that old guy's face?? it's sickening!
Thats my grandfather and he pasted away this year so please apologize
kerryincolumbus nothing’s wrong with his face. He’s an older man nice enough to share memories. Seems like a decent hard working and compassionate person. Seems like in your past you should have worked under someone like him. You would have learned a lot.
@@adamrhoads9722 there's nothing to apologize for.. I agree with kerryincolumbus.. that old guy's face was gross!!!
@@jessicalt4121 nothing wrong with his face?? Lady, you either need to adjust your glasses or get your cataract removed! His face was grotesque!
pure propaganda!! careers?? lol oh yeah stores are really careers!! pure corporate bullshit!!!
Matthew Henry u
Up yours sorry if life gave you a lemon and a lonely Mr.cherry
Things were different back then, my friend. You could actually make a decent, middle-class living working full-time in a grocery store.