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Big Bear (supermarket)
Encyclopedia
Big Bear Stores was a regional supermarket
chain operating in Ohio
and West Virginia
. The company was founded in Columbus, Ohio
, and was headquartered there until its acquisition by Syracuse, New York
-based Penn Traffic
in 1989. For nearly 75 years, the chain was a Central Ohio institution.
(now the site of the Riverwatch Tower apartments); Within a year, a second store opened in Columbus. By the end of the second year, two more stores had been opened, followed by stores in Lancaster, Marion, Newark and Toledo.
It was the first self-serve supermarket in the Midwest, and was the first supermarket in the country to use cashier-operated motorized conveyor belts, and claimed several innovative services, including its own trolley line. Big Bear introduced shopping carts to their stores in 1937. Big Bear operated a farm north of Columbus (later the site of store #272), as well as the Big Bear Bakery, located near the OSU campus. In 1948, Brown, along with other supermarket operators, founded Topco Associates, and Big Bear distributed their products (i.e. Food Club, Valu Time) as their "house brand", as well as their own private brand "Betty Brown", named after the founder's wife. Like many other stores, Big Bear had a trading stamp
program. For many years their orange and blue "Buckeye" stamps were a familiar sight for shoppers.
In the 1950s, Big Bear became the first supermarket in the nation to use new IBM 305 RAMAC
mainframe computer. In 1954, a new prototype store was opened in north Columbus' Graceland Shopping Center. With an interior store layout that became an industry standard, the store featured perishable items in the center of the stores and lower displays to highlight products. In the same year, Big Bear Stores Co. purchased Harts Stores
, a department store that was operating at the time in the basements of two Big Bears. Harts experienced rapid growth, as Big Bear often opened grocery stores along with a Harts Department Store in an adjacent space.
Over time, Big Bear became a major supermarket chain in Ohio and West Virginia. In July 1988 the company started its hyperstore Big Bear Plus concept in Wintersville, Ohio
(140000 sq ft (13,006.4 m²)) and Bridgeport, Ohio
(100000 sq ft (9,290.3 m²)) the stores featured 40 percent food and 60 percent general merchandise. The hyperstore concept was a combination of its Harts Stores (29 stores as of 1991) and the Big Bear Grocery format.
Towards the end of 1990 the company decided to favor the Big Bear Plus store format over the Harts general merchandise format and started to slowly shutter or convert all remaining Harts locations. In 1991, ten side-by-side Big Bear and Harts locations were converted to the Big Bear Plus format. Before the demise of the company there were 21 Big Bear Plus stores.
card which was introduced a year earlier. It was known as the "Big Bear Wild Card". After Penn-Traffic announced that Big Bear was ceasing operations, Kroger
announced that it would now honor the Big Bear Wild Cards at their stores.
was founded in June, 1957 as Big Bear Employees Credit Union by a group of employees that worked for the former Big Bear Stores Company. The credit union's office was located within the headquarters of the Big Bear Stores Company, located at 770 W. Goodale Blvd. in Columbus, Ohio. In 1983, the credit union moved its office to a Big Bear Stores satellite office, located at 1184 Dublin Road in Columbus. The new location allowed the credit union to double its space, and provided enough room for six employees. In 1990, the credit union moved into its first office with its own public entrance, located in converted warehouse space at 851 W. 3rd Avenue in Columbus. In March 2003, noting that only fifteen percent of the credit union's members were employed by Big Bear Stores Company, the credit union's membership voted to change the name of the credit union to Members First Credit Union, providing the credit union with a brand new identity. By the end of 2003, Big Bear Stores announced that their company would cease operations by the beginning of 2004. In March 2004, the credit union moved into a newly built facility, located at 1445 W. Goodale Blvd. in the heart of the Grandview / Marble Cliff area.
and Meijer
entering its market area. Due to the increased competitive situation, the chain made the hard decision to put itself on the auction block in late 1988 after 54 years as an independent company, including periods of both public and private ownership. Big Bear was bought out in April 1989 for $35 per share, or $352 million, for all outstanding common stock by a large supermarket holding company Penn Traffic
, which owns several regional chains. In 1993, Big Bear Stores became a division of the Penn Traffic Company, and went through a series of changes in business and marketing strategies. One of the changes including the removal of longtime Big Bear President Steven Breech and his leadership team. Breech's replacement, Phillip Hawkins, a former Vons
Supermarket CEO was promoted as a turn around specialist. One of his first tasks was responding to reduced sales volumes at most store locations by lowering overhead costs as much as possible. As long-time Columbus area shoppers complained about declining conditions in the Columbus area stores, Hawkins and company launched its infamous "All We Did Was Listen"
advertising campaign in June 1997, which featured Hawkins speaking in front of Big Bear employees in a reassuring tone of voice. Hawkins plan was to take Big Bear from its role as an upper market chain to a more "competitive" level by reducing overhead in store operations. As sales volumes continued to drop due to increased competition, it resulted in lower payroll costs which caused conditions in the stores to decline. As the Big Bear division began to have cash flow issues in 2003, product suppliers pulled their items from store shelves as most accounts went past due. Employees within Big Bear made a joke of Hawkins and his "All we did was listen" as hollow proof that management "listened" to employee and shopper concerns, but it seemed that was all they were prepared to do. By the end of Hawkins brief tenure, Big Bear was hemorrhaging red ink and closing stores.
The chain's demise was finalized in 2004 when the last Big Bear store closed its doors, following Penn Traffic's second Chapter 11 bankruptcy in a decade. Better store locations were acquired and reopened as Giant Eagle
or Kroger
stores; as of March 2005 many former Big Bear stores (especially in West Virginia) remain empty, ghosts of a once ubiquitous supermarket chain.
. It is unclear whether the name was licensed from the Ohio company, though ownership and operations were completely independent.
Supermarket
A supermarket, a form of grocery store, is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments...
chain operating in Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
and West Virginia
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...
. The company was founded in Columbus, Ohio
Columbus, Ohio
Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...
, and was headquartered there until its acquisition by Syracuse, New York
Syracuse, New York
Syracuse is a city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States, the largest U.S. city with the name "Syracuse", and the fifth most populous city in the state. At the 2010 census, the city population was 145,170, and its metropolitan area had a population of 742,603...
-based Penn Traffic
Penn Traffic
The Penn Traffic Company was the parent company for 79 retail grocery supermarkets in the Northeastern United States, concentrating mostly in Central New York. Its headquarters were in Syracuse, New York. Penn Traffic formerly had supermarkets also in Pennsylvania, Vermont and New Hampshire...
in 1989. For nearly 75 years, the chain was a Central Ohio institution.
History
Big Bear Stores was founded in November 1933 by Wayne E. Brown. The first Big Bear Store opened on February 15, 1934 on West Lane Avenue in Columbus, Ohio in what was once a dance hall, a roller skating rink, and finally a tan bark ring for horse shows, the first Big Bear store opened - the beginning of self service supermarketing in the Midwest. This first store was adjacent to the campus of the Ohio State UniversityOhio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly referred to as Ohio State, is a public research university located in Columbus, Ohio. It was originally founded in 1870 as a land-grant university and is currently the third largest university campus in the United States...
(now the site of the Riverwatch Tower apartments); Within a year, a second store opened in Columbus. By the end of the second year, two more stores had been opened, followed by stores in Lancaster, Marion, Newark and Toledo.
It was the first self-serve supermarket in the Midwest, and was the first supermarket in the country to use cashier-operated motorized conveyor belts, and claimed several innovative services, including its own trolley line. Big Bear introduced shopping carts to their stores in 1937. Big Bear operated a farm north of Columbus (later the site of store #272), as well as the Big Bear Bakery, located near the OSU campus. In 1948, Brown, along with other supermarket operators, founded Topco Associates, and Big Bear distributed their products (i.e. Food Club, Valu Time) as their "house brand", as well as their own private brand "Betty Brown", named after the founder's wife. Like many other stores, Big Bear had a trading stamp
Trading stamp
Trading stamps are small paper coupons given to customers by merchants in loyalty marketing programs that predate the modern loyalty card. These stamps had no value individually, but when a customer accumulated a number of them, they could be exchanged with the trading stamp company for premiums,...
program. For many years their orange and blue "Buckeye" stamps were a familiar sight for shoppers.
In the 1950s, Big Bear became the first supermarket in the nation to use new IBM 305 RAMAC
IBM 305
The IBM 305 RAMAC, publicly announced on September 13, 1956, was the first commercial computer that used a moving head hard disk drive for secondary storage. RAMAC stood for "Random Access Method of Accounting and Control". Its design was motivated by the need for real-time accounting in business...
mainframe computer. In 1954, a new prototype store was opened in north Columbus' Graceland Shopping Center. With an interior store layout that became an industry standard, the store featured perishable items in the center of the stores and lower displays to highlight products. In the same year, Big Bear Stores Co. purchased Harts Stores
Harts Stores
Harts Stores was a regional general merchandise chain in the midwestern United States, headquartered for many years in Columbus, Ohio.-History:...
, a department store that was operating at the time in the basements of two Big Bears. Harts experienced rapid growth, as Big Bear often opened grocery stores along with a Harts Department Store in an adjacent space.
Over time, Big Bear became a major supermarket chain in Ohio and West Virginia. In July 1988 the company started its hyperstore Big Bear Plus concept in Wintersville, Ohio
Wintersville, Ohio
Wintersville is a village in Jefferson County, Ohio, United States. As of the 2000 census, the village had a population of 4,067. It is part of the Weirton–Steubenville, WV-OH Metropolitan Statistical Area....
(140000 sq ft (13,006.4 m²)) and Bridgeport, Ohio
Bridgeport, Ohio
Bridgeport is a village in Belmont County, Ohio, United States. It is part of the Wheeling, West Virginia Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,831 at the 2010 census...
(100000 sq ft (9,290.3 m²)) the stores featured 40 percent food and 60 percent general merchandise. The hyperstore concept was a combination of its Harts Stores (29 stores as of 1991) and the Big Bear Grocery format.
Towards the end of 1990 the company decided to favor the Big Bear Plus store format over the Harts general merchandise format and started to slowly shutter or convert all remaining Harts locations. In 1991, ten side-by-side Big Bear and Harts locations were converted to the Big Bear Plus format. Before the demise of the company there were 21 Big Bear Plus stores.
Savings card
Big Bear Stores introduced a savings card at all stores on September 14, 2000 in response to the KrogerKroger
The Kroger Co. is an American supermarket chain founded by Bernard Kroger in 1883 in Cincinnati, Ohio. It reported US$ 76.7 billion in sales during fiscal year 2009. It is the country's largest grocery store chain and its second-largest grocery retailer by volume and second-place general retailer...
card which was introduced a year earlier. It was known as the "Big Bear Wild Card". After Penn-Traffic announced that Big Bear was ceasing operations, Kroger
Kroger
The Kroger Co. is an American supermarket chain founded by Bernard Kroger in 1883 in Cincinnati, Ohio. It reported US$ 76.7 billion in sales during fiscal year 2009. It is the country's largest grocery store chain and its second-largest grocery retailer by volume and second-place general retailer...
announced that it would now honor the Big Bear Wild Cards at their stores.
Slogans
- You'll Be Surprised By A Big Bear (late 70's-1981)
- Get The Bear Minimum Price! (1981–1986)
- That's My Bear (1986–1987)
- Give 'Em A Big Bear Hug! (1987–2004)
- All we did was listen (1997)
Big Bear Credit Union
The credit unionCredit union
A credit union is a cooperative financial institution that is owned and controlled by its members and operated for the purpose of promoting thrift, providing credit at competitive rates, and providing other financial services to its members...
was founded in June, 1957 as Big Bear Employees Credit Union by a group of employees that worked for the former Big Bear Stores Company. The credit union's office was located within the headquarters of the Big Bear Stores Company, located at 770 W. Goodale Blvd. in Columbus, Ohio. In 1983, the credit union moved its office to a Big Bear Stores satellite office, located at 1184 Dublin Road in Columbus. The new location allowed the credit union to double its space, and provided enough room for six employees. In 1990, the credit union moved into its first office with its own public entrance, located in converted warehouse space at 851 W. 3rd Avenue in Columbus. In March 2003, noting that only fifteen percent of the credit union's members were employed by Big Bear Stores Company, the credit union's membership voted to change the name of the credit union to Members First Credit Union, providing the credit union with a brand new identity. By the end of 2003, Big Bear Stores announced that their company would cease operations by the beginning of 2004. In March 2004, the credit union moved into a newly built facility, located at 1445 W. Goodale Blvd. in the heart of the Grandview / Marble Cliff area.
Decline and closure
In 1976, the company went private in a leveraged buyout, by six company executives. Big Bear again went public in 1983. The company's success began to falter in the late-1980s with new competition from alternative formats like Cub FoodsCub Foods
Cub Foods is a supermarket chain with seventy-three stores in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Eden Prairie, Minnesota-based SuperValu...
and Meijer
Meijer
Meijer, Inc. is a regional American hypermarket chain based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Founded in 1934 as a supermarket chain, Meijer is credited with pioneering the modern supercenter concept in 1962. About half of the company's 196 stores are located in Michigan, with additional locations in...
entering its market area. Due to the increased competitive situation, the chain made the hard decision to put itself on the auction block in late 1988 after 54 years as an independent company, including periods of both public and private ownership. Big Bear was bought out in April 1989 for $35 per share, or $352 million, for all outstanding common stock by a large supermarket holding company Penn Traffic
Penn Traffic
The Penn Traffic Company was the parent company for 79 retail grocery supermarkets in the Northeastern United States, concentrating mostly in Central New York. Its headquarters were in Syracuse, New York. Penn Traffic formerly had supermarkets also in Pennsylvania, Vermont and New Hampshire...
, which owns several regional chains. In 1993, Big Bear Stores became a division of the Penn Traffic Company, and went through a series of changes in business and marketing strategies. One of the changes including the removal of longtime Big Bear President Steven Breech and his leadership team. Breech's replacement, Phillip Hawkins, a former Vons
Vons
Vons is a southern California and southern Nevada supermarket chain and a division of Safeway Inc. It is headquartered in Arcadia, California, and operates stores under the Vons and Pavilions banners.-Beginning:...
Supermarket CEO was promoted as a turn around specialist. One of his first tasks was responding to reduced sales volumes at most store locations by lowering overhead costs as much as possible. As long-time Columbus area shoppers complained about declining conditions in the Columbus area stores, Hawkins and company launched its infamous "All We Did Was Listen"
advertising campaign in June 1997, which featured Hawkins speaking in front of Big Bear employees in a reassuring tone of voice. Hawkins plan was to take Big Bear from its role as an upper market chain to a more "competitive" level by reducing overhead in store operations. As sales volumes continued to drop due to increased competition, it resulted in lower payroll costs which caused conditions in the stores to decline. As the Big Bear division began to have cash flow issues in 2003, product suppliers pulled their items from store shelves as most accounts went past due. Employees within Big Bear made a joke of Hawkins and his "All we did was listen" as hollow proof that management "listened" to employee and shopper concerns, but it seemed that was all they were prepared to do. By the end of Hawkins brief tenure, Big Bear was hemorrhaging red ink and closing stores.
The chain's demise was finalized in 2004 when the last Big Bear store closed its doors, following Penn Traffic's second Chapter 11 bankruptcy in a decade. Better store locations were acquired and reopened as Giant Eagle
Giant Eagle
Giant Eagle, Inc., is a supermarket chain with stores in the U.S. states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, and Maryland. The company was founded in 1918 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Supermarket News ranked Giant Eagle No. 21 in the 2009 "Top 75 North American Food Retailers" based on 2008...
or Kroger
Kroger
The Kroger Co. is an American supermarket chain founded by Bernard Kroger in 1883 in Cincinnati, Ohio. It reported US$ 76.7 billion in sales during fiscal year 2009. It is the country's largest grocery store chain and its second-largest grocery retailer by volume and second-place general retailer...
stores; as of March 2005 many former Big Bear stores (especially in West Virginia) remain empty, ghosts of a once ubiquitous supermarket chain.
California
From the 1950s, until its merger with Albertsons shortly after a sale to Fleming Foods in the mid-1990s, supermarkets with the Big Bear name operated in San Diego County, CaliforniaCalifornia
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. It is unclear whether the name was licensed from the Ohio company, though ownership and operations were completely independent.