Big Bear Stores

Big Bear Stores was an American regional supermarket chain operating in the U.S. states of Ohio and West Virginia between 1933 and 2004. The company was founded in Columbus, Ohio, and was headquartered there until its acquisition by Syracuse, New York–based Penn Traffic in 1989. Upon Penn Traffic's bankruptcy in 2004, all remaining Big Bear Stores closed.

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. This opening marked the beginning of self-service supermarketing in the Midwest. This first store was adjacent to the campus of Ohio State University (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 opened, followed by stores in Lancaster, Marion, Newark, and Toledo, Ohio.

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

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 Foods 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.

The large supermarket holding company Penn Traffic, which owned several regional chains, purchased Big Bear in April 1989 with an offer of $35 (~$ in ) per share for all outstanding common stock. Penn Traffic borrowed heavily to leverage the buyout, and foisted debt on the company.[1] 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, such as moving down-market, to aim at a broader segment, but alienating their wealthier clientele. 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 turnaround 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.[2][3] 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 May 2014, many former Big Bear stores (especially in Ohio and West Virginia) remain empty.

type	Supermarket
fate	Closed
foundation	1933
defunct	2004
location	Columbus, Ohio
industry	Retail
products	Bakery, dairy, deli, frozen foods, general grocery, meat, pharmacy, produce, seafood, snacks, liquor

History

Savings card

Slogans

Big Bear Credit Union

Decline and closure

References