Groceteria.com

I remember this store as a kid in Ohio, it was much like a K-Mart. There were a few around Toledo and Sandusky. How big was this chain and when did it go away?

This chain had stores in Dayton, Cincinnati, Columbus, & Toledo, as well as various small cities in between like Bowling Green. It grew out of Bargain City (based in Toledo) and Rink's (based in Cincinnati). The chain was owned by Gray Drug, a Cleveland-based drug store chain for most of the 60s and 70s. I think they may have bought the two chains and merged them. Rink's was sold to Cook United (Clevealnd-based parent of Uncle Bill's, Ontario, & Pick-n-Pay) and the chain was merged with Ontario stores, which operated in Dayton, Cincinnati, Columbus, & Toledo. The Rink's stores were a mix of sizes. They more or less competed with K-Mart--some of the stores were comparable in size and better run, others were rather small. They tended to be more hard goods oriented than a K-Mart. The quality of the locations varied, although they tended to have better locations than Ontario. The stores were closed when Cook United went bankrupt in the 1980s.

The store I remember the most was the one in Sandusky, which used to be an Ontario store. It had a building that had an opening in a side wall right at the front so you could walk to the Pick-N-Pay grocery store next door without going outside.

The Middletown. Ohio RINK'S store was located on the southeast corner of the Roosevelt Boulevard and Orchard Street intersection. It opened in 1966, if memory serves me correctly.

The store competed with Fashion Fair (University and Nelbar), which, soon after, became Twin Fair. There was also a large W.T. Grant in the Middletown Shopping Center. In the mid-to-late 1960's, there was no K-Mart in Middletown. Wal-Mart was some store chain out in Arkansas that we had never even heard of....so, RINK's was IT.

The Middletown store was HUGE. One third of the building (the western end) was a supermarket. The dry goods part of the store carried clothing (which usually fell apart), a nice electronics/tv department, and -of course- my favorite section...TOYS. I got my Major Matt Mason space-action figure at this RINK'S.

Around 1972, the RINK'S started to encounter some heavy competition. A new Hills was built south of town. A Target came in a couple miles away. A K-Mart was built near the new Towne Mall. I had moved away from SW Ohio by this time. I don't know exactly when the RINK'S closed.......it probably wasn't long after I left the area.

I seem to recall that the supermarkets were leased departments run by Kantor Bros, which was acquired in the late 60s by Fisher Foods of Cleveland, operator of the Fazio's chain in NE Ohio.

What happened to the Rink's super market after Gray Drug sold the stores around 1980, I think)? Cook United ran the Pick-n-Pay chain in Cleveland, which competed with Fisher-Fazio. I wonder what they would have done about their arch comeptitor running supers in their dicount stores.

Rink's on AmesFanClub: http://www.amesfanclub.com/forum/viewthread.php?tid=451