Big Bear was a regional supermarket chain in the midwestern United States, headquartered for many years in Columbus, Ohio. For nearly 75 years the chain was a central Ohio institution.
| File:BigBearLogo.png | |
| Company type | Grocery |
|---|---|
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | 1934 |
| Headquarters | Columbus, Ohio |
| Products | Deli, bakery, produce, snacks, pharmacy, frozen foods |
| Website | None |
The original Big Bear store was established in 1934 in a former roller rink on West Lane Avenue in Columbus, Ohio, adjacent to the campus of the Ohio State University (now the site of the Riverwatch Tower apartments); the chain would locally be closely associated with the University until its end. It was the first self-serve supermarket in the Midwest, and claimed several innovative services, including its own trolley line. Big Bear Stores Co. also operated its own farms just north of Columbus, and the Betty Brown bakery. Over time, Big Bear became a major supermarket chain in Ohio and other nearby states.
Big Bear mainly distributed Topco products (i.e. Food Club, Valu Time) as their "house brand", and for many years their orange and blue "Buckeye" trading stamps were a familiar sight for shoppers.
The company's fortunes began to falter in the late 1980s with new competition from supermarket chains like Cub Foods and Meijer. Big Bear was bought out by large retailer Penn Traffic, which was run partly by Gary Hirsch, which owns several regional supermarket chains, around 1990. A series of changes in business and marketing strategies contributed to the chain's demise in 2004 when the last Big Bear stores closed their doors. Some were acquired and reopened as Giant Eagle or Kroger stores; as of March 2005 many former Big Bear stores remain empty, ghosts of a once ubiquitous supermarket chain.