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The Granville Historical Society Oral History Project 2001 - 2002
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17) Grocery Stores & Grocers
Daily Grocery Shopping in the 1950s(Eric Jones) Today of course, the downtown is dominated by gift shops and that sort of thing. But back in the 1950s, most of the shops were working shops. There weren’t any shopping centers to go to, so Granville people shopped in downtown Granville. I remember my mother went to the store every single day. My father would come home from work, pick up my mother, take her downtown, and she would buy something from each of the grocery stores. She considered one had better meat and another had better vegetables and that sort of thing. So it was a big part of her day to go to each of those stores.
Helping a Fellow Grocer – Typical Granville(Greg Ream) Many people remember when there were three grocery stores: Welsh’s, Sargent’s and Fuller’s. Welsh’s was the first one to close, after Carl’s death. I was a junior in high school when they closed. And that was a typical Granville experience. When Carl Welsh was sick and had cancer, the local merchants all sent somebody or helped in some way. The butchers from the other groceries went there after hours and cut their meat and prepared their meat cases so Welsh’s could be open for business. Dick Beeson, who had been a butcher prior to owning the Marathon station, helped out on a daily basis. My father sent me down to take deliveries and help unload the grocery orders each morning. Everybody helped out, and there wasn’t anybody took anything for anything. It kept them going for quite a while. That was just the way they did things. They helped each other out – local business, even businesses that were competitors. It was a truly small town.
Jot-‘Em-Down Stores (Ronald Mack) It is people like Carl Welsh and Buck Sargent that helped me and others make it from paycheck to paycheck. Welsh’s Grocery and Sargent’s Market were “jot-‘em-down stores” at the time. You could buy groceries and pay for them when your paycheck came in. That was a fantastic thing that we often overlook as we’ve done a little bit better in life -- they were one heck of a help in getting through the trying times. Buck Sargent’s Chicken Story(Greg Ream) Buck Sargent owned Sargent’s Meat Market. One day a lady came in to look at the chicken in the meat case so he got it out for her. And she said, “Oh, that one’s a little small.” And Buck said, “OK, let me see if I’ve got anything in the back.” So he took the chicken, went back into the cooler, and he pulled on the chicken’s legs and stretched it out. Then he brought it back out and he showed it to her. She said, “Oh, that one looks just fine. I’ll take them both.” Now Buck was in real trouble! So he said, “OK” and went back toward the cooler, snuck out the door and ran into Fuller’s Market, which was next door, took a chicken out of Fuller’s case, told him to charge him, ran back in the door and sold her both.
Denison Students Worked at Sargent’s Market (Dick Mahard) Buck Sargent often hired Denison students to work for him. And he formed excellent relationships with these students. And one in particular was George Hill – who went on to become a professional football coach (I think he is with the Miami Dolphins.) George Hill apparently was fond of saying, much to Buck Sargent’s delight, that, “Yes, I graduated from Denison University, but the maximum amount of learning I did in Granville was clerking for Buck Sargent’s Grocery Store.”
Sargent’s Market Sold to Blackstones(Buck Sargent) Sargent’s Market specialized in meat. 75% of my business was in meat. I had a Rath Packing Company salesman come in one day with a special ham. And he said, “Buck, I’d like to have you try and sell this.” I said, “How?” “Well,” he said, “bake it and sell it over the counter.” So he gave me a ham and I did what he said, and from that time on until I retired, when I placed an order, I would order at least 100 hams at a time! And we were known all over for this wonderful baked ham. I retired from the store in 1978 and sold it to Phil Blackstone. Phil had the store for 5 years and then his father and mother took over and I’m so, so proud of Gib and Allene. They just made that store wonderful. But it was a different store. Theirs was catering and delicatessen.
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