Lakewood Lore

Dinosaur of stores nears extinction

Last dime store in city bids adieu to its location in the heart of Bird Town

The trademark dime store exterior of the Grand Variety Store, with its crowded displays and bright colors, has remained unchanged throughout the years.

The last remaining five and 10 in Lakewood — the Grand Variety Store at 12409 Madison Ave., between Robin and Lark - has been holding a stock reduction sale, with a markdown of 20 percent on everything.

For more than a half century it has carried nearly 8,000 different items on its wooden shelves and counters. It has sold household wares, school supplies, baby clothes, inexpensive toys and electrical sundries.

It has provided the neighborhood with oceans of notions, such as pins, needles, thimbles, and sewing, crocheting and tatting threads. It still sells ribbon by the yard and loose hankies. In how many stores do you find that being done anymore?

"If the store closes, I don't know where I'm going to buy the 3x5 white scratch pads I keep beside my phone," lamented long-time customer James A. McGrath.

"I've been getting them there for years and years. Other stores carry them only in colors," he added.

McGrath, 69, who lives on nearby Cohassett, said he started shopping at Grand when he was a boy.

"My aunt, who tended to exaggerate, used to say, 'They carry everything there from a hair pin to a thrashing machine,' "McGrath remembers.

Although the sale appears headed toward being a complete liquidation of merchandise without plans for restocking, owner Mark Frankel is non-committal.

"We'll close eventually, but I'm not making a definite statement at this time," he said.

"You must realize that times have changed," he added, referring to the fact that today most people drive to the big shopping malls to buy, forsaking the neighborhood stores they once walked to.

Also, Frankel decried, he no longer has the large-volume purchasing advantages he enjoyed when he operated as many as nine other such area stores together with his Lakewood outlet, and they bought as a group.

All of these units but the Grand have been closed, several within the past two years, according to Frankel.

"This is our original dime store and probably the last," he said, although not ruling out the possibility of getting a buyer.

Frankel, who is 67, reported that after the Grand, he would retire "but maybe not entirely."

The Frankel ownership began in November 1946, when Mark's parents, Harry and Minnie Frankel of Cleveland's East Side bought the Grand from Elizabeth Karp, a widow. Karp's husband had started to operate it 12 years earlier, and she ran it after his death.

Mark Frankel assisted his parents in their new venture at the outset 44 years ago, but he had other career ideas, too.

He served as an infantry sergeant in the South Pacific during World War II, where he earned two purple hearts and a bronze star. When he returned, he enrolled in Western Reserve University and was graduated with a law degree in 1949.

He practiced law, married the former Shirley Silverman in 1950, and then, two years later, went into the store business full time.

Mark's dad died in 1976, and his mother passed away last year. Today Mark and Shirley live in Lyndhurst and have three daughters and four grandchildren.

At the store, Mark has had loyal help. Presently there are three on his staff. Eleanor Koukol, manager, has been working there 34 years. Susan Faulhammer and Charis Macha, both clerks, have been employees for 16 and 10 years, respectively.

Besides the Grand, Lakewood had at various times other dime stores - Newberry, Woolworth, Neisner, P.&J. Variety, Ben Franklin and Koon's.

Mark is proud of his little store and the service it has given through the years to its strongly ethnic section of Lakewood.

"I always felt we were serving a neighborhood, that we were a convenience, and that the people needed us," he explained.

"But now that buying habits are no longer.the same, and you can count the empty store fronts on Madison, I guess you can quote me as saying, 'it's the end of an era.' "

This article by Dan Chabek appeared in the Lakewood Sun Post October 18, 1990. Reprinted with permission.

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