William J. Schweinfurth’s Grocery Store

From about 1900 until his death in 1932, William J. Schweinfurth ran a small neighborhood grocery store at the northwest corner of Perry and Jefferson Streets. Mr. Schweinfurth and his family lived just around the corner, at 529 East Jefferson Street. You can see both the address of the grocery store, at 433 Perry Street, as well as the Schweinfurth residence on Jefferson Street in this close-up view from the Sanborn Map.

The Schweinfurth grocery store was one of several stores that were part of the Home Service Stores group. The Home Service Stores were a group of individually owned grocery stores which organized for the purpose of collective buying. This organization was in existence in the Sandusky area from 1923 through the early 1950s. On March 29, 1930, an advertisement in the Sandusky Star Journal featured several Easter specials on sale at local Home Service Stores, including the William Schweinfurth grocery.

In the window of the Schweinfurth grocery store in the photo above is a sign for Salada Tea, which was a popular product at that time. Salada Tea advertised heavily in newspapers in the twentieth century, including newspapers published in Sandusky. The ad below appeared in the Sandusky Star Journal of November 17, 1922.