Do You Remember Mark’s?

Below is an aerial view of Mark’s Market, taken by photographer Thomas Root on September 13, 1955. You can see shadows from Mr. Root’s airplane at the bottom of the picture.

       

According to an article in the October 7, 1898 issue of the Sandusky Register, Marcus Kellerman founded the first independent supermarket in Sandusky under the name Mark’s Market at 709 West Perkins Avenue. In 1960 a corporation known as “Mark’s Pick n Pay Supermarkets” was created through a merger with the Cook Coffee Company. Mark Kellerman was now in charge of two Sandusky supermarkets, Mark’s Market on Perkins Avenue, and Mark’s Pick n Pay in the Sandusky Plaza. Eventually both stores were known as Mark’s Pick n Pay. Mark’s was known for issuing and redeeming Vacationland stamps. These stamps were given to customers by several Sandusky retail stores. When a book of Vacationland stamps was filled, the customer could take it to any retailer and exchange it for merchandise. This 1960 advertisement from the Sandusky Register informed buyers that if they purchased pork roast or frozen dinners, they could receive fifty free Vacationland stamps.

By 1982, there were three locations for Pick n Pay stores in Sandusky. They were at 709 West Perkins Avenue, the Sandusky Plaza, and at a new location north of the Sandusky Mall. By the early 1990s, the store on Perkins Avenue had become a Foodtown Plus, and the Pick n Pay formerly at the Sandusky Plaza had becoma a Sack-n-Save store. The Pick n Pay north of the Sandusky Mall was then a Finast store. In the late 1990s, Finast stores were taken over by Tops Friendly Markets. The Old Navy store was in operation at the site of the former Tops Market by 2007.  Mark’s Pick n Pay was always known for its excellent produce section and freshly butchered meat. Though no Pick n Pay store remains in town today, many of our parents and grandparents patronized Mark’s for several decades in Sandusky and Perkins Township.