The Cleveland-based Cook Coffee Company was formed in 1921 and incorporated in 1925. In the early years, the concern sold grocery and household merchandise on a door-to-door basis. In 1951, the company entered grocery retailing, with the acquisition of the Pick-N-Pay supermarket chain.
In August 1961, Cook Coffee bought the 5-store Uncle Bill's Discount Department Store chain, also based in Cleveland. During the 1960s, several retail enterprises were brought under the corporate umbrella. Ontario "super marts" were acquired in September 1964. The Clarks chain, owned and operated as a division of Minnesota's Gamble Skogmo, Incorporated, came into the Cook Coffee fold in June 1968.
A line of Cooks Discount Department Stores was in business by this time, as well as one known as the Consolidated Sales Company. Cook Coffee-owned operations ranged in size from 40,000 to 100,000 square feet. Some included a supermarket.
In April 1969, Cook Coffee changed its name to Cook United, Incorporated. The company was rapidly diversifying into the pharmacy, food processing and hardware businesses. Door-to-door-type retailing was abandoned in 1973. At this time, Cook United was operating stores -under various nameplates- in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas and West Virginia.
By 1974, the national economy was in decline. Mergers and acquisitions had made Cook United too big to manage effectively. The corporation was in trouble. One of its final take-overs, involving the Ohio-based Rink's Bargain City chain, was finalized in April 1981. At the height of operations, in 1983, Cook United was operating 113 discount stores. By late 1984, this number had dwindled to fifty-three. A chapter 11 bankruptcy was filed in 1984 and -again- in 1987. The last four Cooks Discount Department Stores closed -in Cleveland- in the summer of 1987.
RINK'S / BARGAIN BARN
A vacant skating rink, south of Hamilton, Ohio, was acquired by Cincinnati's Coleman and Hyman Ullner. They reconfigured it as a retail store, which sold war surplus merchandise at discount prices. This new mercantile -known as Rink's Bargain City- opened for business in 1952. Eventually selling general merchandise, the company changed its name to Rink's Discount Department Stores in July 1963.
RINK'S / BARGAIN BARN
A vacant skating rink, south of Hamilton, Ohio, was acquired by Cincinnati's Coleman and Hyman Ullner. They reconfigured it as a retail store, which sold war surplus merchandise at discount prices. This new mercantile -known as Rink's Bargain City- opened for business in 1952. Eventually selling general merchandise, the company changed its name to Rink's Discount Department Stores in July 1963.
In July 1964, Cleveland-based Gray Drug acquired the Rink's enterprise. Stores ranged in size between 40,000 and 90,000 square feet. Some locations included an adjacent Rink's Discount Foods or Fisher-Fazio supermarket. By 1967, Rink's was operating nine southwestern Ohio and northern Kentucky units.
Meanwhile, in Toledo, Hyman R. Swolsky had opened his first Bargain Barn in 1950. By 1956, there were four Bargain Barns in business in Toledo and Maumee. The name of the chain was eventually changed to Bargain City.
Cleveland's Gray Drug chain acquired Toledo's Bargain City enterprise in July 1967. The Rink's and Bargain City operations were merged into a single entity. However, stores continued to operate under their individual Rink's and Bargain City banners until late 1971, when the universal Rink's Bargain City trademark began to appear.
Cook United Corporation of Cleveland acquired the assets of Rink's Bargain City in April 1981. The chain, consisting of ninety-four stores, had grown into Ohio's largest discount mart operation. The chain and its parent company were soon in a downward spiral.
Store closings commenced in March 1984. A chapter 11 bankruptcy was filed in October. By this time, Cincinnati and Kentucky stores had gone out of business. The remaining locations in the Toledo market were rebranded as Cooks Discount Department Stores in December 1984. These had been shuttered by 1987.
