Dairy Mart; The History, And What's Left

Dairy Mart

the history, and what's left

"Good People, It Must Be Dairy Mart!"

Anyone remember Dairy Mart? No? I'd be kind of surprised if you did.

From the 3rd largest convenience store chain in the U.S. behind 7-Eleven and Circle K, to pretty much nothing but an obscure, vague memory... what happened?

Here's a brief history since there isn't really much left from this company;

Dairy Mart began in 1957 when Charles Nirenberg (pictured here) opened his first store in the state of Massachusetts

Throughout the 80's Dairy Mart began to quickly expand by acquiring other, smaller, convenience store chains, such as Sunnybrook Farms (who had 63 stores). Their biggest acquisition however, came in 1984

In 1975, U.S. based convenience store chain Lawson's opened their first store in Japan, they decided to operate there exclusively, selling all of their U.S. stores to Dairy Mart in 1984.

This was a huge win for Dairy Mart, as at the time of the acquisition Lawson's had more locations than they did.

Dairy Mart actually continued to operate the Lawson's stores until May of 1987, when they were all converted into Dairy Mart locations

Somewhere in the assumed later 80's-early 90's, they began to mimic their larger competitors by opening gas stations, though they were a rarity when compared to their stand alone convenience stores

In 1986, Dairy Mart acquired a large handful of Convenient Food Mart franchises

Convenient Food Mart still exists as a chain, though they have since changed their logo. The one seen in the commercial above was still being used as late as 2016.

In 1989, Dairy Mart had around 1,200 stores, 400 of which being franchised

Also in 1991, Dairy Mart wanted to "seek productivity gains." It would appear that they did this by focusing more on gasoline sales. months later, they decided to heavily expand into Kentucky 

Signs of the chains downfall started to show in 1993, when they closed 61 stores, which the company claimed were underperforming locations.

Now, it's never good for a company when one of the top people in charge decides to leave...

So when the CEO of Dairy Mart was flat out fired the next year in 1994, thing's weren't looking good for the company... and it just kept getting worse for them.

1995 came around, and Dairy Mart closed 143 stores.
(Photo Source)

"Dairy Mart plans to close 71 convenience stores and sell 72 others It also will close 81 retail gasoline operations with 39 of those attached to convenience stores that are closing" - The Reporter Dispatch, April 27, 1995

Dairy Mart sold 161 stores in MA, CT, RI, and parts of NY to competitor DB Mart in 1997

Dairy Mart also eventually changed their logo, I'm not sure when exactly but I'm assuming that it was sometime in the late 90's or early 2000's

They closed more stores over time, but this all came to a head in 2001 when the entire chain filed for bankruptcy

The next year they were acquired by the Alimentation Couche-Tard company

Couche-Tard is a Canadian chain of convenience stores, yet they also own several other chains, one of which being Circle K, formally one of Dairy Mart's main competitors, now their sister chain.

In 2005, all Dairy Mart stores were later converted into Circle K stores, or just flat out closed, finally bringing an end to the once-prominent Dairy Mart name
(Former Dairy Mart, 1877 Triplett Blvd, Akron, OH 44312)

Okay, now that we've gone through they history, it's time to see what's left of this former chain;

881 Copley Rd, Akron, OH 44320

Dairy Mart's original red & blue stripes still proudly show on this building, even though they're starting to fade after being out in the sun for years

225 Stafford Rd, Burlington, CT 06013

Here's a store in Connecticut called Daily Mart

I couldn't get a good view of the sign, but it look like they're trying to keep the spirit of Dairy Mart alive, I guess?

5804 Hamilton Ave Suite #2, Cincinnati, OH 45224

Meanwhile all the way in Cincinnati we have another, unrelated, Daily Mart. This one, just like the previous, is trying to keep the spirit of Dairy Mart alive it seems

It used to be an actual Dairy Mart store back in the day

232 Bradley Ave, Waterbury, CT 06708

Also in Connecticut there is...

...Dairy Mart...?
I'm not even sure how this store is still operatimg

36968 Detroit Rd, Avon, OH 44011

There's still a few Dairy Mart stores operating with the newer logo, although I think there's only around less than 7 stores that are still open

351 5th St NE, Barberton, OH 44203

Yeah there isn't really much left from the old Dairy Mart chain other than some red and blue lines, and these re-used sign shapes coming from the newer logo

500 Fouse Ave, Akron, OH 44310

Here's another example of the previously mentioned red & blue lines, although this store has more of an orange & blue color scheme rather than a red one

4217 S Cleveland Massillon Rd, Barberton, OH 44203

There's still a good handful of original Lawson's buildings still hanging around, too. When Dairy Mart took over, they didn't change or remodel most of the their Lawson's stores

Since there isn't really much left to look at when it comes to this chain, I'll end this blog post here.

Thanks for reading.

Image sources:

Newspapers.com

Google Maps / Street View

Pinterest

What It Used To Be in Warwick Blog