Remember any Eisner Agency Grocery Stores in Illinois?

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wayne winterland jr.
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Remember any Eisner Agency Grocery Stores in Illinois?

Post by wayne winterland jr. »

Does anybody remember any of the usually small size Eisner Agency Grocery Stores in Illinois. I once remember being in one of these small grocery stores in the small town of Gibson City, Illinois. I assumed at that time perhaps it was some sort of franchise operations of the old Jewel Tea Company (Jewel - Eisner Grocery Stores)????
LadyNoir
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Post by LadyNoir »

I don't know much about them and only remembered reading this post a few months ago. I was looking at a blog I recently discivered and found this and remember the question on here. I will link you the blog and perhaps you may get the answers you are looking for from the blog's writer, Dave. He seems to know alot.

http://pleasantfamilyshopping.blogspot. ... bel/Eisner
army.arch
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Eisner's

Post by army.arch »

Eisner's was a Central Illinois chain headquartered in Champaign. It was sold to Jewel, but I don't know the date. Jewel closed all of their Champaign stores in the 1990s due to competition from Super Walmart and Schnuck's from St Louis. Eisner Park in Champaign was named for the family.

Supposedly the grocery store in Dan Fogelberg's Same Old Lang Syne was the Eisner's on Green and Neil Streets. This is now a CVS.
army.arch
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Re: Remember any Eisner Agency Grocery Stores in Illinois?

Post by army.arch »

Here's an advertisement from the old Eisner's chain in Champaign, IL
http://www.flickr.com/photos/army_arch/2821626288/
chiflyer

Re: Remember any Eisner Agency Grocery Stores in Illinois?

Post by chiflyer »

There was an Eisner in Rantoul in the 70s when I lived there (there used to be an Air Force base there that has been closed for a while).
sirpher
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Re: Remember any Eisner Agency Grocery Stores in Illinois?

Post by sirpher »

I remember Eisner in Decatur, IL off US-51.
Skeleton567
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Re: Remember any Eisner Agency Grocery Stores in Illinois?

Post by Skeleton567 »

When I was growing up on an Illinois farm west of Champaign, I raised chickens and sold eggs to help fund my college education. On Saturdays I would fill the trunk of my parent's car with 5 30-dozen cases of fresh eggs and take them to the Eisner warehouse facility on the north side of Champaign. We would shop weekly at the South Neil Street location. My grandmother also lived in Champaign, and we would personally deliver fresh eggs to a number of homes in her neighborhood on West Charles Street, for a premium of $.02 per dozen over what Eisner paid us at the warehouse. When I went off to college in 1961, I had to end my farm projects of chickens, sheep, hogs, etc, and working hot dusty hay-baling jobs for $.75 an hour, but it was an excellent background teaching me to be ambitious and independent. Many thanks to the Eisner grocers in Champaign
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Andrew T.
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Re: Remember any Eisner Agency Grocery Stores in Illinois?

Post by Andrew T. »

When I researched the grocery history of Bloomington-Normal, Illinois (I'll be posting it soon), I discovered that Eisner originated as an operator of Piggly Wiggly stores. The stores weren't actually branded as Eisner until the late 1950s, which is when Jewel bought the chain. Their central office in Bloomington, however, was listed as "Eisner" in directories as early as 1940.
"The pale pastels which have been featured in most food stores during the past 20 years are no longer in tune with the mood of the 1970s."
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