Remember This? Going to Pinch's grocery store

From the Sault Ste. Marie Public Library archives:

Joseph Charles Pinch, born in Markdale, Ontario in 1882, moved to the Sault with his parents at the age of six. 

A number of years later, the family moved to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan but eventually Joseph Pinch returned to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.  

He began his grocery career as a delivery boy for Marshall & McLeod Grocery.  

Armed with this experience he opened the doors of J.C. Pinch Grocery on Queen Street near the Windsor Hotel circa 1903.

It was a time when rib roasts and porter house steaks could be purchased in a restaurant for 9 cents and 11 cents respectively.

In 1903, the customer of a grocer would walk up to a counter or display and ask for the food items they wanted to purchase, or hand over a grocery list, as an order that the grocer or other clerks would then fill and charge the customer for.

In 1922, Pinch purchased the stock of groceries and fixtures from George Dawson upon the closing of Dawson & Co. Grocery.

Dawson & Co. was one of the oldest businesses in the city, opening in the late 1800s.

Due to his overwhelming success in the grocery business Pinch moved the main location to the 500 block of Queen Street East (between Brock and Spring Streets) and opened up additional stores in the city. 

By 1930 there were six locations, three on Queen Street, one on Bruce Street and two on Wellington Street. 

The last Pinch’s Grocery store in the city closed its doors around 1956.

Pinch was an active member of the community serving as a senior elder of St. Andrew’s United Church where he taught Sunday School for 25 years and was superintendent of St. Andrew’s Church School from 1920-1940.

He was also active in the Presbytery of Algoma and helped in the expansion of the United Church throughout Algoma. 

Pinch was one of the 53 charter members of the Sault Rotary Club, formed in 1918 and was also a life member of the Keystone Masonic Lodge. 

Pinch served as director of the Plummer Hospital for 17 years until 1952.

Joseph C. Pinch died in 1962 at the age of 80, survived by his wife Bessie Marshall and his son Dr. Charles Pinch and a daughter Geraldine Wilson.

Find out more of what the Public Library has to offer at www.ssmpl.ca and look for more Remember This? columns here.

(PHOTOS: Pinch's grocery is pictured (top). A Pinch's grocery newspaper advertisement (left) from the 1930s)