Tiedtke's
 |
|
| Retail / Department Store | |
| Industry | Retail |
| Fate | Closed |
| Founded | Toledo, Ohio (1894) |
| Defunct | 1973 |
| Headquarters | Toledo, Ohio, United States |
|
Area served
|
Ohio |
| Products | Grocery, clothing, toys, furniture, general merchandise |
| Services | Restaurants, bakery |
Tiedtke's is a former grocery and department store chain based in Toledo, Ohio. At its peak, the store, which began life as a grocery, occupied a huge building at Summit Street and Adams downtown, maintained an annex store two blocks away, and a branch store in north Toledo. The family-founded store changed hands several times before all locations closed by 1973. The original store building was destroyed by fire two years later.
The firm that would be known as Tiedtke's set up shop in 1894. Brothers Charles and Ernest Tiedtke, who grew up farming in what is today Toledo's east side, opened a grocery store at Summit and Monroe downtown (near present-day Fifth Third Field). With Toledo an important lake port, their primary business was lake traffic, delivering groceries and supplies to the freighters that would pass through on the Maumee River. Soon, business was brisk enough for them to expand and carry dry goods, as well as require a fleet of horse-and-buggies to handle the demand.
The brothers would soon take on a partner, William A. Todd, who helped generate additional lake and marine accounts for the Tiedtke brothers. The business was briefly known as Tietke and Todd, but by 1898, Todd had gone.
The Tiedtkes expanded the business further and by 1910, they had moved the business up Summit Street to the northeast corner of Adams, which it would occupy for the next six decades. With their core business food, they leased the upper floors of the building to firms selling furniture, housewares, clothing and shoes. The brothers also added a bakery, deli and restaurants. The concept was ahead of its time, a forerunner of what would be termed "one-stop shopping".
Another reason behind the success of the business was its commitment to its employees and to customer service. Tiedtke's would eventually need a fleet of trucks to support the deliveries being made to customers all over Toledo. The brothers were known for the gratitude they showed their employees and were often very generous. Occasionally, an employee who was ill or experiencing financial difficulties would have his medical bills or mortgage paid off by the brothers, no questions asked. The brothers helped take marketing and sales to a new level by creating elaborate displays for fruits, and vegetables, and they created their own coffee blend, Parkwood Coffee. They would often set up the ventilation system to spread the fresh-brewed coffee aroma throughout the store, luring customers to the product.
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Wikipedia