Tale of the tee: Bear's Department Store

Bear’s operated on Continental Square in downtown York, Pa., from 1888 to 1977.

The dominant headline on page 2 of the Aug. 1, 1975 edition of the York (Pa.) Daily Record newspaper referred to the disappearance of the former president of the Teamsters union: “Hoffa murdered, family fears”

In the left margin, an “Around York” brief described another vanishing act, if in name only, that of Bear’s Department Store. A fixture on downtown’s Continental Square since 1888, Bear’s had just assumed the name of its parent company.

“Bear’s Department Store is now Zollinger’s Department Store,” the brief noted. “Wanna bet that it’ll be years before people stop saying, as they do now, ‘Meet you at Bear’s.’ Nevertheless, we welcome Zollinger’s to York.”

Hoffa’s body never would be found, nor could a name change halt Bear’s/Zollinger’s inexorable slide. The chain — including three other stores in Allentown and Whitehall, Pa. — closed in 1977.

From the York Daily Record, Aug. 1, 1975.

Selling in the shadow of Bear’s

I arrived in York in 1991 as a business writer for the York Daily Record. I visited the former Bear’s only after it had been converted to city offices.

I missed out on the original Bear’s experience, but I’m thrilled to honor it with our new Bear’s Department Store Tee. We had hoped to introduce it in 2020, but the pandemic and the economic uncertainty it wrought put those plans on hold, and we didn’t get back to them until now.

Our first show with the Bear’s tee in hand (and adorning one of our torso mannequins) was the York Flea — on Continental Square, our tent on the southwest corner, across Market Street from the former Bear’s store.

Just about every downtown in America, big and small, experienced a similar retail loss. For me, growing up near Lewiston, Maine, it was Peck’s Department Store, where I would see Santa when I was a child.

I have an abiding affection for downtowns in general, and York’s in particular given that I worked there, met my wife there, and lived there — on the opposite end of the block that Bear’s dominated for so long.

From the back of a 1970 Bear’s postcard: “Home owned and operated since 1888. It is known as the Friendly Store with Newest Fashions. The Cafeteria is famous far and near for delicious York County Foods.”

‘Breakfast at Bear’s’ radio show

Charles H. Bear Sr. started the business as a dry goods store. By 1967, upon completion of a renovation and expansion, the store would occupy five stories and 130,000 square feet, according to newspaper articles.

An elevator attendant would take shoppers to their preferred destinations, such as to see Miss Mary for an Easter hat in the third-floor millinery department.

“Bear’s was where you would go for the good coat that would last for years, for a wedding dress, even at one time for groceries and furniture,” according to an in-memoriam article in the York Daily Record in April 1977. “The basement cafeteria was an institution of many years, making good on its advertisement of home-style cooking.”

In the 1950s, the cafeteria was the setting for “Breakfast at Bear’s,” a live radio show that aired Saturday mornings and included an audience. The show featured a meal, entertainment, free samples and prizes.

Vintage Bear’s Department Store matchbooks

In January 1970, family-owned Bear’s, with some 200 employees, was acquired by Donald G. Vollmer, the principal owner of the Zollinger-Harned Co. Vollmer indicated that it was his “intention to continue those store policies which have made Bear’s famous.”

Confidence in downtown York

By 1975, Bear’s had adopted the Zollinger’s moniker, at a time when many downtown department stores were threatened by suburban shopping malls and real or perceived safety concerns in cities.

In January 1977, a newspaper article noted that the York store had issued a $38,000 contract to convert its heating system from city steam, which was no longer available, to fuel oil.

“Zollinger’s manager William A. Hillwig said the installation of the new system is an indication of the confidence Zollinger’s has in the future of downtown York. He expects the work to be finished about June 1.”

But by February, the company was in the hands of a new owner, Sig Levin, who in March attempted to reorganize its debts under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. By May, newspaper ads announced the former Bear’s going-out-of-business sale, offering everything from display tables to tie racks, greeting card displays to cafeteria equipment.

Two decades later, Bear’s was gone but not forgotten, a York Dispatch article in 1998 noting that former employees were still gathering for annual reunions: more than 100 had attended the previous year.

Judging from our first show with our new Bear’s Department Store Tee, former customers continue to have fond memories of Bear’s even more than four decades after its demise.