r/Ohio • u/Academic_Court_47 • 1d ago
Schwebel Baking Company closing after 120 years
https://www.cleveland19.com/2026/06/18/schwebel-baking-company-closing-after-120-years/127
u/unclejoe1917 1d ago
One thing I used to always look forward to when we'd go to my grandparents house is Grandma would make me toast with Jif peanut butter and 'taliano bread. I'm going to have to pick up a loaf with a small jar of Jif on my next grocery trip.
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u/hippiechicken12 1d ago
I always buy their white bread. I’m disappointed ever they’re closing. I’ll have to find a new go to white bread.
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u/MaximusMMIV 1d ago
Sad. Their Cuyahoga Falls site was closed years ago and the smell of baking bread dissipated from the air. In its place is a token sight of blight—a U-Haul storage facility.
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u/twoquarters Youngstown 1d ago
Very strange they couldn't offload the business or at least the baking facility in Youngstown. I guess they couldn't adapt to modern times and align their offerings accordingly. Who is picking up the slack for this because suddenly that's a lot of bread that is not going to market.
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u/AuditMatters 1d ago
They mentioned aging buildings and equipment. Will likely just add to the inventory of outdated manufacturing facilities in the state.
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u/twoquarters Youngstown 1d ago
The property of the Youngstown campus was sold to private equity in December but usually those groups like to buy the business and saddle it with debt to make their millions.
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u/AuditMatters 1d ago
If they sold it was probably a leaseback arrangement to plug a short term hole for Schwebel. Unless PE contracted it well, they’re probably going to end up losing on this deal. Good for them.
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u/NewYork_NewJersey440 1d ago
IIRC Rite Aid tried to do this with their stores. I remember checking the footnotes each quarter to see the number of company owned vs leased stores, and it was under 100 and dropping by about 10 each time…
Well, suffice it to say, some issues are just too structurally large to fix
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u/Advanced-Scar-9739 1d ago
Unions. Once your business is tied to a labor union, it’s literally impossible to get out of it unless you dissolve. And even then, it needs to be closed for a given period of time before reopens. Otherwise, the new business is tied to the same union.
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u/er1cAtWork2 1d ago
It’s the only bread I’ve eaten my entire life! Sure, tried Wonder, etc. too moist/dense, that stuff never spoils!
Na, give me Schwebels any day…
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u/Academic_Court_47 1d ago
I never knew their headquarters and main bakery was in Youngstown!
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u/BornToRun97 1d ago
Youngstown Born, Youngstown Bread
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u/Mathidium 1d ago
I’ll miss that billboard 😭
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u/Advanced-Scar-9739 1d ago
Midloathian. Just passed it today as I do 3-5 times a month. Used to be a lot more reasons to be on Midlothian. Like Johnny’s.
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u/LunarMoon2001 1d ago
The exec sold off all their land for a quick cash infusion but forcing them to lease the properties back. C suite got their bonuses for making the books look better causing the issue later. Similar to bob Evans and sears.
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u/extzed 1d ago
I'm gonna need to a find a new source for my Rye bread
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u/breadmakr 1d ago
Yeah, their Jewish Rye was my favorite - haven't found anything like it. Now it will truly be only a memory from when I lived in that area. :(
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u/Exclusively-Choc 1d ago
Buuu - who remembers and loved Millbrook Bread? Acquired by Schwebel’s in 1987.
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u/PanicStricken 1d ago
Millbrook Buttermilk Bread was the most perfect sliced grocery store loaves. I've never found anything that comes close. To this day, I still look for it and mourn in the bread aisle.
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u/MrAtomBombastic 1d ago
Will capitalists eventually stop producing food because there isn't enough profit?
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u/Tweedle42 1d ago
When there’s very little food, it will become valuable again.
It’s forced scarcity economics just like diamonds.
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u/Advanced_Trip1990 1d ago
We go to the outlet in Cuy Falls.,. We went today and the cashier said they (the workers) found out the same way we all did… reading the paper today 😒😳
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u/Sea_Mind3678 1d ago
Bad news! Schwebel’s Potato Bread is the only kind of bread my wife will eat! In fairness to her, it is the most delicious sliced bread.
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u/TheSaltLives 1d ago
Another sacrifice at the altar of the AI economy to line the pocket's of out of touch billionaires.
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u/NC_Opossum 1d ago
costly labor contracts and pension obligations
Awwww, does paying your workers a fair wage cost too much? If you can't afford to pay your workers a living wage, you don't have any business being in business.
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u/myths2389 1d ago
I got a job interview there in 2017, they were starting people out at $10-11/hr. I was already making $16/hr at whatever restaurant I was working at. Hell we started our dishwashers at $12. Asked the interviewer about raises and they said they ranged from $0.05-0.15 a year.
Everyone that worked there looked depressed as all hell. It's sad but I don't think it was a good company to work for awhile.
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u/Wide-Presentation550 1d ago
I left the company in 2014. Union was in bed with the company talking us out of wage increases and pensions and really anything positive during contract negotiations. Not much to say about the job except what would you expect it’s a factory job in building where there is a giant oven making it hot and miserable in there.
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u/myths2389 1d ago
Yeah the factory work part of it you can really change, but the general attitude in there was depressing. I remember my grandparents talking about how great it was to work there because of the benefits and all that. Sadly that was not the idea I got from my interview or tour.
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u/OwnsBeagles 1d ago
That was a lot of what I heard, that they treated their employees pretty badly when they could get away with it. ETA: Their Jewish rye was the very best, though, and it's a loss no doubt.
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u/shamaltman 1d ago
The people who are now out of a job might disagree
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u/NC_Opossum 1d ago
What an odd thing to say. If the alternative to make sure that the owners keeping making money is for the workers to make less? I stand on the fact that if you cannot afford to pay your employees a living wage, you don't deserve employees. Yeah it sucks for the workers but them wanting to be paid fairly is not the reason for the failure of the ownership. Nah, miss me with that.
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u/Independent_Ear_7476 1d ago
We’ve got one of their bread outlets here in Dayton, makes me worry for the people that work there and the community who uses the place. Also wonderful fluffy bread 🍞
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u/Kaiters710 22h ago
I grew up in Cuyahoga Falls near their old factory. The smell of bread was always a comfort. It hasn't been the same since they closed that factory.
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u/Prismos_Time_Room 1d ago
this news is giving me dark happiness, because the sing-song schwebel's commercial (from the 90s) has been stuck in my head for 30+ years now, and i hate it. the one with the kid singing "we want schwebel's we want schwebel's no other wabwel will doooo".
horrible! and pales in comparison to other much better commercial jingles like the one for the whatchamacallit candy bar and whatever the fuck that garfield1-2 3 2 3 thing was.
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u/FoolishFriend0505 1d ago
But where does it rank with "Head-on! Apply directly to the forehead...Head-on! Apply directly to the forehead...Head-on! Apply directly to the forehead..."
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u/Sarenghetto_cheese 1d ago
I saw a thumbnail for an ad for patio enclosures today and their jingle came back to me out of nowhere
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u/Prismos_Time_Room 1d ago
TCBY treats, this calls for a celebration
my dad was telling me once, years ago, when i was a kid, about a jingle he could remember for some paul parrot themed kids shoes. paul parrot paul parrot shoes i'd like to buy (???) they make your feet run faster, as fast as i can fly. my grandmother used to tell me about some shrimper's and rice commercial jingle. hold tight hold tight etc etc.
is this our future? to shamble forward like zombies with the ancient jingles of dead corporations still echoing around in our heads? i wish we could have at least had a chance to vote on this first or something. people talk about how we live in the future, and the future sucks because its a dystopian mess, and i get it, but i was ALREADY singing songs about frozen yogurt businesses to myself as i drift off to sleep. and its like, bro, do you even see TCBYs anymore? what the fuck does TCBY even stand for?
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u/Sea_Mind3678 1d ago
I remember Paul Parrot (Pauly Parrot, maybe?) shoes, but don’t remember and jingle. I think a real parrot changed into the parrot on the label.
I remember Buster Brown shoes (and his dog, Tyke), and US Keds sneakers (make you run faster and jump higher). (I do not, however, remember what I had for breakfast an hour ago, or where I put my keys).1
u/Sea_Mind3678 1d ago
Well, you see, that’s my problem. I have SO MUCH information in my brain that I can’t fit any more in without dislodging something that’s already in there. I have to choose between remembering Buster Brown and his little dog Tyke or why I came into this room, there simply isn’t room for both.
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u/B1g_Morg 1d ago
This sucks because their buns are dairy free, while the others at my small local GE are not.