Lawson (store) - Origins in Ohio

Origins in Ohio

In 1939, a dairy owner named J.J. Lawson started a store at his Broad Street dairy plant in Cuyahoga Falls, near Akron, Ohio, to sell his milk. The Lawson's Milk Company grew to a chain of stores, primarily in Ohio. Lawson was bought out by Consolidated Foods in 1959. Lawson's convenience stores were common in Ohio from the 1960s through the mid-1980s.

Consolidated was renamed Sara Lee in 1985. At about the same time, Lawson's stores in the United States were sold to Dairy Mart, a smaller chain of convenience stores located in Enfield, Connecticut. Dairy Mart moved its headquarters to Cuyahoga Falls, renamed the Lawson's stores, and operated the chain as Dairy Mart for the next 17 years. Under Dairy Mart, the chain was not without controversy. Dairy Mart was sued by the American Family Association, after a Dairy Mart manager in Ohio complained that the company's policy of selling pornography subjected her to sexual and religious harassment. The court case, Stanley v. Lawson Co., gained fame as a test of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

In 2002, Alimentation Couche-Tard of Laval, Quebec bought the assets and name of Dairy Mart. Most of the former Dairy Mart stores — many of which were either originally Lawson's stores, or were located in communities in which Lawson's once had a presence — were converted to the Circle K brand. Due to popular response from consumers in Ohio and elsewhere, however, Alimentation Couche-Tard announced that Lawson's Chip Dip would continue to be sold "no matter what the name of the store", as was reported in the Akron Beacon-Journal.