Former Winkys White Star New Alexander |
Carrick, Pleasant Hills, Uniontown ,Connelsville,Shaler, New Brighton, Hempfield ,Thornburg, Ross Twp - New Castle , New Alexander - Moon Twp. Bridgeville, Cheswick ,Penn Hills ,Swissvale , East Liberty ,Bloomfield,Washington ,Charleroi, State College, Kittaning,Bethel Park ,Butler , Ellwood City, and Squirrel Hill -Weirton and Morgantown WV. Youngstown OH almost 100 locations at one time
Then he would go "but I live in Wilmerding "all so sadly at the end as he ate the winkys sign
Here is a collection of some of the TV commercials on You Tube
Funny commercials for what was once a rival in the tri-state . to McDonalds in the 1960's
Winkys was owned by the Eernstein brothers who had a corporate Office in Sewickley Pa. and also Owned Jiffy Steak company which made the quick easy to make steak sandwich meat slice.
at one time when Jiffy Steak was in financial trouble Winkys was making so much money they where able to bail out jiffy steak according to Mr Eernstien who I meet on several occasions below is his obituary.
In late 70's I did electrical work for Plaza Vending out of Connelsville Pa. in many of the Pa. stores as they added Coin Operated video games like Space Invader and Pac Man to Try to boost revenue in the winkys as sales where declining. There where a couple of the stores known as Winky (White) Stars which had extended menus and served Pizza and such one was in New Alexander and other I think in Newcastle .They had a unique rectangular top window design.
But as revenue continued to drop they tried converting some stores to station Street Hotdogs
In Penn hills , East Liberty , The stores in Moon twp , Bridgeville the first winkys and Cheswick I completely rewired those stores into Station Street Hotdogs all 3 now torn down and replaced by 1982 it was over and they went bankrupt and Plaza vending and Plaza Lounge in Connelsville across from the winky's they owned went out of business eventually as well. The steel mills had gone down prices where going out of control with inflation as was interest rates caused by carter administration policy's as well as property taxes and all other expenses and they could no longer financially compete before they went out Burger Chef burger joints Remember the characters Chef& Jeff went out of business as well as all the H. Salt Fish & Chips as well as Arthur Treachers Fish& Chips and Red Barn Hamburgers .Sandy's became Hardees and many of them closed only one around here now in Millvale. It was a bad time for fast food of any type.
The end of what where much better burgers than McDonalds ever made. They lasted 20 years but are a fond memory for those baby boomers like me.
Ironically many of the old winkys now are the locations for national fast food chains including Arbys and Subway. Even Dunkin Donuts and a Four Star Pizza .
I went to a Winkys in Barcelona Spain in the mid- 70's.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if it was affiliated with the ones in the states. It had the worst hamburger I ever had.
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