About the Weekly Bargain Bulletin

How We Started

Adapted from the 25th year anniversary issue of the Weekly Bargain Bulletin.
Originally published on April 4, 1997.
Written by Karen Hutchison - Editor

Twenty-five years ago, on the first Friday of April, 1972, the very first Weekly Bargain Bulletin "hit the streets" with a whopping circulation of 1000. What a frightening and VERY exciting time that was!

It all began with a casual comment to Frank Hutchison Sr. at a family reunion in Valencia, PA. One of our relatives was talking about a neat, little free paper in another town in Pennsylvania. For two years, this "free paper" concept rattled around in Frank's mind, surfacing occasionally. Every now and then, he would say, "I'd like to start a free shopper like that. I think it would work." Then, one day, Frank made the decision that would completely change our lives. "Let's do it!" Frank had worked at the Youngstown Sheet and Tube, and was an electrician by trade. Me? I was your basic 50's type mom, baking lots of chocolate chip cookies and busy with PTA, Scouts and Little League. Not a very likely pair for the task that lay ahead.

So, with fear and trembling, we borrowed the enormous sum of $1,000.00 (It WAS enormous in 1972), bought a mimeograph machine, and launched into the biggest adventure of our lives, a business.

There were 24 area businesses willing to take a chance on this fresh idea and invested in advertising that very first week. God bless those dear people who had faith in a hometown "boy" and a dream. One of those 24 businesses happens to be advertising with us this week, Phil Fitts Ford.