In a 2001 interview in Los Angeles Magazine, co-founder Hyman Fink described selling "everything from handkerchiefs to fire hydrants to motorcycles to live Mexican monkeys" in his stores.

[1] The product mix offered in the stores is best described as eclectic and had included home decorating items, cookware, dining ware, food, clothing, electronics, live plants, and furniture.

A 1960 article in the Los Angeles Times described the store as "a pioneer in new and distinctive merchandising techniques" that "long specialized in decorator items from abroad" that included "original Italian oil paintings, native African sculptures from Kenya, and contemporary teakwood furniture from Denmark".

[4] In 1947, Bernard Field and Hyman Fink opened the Akron Army & Navy Stores on Sunset Blvd.

In their April 1950 ad in the Los Angeles Times, Akron was selling typewriters, watches, bunk beds, camping gear, power tools, and house paint.

By June 1953, ads were beginning to appear in the Los Angeles Times in which the firm began to trade under the name The Akron.

In these ads, the variety of advertised goods was getting larger, which included such items as clothes, furniture, and live plants.

Around this time, the army-navy label was dropped since the new products offered by the firm began to sharply deviate from the usual goods obtain through government surplus.

[11] In March 1955, the firm expanded into the San Fernando Valley by opening their first branch store in Burbank.

[25] The ad listed the addresses for nine stores in the Southern California marketing area, including its first location in Ventura County.

In 1966, 20,000 square feet was added to the two year-old West Los Angeles store to handle the increase of business.

Two stores opened later 1971 at Mission Valley and La Mesa in the San Diego metropolitan area.

A hint that the firm was beginning to have cash flow problems occurred when it was announced that the firm had sold the real estate for three of its stores that it had owned in a 1972 sale leaseback scheme for its stores in Pasadena, Orange and Santa Clara (in the San Francisco Bay area).

[44] By this time, the chain had 23 stores, all of which were located in California, and had started a fully owned subsidiary in the middle of the country called Columbus.

Under Thrifty, Hadel was retained as president until late 1977 or early 1978 when he had left to take a position at the Sunset House division of Carter Hawley Hale Stores.

[50] Although Akron was losing money, Thrifty still opened new stores in rapidly expanding areas of Southern California.

[62] The unexpected death of CEO and chairman Richard Ralphs in August 1982[63] resulted in making Fletcher the senior executive in charge of Akron.

[60] The new owners' son, City of Industry–based Francis Chan was appointed chairman and chief executive officer.

The chain was in dire straits by 1984 and the Chan family decided that they needed to close most of the stores with the goal of saving the remainder.

[69][70] Columbus was a fully-owned subsidiary chain that was created by Akron to sell imported decorator products to high income customers at significantly higher prices.

While most Akron locations were in free-standing stores in high traffic areas, Columbus locations were sited almost exclusively in the most expensive shopping mall that could be found that usually included such stores as Neiman Marcus, Tiffany & Co., and Lord & Taylor.