Coming Monday: A closer look at the "grocery wars" that have escalated throughout the Dayton area.
The Dayton region’s grocery wars appear poised to claim another victim.
The owner of Lofino’s Marketplace has told state officials he has decided to get out of the retail grocery business and is poised to close his last remaining store in Beavercreek after relocating its wine and liquor-sales operations to another storefront in the Beaver Valley Shopping Center.
The fate of Lofino’s last remaining store comes as the grocery-store market in the Dayton area is expanding with the entry of two new players: Fresh Thyme Farmers Market opened a store in Sugarcreek Twp. last month and is building a second store in Beavercreek, and Whole Foods is poised to open later this spring on Ohio 725 in Washington Twp.
The Springboro IGA, which had been in business since 1958, called it quits five months ago, citing increased competition from stores such as Kroger, which operates in both Springboro and nearby Miami Twp., and Dorothy Lane Market, which operates a Springboro store.
The competition is sure to escalate in coming months with the plans announced Wednesday by Meijer, and in recent weeks by Kroger, to pour tens of millions of dollars into extensive renovations of some of those grocery chains’ existing Dayton-area stores.
New liquor store
Lofino’s Marketplace owner Michael Lofino has not publicly announced the store is closing, and he did not return messages this week.
But Lofino submitted an application to the Ohio Department of Commerce Division of Liquor Control on March 16 to relocate the state agency liquor store currently inside Lofino’s Marketplace to a newly created Beaver Valley Wine & Spirits store.
The new shop would open in now-vacant retail space on the west side of the Beaver Valley Shopping Center on Seajay Drive at U.S. 35 and North Fairfield Road.
“Mr. Lofino has made the strategic business decision to relinquish his interest in the retail grocery business,” the application, obtained by the Dayton Daily News and WHIO-TV, said. “His ability to cease business operations of the Lofino’s Marketplace grocery store is dependent and will be determined by your prompt approval of his request” to relocate the liquor store and wine department.
A spokesman for the Division of Liquor Control said Lofino’s request has been approved.
Darryl McGill, director of human relations for Lofino Food Stores, said that he was not authorized to respond to questions about the potential closure of the store.
On Wednesday, the Lofino’s store shut down its pharmacy and transferred customer prescriptions to a nearby CVS store. A statement released by McGill late Thursday detailed the pharmacy closing but made no mention of the fate of the grocery store.
Beavercreek staple
The independent Lofino’s grocery store has been operating at its current site since the shopping center was built in the early 1970s. At the time, Lofino’s was already operating a grocery store on Dayton-Xenia Road north of U.S. 35. Since then, however, several chains have opened stores in Beavercreek, and Kroger expanded its presence with a larger Marketplace store that opened in 2010.
Michael Lofino’s father, Charles, who died in 2008, founded a grocery store in Beavercreek in the early 1950s. Lofino Food Stores also operated four now-defunct Cub Foods in the Dayton area, and formerly owned several Sav-A-Lot stores in the Dayton, Columbus and Indianapolis areas.
“It’s a very sad day for the community, because that Lofino’s name has been a staple in Beavercreek, and it’s another independent store closing,” said Rob Bernhard, owner of Dot’s Market stores in Kettering and Bellbrook. He grew up in Beavercreek and is a 1976 graduate of Beavercreek High School.
Bernhard said he remains optimistic that independent, locally owned grocery stores such as Dot’s and Dorothy Lane Market can survive and flourish in the face of intensifying competition.
Beavercreek mayor Brian Jarvis called Lofino’s Marketplace “a community mainstay for so many decades,” but said the potential closing reflects a national trend of mom-and-pop grocers and other shops finding it difficult to compete with the economies of scale enjoyed by large chains.
The Lofino family’s presence will be felt in Beavercreek “for a long, long time,” Jarvis said, noting that land donated by the Lofinos has been turned into a park, a YMCA branch, and a senior center/community theater.
The potential loss of Lofino’s Marketplace will create another challenge for the Beaver Valley Shopping Center, built by the Lofino family in the early 1970s to house the grocery store and other retailers. The center is home to Beef O’Brady’s, Bob Evans, Rocky’s Pizza Ring and House of Thai restaurants, along with a Petco pet-supplies store and multiple smaller retailers.
But its Beaver Valley Cinemas and an adjacent car dealership, formerly Eastgate Ford and more recently Hidy Ford, have been vacant for an extended period.
Beavercreek planning director Jeffrey McGrath said Friday, “We hate to lose a business like Lofino’s, but we’ll look forward to the opportunities we’ll have to try to spur some development interest in that center.”
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