“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.
Efforts to reach Michael Lofino Thursday night and today, April 3, were not successful. Darryl McGill, director of human relations for Lofino Food Stores, said late Thursday afternoon that he was not authorized to respond to questions about the potential closure of the store.
Earlier this week, the Lofino’s Marketplace 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.
The grocery-store market in the Dayton area has intensfied in recent months, with the entry into the Dayton market of specialty grocer Fresh Thyme Farmers Market, which opened a store in Sugarcreek Twp. and is building one in Beavercreek; and Whole Foods, which is opening its first Dayton-area location in Washington Twp. in late spring. Kroger opened a Beavercreek store and expanded it to a large Marketplace format in 2010.
The independent Lofino’s grocery store has been operating at its current site since the shopping center was built in the early 1970s, when Lofino’s was already operating another grocery store on Dayton-Xenia Road north of U.S. 35. Michael Lofino’s father Charles, who died in 2008, founded the company in the early 1950s. Lofino Food stores also operated several now-defunct Cub Foods grocery stores in the Dayton area, and also formerly owned several Sav-A-Lot stores in the Dayton, Columbus and Indianapolis areas.
Michael Lofino was inducted into the Ohio Grocers Hall of Fame in 2010. Land donated by the Lofino family in Beavercreek has been turned into a park, a YMCA, and a senior center, among other uses.
The Beaver Valley Shopping Center, built by the Lofino family in the early 1970s, houses the grocery store, a Beef O’Brady’s restaurant, a Petco pet-supplies store, and several other smaller retailers. Its Beaver Valley Cinemas and an adjacent car dealership, a former Eastgate Ford, have been vacant for many years.
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