DNA Info: Mariano's South Shore? Alderman Taking Grocery Store Boss on Tour

Bob Mariano w/ Mayor Emanuel - DNAinfo/Ted Cox

What figures in this story is the fact that while the Mariano's grocery chain has expanded aggressively in the Chicagoland area and has taken over many former Dominick's locations they also haven't moved into the spot at 71st & Jeffrey that used to be a Dominick's. Now Bob Mariano - who is the CEO of the company that owns the Mariano's chain - is taking a look at South Shore:

Bob Mariano said Monday he'd be touring the South Shore area in the coming weeks to explore whether it "makes any sense" to place a new Mariano's outlet there.

Mariano, chief executive officer of the Roundy's supermarket chain and head of the Mariano's stores in the Chicago area, made the comment after addressing the City Club of Chicago in a lunch speech Monday.
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"We're scheduling a meeting with Ald. Hairston to drive her ward in the near future, so that's being worked on right now," Mariano said. "We'll listen to what she's got and we'll see if it makes any sense.

"We've got to go into the neighborhood, drive the neighborhood together and see her vision and her ideas and see if they fit with ours," he added.

Hairston's office confirmed a tour of the 5th Ward is being planned with a date to be determined.

Mariano, however, would not comment on news reports that have Mariano's showing an interest in the former U.S. Steel factory on the South Side, saying only, "We'll have something to say about that in the future."

Mariano stressed the notion of "community" in his remarks to the City Club.

"For us, it's about one thing — community," he said. "We stress in each one of our stores, we are a community."

He said the chain emphasizes "the groundedness into the neighborhood, into the community," adding, "Your store is your community."

If he's not at all interested in the 71st/Jeffrey space, perhaps he'd be interested in the former Sears store @ 1134 E. 79th St. and I'm sure there are other locations on the south side where he could place a store.

I hope that there is press on this tour, that would be some good coverage.