The death of Bruno's

If anything could get me to come out of my hybernation on the blog (sometimes life IS more important, thank you), it would certainly have to be the death of the Bruno's grocery chain, which seemed to finally come this week when it auctioned itself off. Southern Foods bought it; they purchased the Food World in Hamilton a while back and made a mess of it before it finally died as well. I am not terribly hopeful of what is coming.

It may be that Jasper and Dora will be spared anymore suffering. The Birmingham News reported today that it had the list of probable stores to be liquidated, and those two cities were on the list. Assuming that is true, it would mean that Jasper is down to two major chain stores, Wal-Mart and Winn-Dixie, as well as Son's and another store at the Parkland area. East Walker County would now only have one major store (Wal-Mart, of course) and a local store. Dora would be deprived of a major generator of sales tax revenue and the shopping center would lose its big anchor. Jasper would have a big hole in that major quadrant where 78 and Airport collide, and it will be interesting to see in a lesser economy if anyone takes it over soon. (I would point out Goody's nearby is still vacant.)

This is personally sad for me, because Bruno's is responsible for funding my childhood upbringing. Dad was employed there for something like three decades, ironically starting in Jasper. Although he lived in Winfield, he commuted seemingly everywhere, including Haleyville, Jasper, many stores in the Birmingham area, Russellville and finally Hamilton, where he retired. He was a meat cutter and eventually a meat department head in a number of stores.

It was during his time in Birmingham in particular that he got to know many of the people in the company, even those at the top. His conversations have always included tales of the patriarch, Joe Bruno, known as "Mr. Joe." It was a family operation, and they family stayed connected to the business. It always impressed me that the family, devout Catholics, would have a cross set up in the store around the business office, and the stores would be blessed upon opening.

As many of you know, they were community minded and funded a number of institutions, particularly in the Birmingham area. They also loved to hold an open house at the warehouse, and considering they knew all the vendors, it was quite an affair indeed. Of course, the warehouse was something to behold, and they took great pride in showing it off.

Now, those days are over. I've heard many inside and outside the company reflect back to the plane crash that killed several executives, including family members. "The company was never the same after that plane crash," they say, shaking their heads. That is correct. Not only was the management not the same, but Bruno's faced a tide of change in the supermarket industry. The change was Wal-Mart, which stomped in on the scene like a giant, undercutting everyone and swamping with volume. There had been a half-hearted attempt between Bruno's and K-mart to do something like what Wal-Mart does now, but it went nowhere. Moreover, Dad still maintains that the company lost its way in customer service in the end, which is the only thing it could really compete with.

Even if the Jasper and Dora stores survive, it will not be the Bruno's we knew. It will not be the Bruno's bear smiling at us from the grocery ads. It will not be the Bruno's that started a world class golf tournament and funded educational and spiritual institutions. It will not be the Bruno's that introduced Big B drugs when we didn't have mammoth national drug stores on every corner. It will not be the Bruno's that really introduced the big grocery store concept with Food World, with its amazing selections.

Perhaps most of all, it's not Mr. Joe. When the Bruno family left, so did the heart of the company. The reputation of the name is the only reason that the patient is only now dying of cardiac arrest.