For 100 years, a Folino has stood behind the counter at Folino’s Superette on Algoma Street.
But after Friday, that tradition ends. The family-run business is closing its doors.
Owner Brad Folino went through a mix of emotions Friday as regular patrons stopped by the convenience store for the last time to say farewell.
“I’m happy for today; I’m glad so many people have been by to say goodbye to Folino’s. It’s the end of an era,” he said. “There are people that have been coming in this store for 50, 60 years. They’ve been here since they were little kids.”
The business started with Folino’s grandfather, who opened the store with a partner when he was 17. He came to Canada from Italy and worked the railroad, making his way from eastern Canada to Thunder Bay.
“When he got here, he was without a job and he was a man with cash in his pocket because the railroad paid in cash. He walked into a store where a fellow owned a business, had inventory, had furniture, had fixtures but had no cash. They met; it was a marriage made in heaven,” he said.
“Two years later my grandfather bought him out; it’s just grown since then,” Folino added.
His grandfather operated the store until the mid-1960s and then his parents took over until 1986. His sister then owned the store until Folino took the reins in 1997.
The decision to close the store came when Folino was presented with a job opportunity he couldn’t pass up. However, the store’s closing had been a long time coming, he said.
With magazine and newspaper sales being a large chunk of the store’s inventory, the Internet has made a substantial impact on their sales. The addition of convenience items being sold in bigger chain stores have also impacted smaller businesses like Folino’s.
But ultimately, Folino said crime has been a major deciding factor.
“Mac’s are doing a good job of upping their security. But that won’t solve crime,” he said.
“That’s going to move crime out of their stores and those criminals are going elsewhere. I don’t want to be standing here when that person comes here. It’s happened to us twice in 100 years and it was last year and the year before and it’s most unnerving.”
Folino’s sister Phyllis Meadows owned the store from 1986 to 1997 and said despite the decision to close, the family will always have their memories of the store.
“When we moved here I was about 11 years old and I’ve worked here since I was 11,” she said. “All of us five children worked here. Our friends worked here. My children worked here … Everybody called my mom and dad, Mom and Dad. It was just one big happy family.”
“I think my mom and dad would be very proud today. They are probably smiling down on us. We did what we could for 100 years,” she added.
