Mr. D’s Food Fair in Brookfield will hold its “re-grand opening” June 6 with a sale that will continue on June 7, said store Manager Michael Ward.
“Crazy in-house prices in every department,” Ward said.
The store, which was hit with equipment failures, supply issues and negative social media posts, has installed new freezers and Ward promised the store will be “shiny like a shiny penny” for the two-day sale.
A new food supplier is scheduled to make its first delivery on May 22, Ward said.
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Michael Ward stands with the broken freezers that have since been replaced at Mr. D’s Food Fair in Brookfield.
The owners of Mr. D’s Food Fair got hit with a lot at once.
Their fire sprinkler system failed, flooding the store; the aging cooling system conked out and finding someone to deal with it, let alone fix it, has been a chore; their food supplier proved unreliable; and disgruntled ex-employees took to social media to air their grievances and, judging by the comments attached to these posts, have had the desired effect of taking customers away from the store, said Michael Ward, meat department manager and “kind of, all-around store manager.”
You could walk around the store this spring and find empty shelves and few customers. Although the store posted signs saying it is not closing, that didn’t keep people from wondering about the store’s future.
Ward said he hopes the fortunes of Mr. D’s will start to turn around in the coming months as officials address each of the deficiencies.
“We are trying to bring it back to its former glory,” Ward said.
The dropping off of customers started when Dhru and Kinjan Patel took over ownership Jan. 1, 2023, after buying Mr. D’s from store founders Larry and Ed D’onofio, Ward said. Although Dhru pledged “I won’t be changing anything,” some customers haven’t agreed. With a dropping customer base, store officials have turned away contributions to some of the community service endeavors the D’onofrios had given to in the past, Ward said.
The fact that the owners are of Indian descent also turned off some former shoppers, Ward said. In posts on the Brookfield, Ohio Facebook page, one person called the owners “illegals” while another wrote “Don’t shop foreign owned!!!” Others who have posted have sympathized with the struggles of the store managers and wished them better luck and renewed success in the future.
The new food supplier will be SpartanNash Co., a large national supplier of independent and its own grocery stores. The company’s own brands include Our Family and TopCare.
The previous supplier shipped food to Mr. D’s from Wisconsin and proved unreliable in getting food to Brookfield on a regular basis, Ward said. SpartanNash will supply Brookfield from its distribution center in Lima, Ohio, he said.
Of course, without a refrigeration system – it has gone down three times since 2024, costing about $300,000 for repairs that didn’t last, Ward said – it doesn’t make sense to ship items such as ice cream, frozen waffles and frozen pizza.
The last week of April, the old freezers were removed and installation of the new ones began. The project likely won’t be complete until mid-May, Ward said.
“The freezers are coming,” Ward said April 24. “It can’t happen soon enough.”
Store owners also need to restore the store’s reputation. Among the complaints ex-employees have levied against the store is that there are insects and rats. No food store is immune to vermin, but Mr. D’s has contracted with a national pest control company, Ward said.
“We’ve had double duty on Orkin in here and they’re telling us everything’s good, better,” he said.
But, Ward doesn’t want you to take his word for it.
“We’re gonna get the health department in here,” Ward said. “We are going to make them give us a rating. They’re gonna be weirded out when I call and say, ‘Hey, we want you to come here.’ We want them to come in. We want to get a rating from them, whatever it is. We’re hoping for an A-plus rating so we can advertise that on the doors, advertise that in the papers, and we let the community know that some of these malicious things are being said that are false.”
“We are trying to get something out there to let the community know that we are still here for them,” Ward said. “We still have our full catering services, full bakery, full kitchen, quality meat department. We are still here full service for the community and it’s only gonna get better. It’s gonna take the community support. I understand that the community wants (a) one-stop shop. You don’t wanna go here, go there, and not get what you need. We certainly understand that.”
Ward, who started working for the D’onofrios and carried over to the Patels, said the Patels want to do good by the community.
“These are good people,” Ward said. “They are family men. They have their wives here, their parents here, their children here. They’re not trying to take over the world here. They’re just trying to make a go at it. All they’re concerned about is the employees having jobs. They just want to pay the bills and the employees have their jobs.”
Ward reminded that the store employees are pulled from the community the store serves.
“Whether you like the new owners or not, you’ve got to be supporting your neighbors, friends,” Ward said. “Without the community support, people are gonna lose their jobs. They have children, they have bills.”
As business picks up, so will the store’s support of community endeavors, Ward said.
“We’re trying to get back heavily involved, heavily involved in the community.”
Stay tuned for word of a “re-grand opening” with special events such as free samples and local vendors, Ward said.
I met the two Patel brothers and they are interested in making this store work. The one brother was actually helping load up an elderly shopper’s car. Something you don’t see very often. I hope that Mr. Ds will do well, It will really be nice to have a grocery store in that area that has friendly employees that don’t have horrible customer service.