From watching recent political TV ads, area residents might have the impression that Food Town supermarkets — once the area's biggest locally owned grocer — had long gone out of existence, their employees scattered to the winds.

But a decade after the Iott family sold Seaway Food Town Inc. to Spartan Stores Inc., the Food Town name and insignia are on three stores in Toledo and southeast Michigan.

For seven years, a former Seaway Food Town at 8926 Lewis Ave. in Temperance has operated under the ownership of Detroit-area businessman Sam Jabro, who bought the store from Spartan. Twenty-one months ago, Mr. Jabro opened another Food Town at 2725 West Central Ave. in Toledo.

He had owned a third Food Town store, at 7375 Secor Rd. in Lambertville, but sold it in May to Nash Pattah, a Michigan business colleague. Mr. Pattah, who owns three Detroit-area supermarkets, plans to retain the Food Town name.

Staff at all three stores are mostly former Seaway Food Town employees.

Even though the stores are not the “old” Food Town as once operated under the late Wallace D. “Wally” Iott, and his son, local businessman Rich Iott, the stores have continued to operate under the Food Town concept — full service, customer friendly, with a neighborhood feel.

Wally Iott, who died in 2006, was a frequent visitor to the Lambertville store and give Mr. Jabro advice and tips.

“I will be the first to tell you I could never fill Wally Iott's shoes,” Mr. Jabro said.

But the 46-year-old Mr. Jabro, who commutes daily from his West Bloomfield, Mich., home to spend time at his two stores, said he has tried to operate them in a way he thinks the Iott family, and customers who remember the old Food Town, would appreciate.

“I think most people have remembered the Food Town name. To me, it's an asset rather than a liability,” Mr. Jabro said.

“We still get people coming here who had kids or grandkids affected by Food Town, so we have to respect that.”

The Toledo store's sales average about $150,000 a week, and April-November sales are up 10 percent over those in the same period of 2009, he said. The Temperance store's sales are up 5 percent over 2009, he added. The Food Marketing Institute said that in 2009 the average weekly sales for a supermarket were $485,000 for a store almost twice the size of Mr. Jabro's Toledo site.

The 26,000-square-foot Toledo store, financed by a loan from Monroe Bank & Trust Co., at one time was a Seaway Food Town but became a Pharm drug store, and then was closed and gutted.

Mr. Jabro said he used the Temperance store as a guide to opening the one in Toledo, including hiring former Food Town employees.

Jerry Skinner, who manages the Temperance store and worked for Seaway Food Town for many years, said the Toledo store “does feel like a Food Town store. We don't have much turnover, and 75 percent of the people working for us here worked for Food Town. I think people feel like family here.”

Inside, the Toledo store is only a third to half the size of larger full-service competitors such as Kroger or Giant Eagle. But it contains all the must-haves — an ample produce section, a delicatessen, a bakery, a wall of weekly discounted items, and plenty of cooler and freezer space.

“We don't have five shelves of greeting cards, but we have one,” Mr. Skinner said.

The store embraces an everyday-low-pricing strategy rather than a loyalty card. It also offers private-label foods supplied by Spartan, advertises weekly through a buying group, and makes a point of buying some of its items from local farmers and food producers.

“It's a big improvement over the old store,” said customer Marci Helmier, who remembers the old Food Town and shops the reincarnated version because of its convenience.

“They have what I need. It's … a bit cleaner than the old store — I call 'em as I see 'em,” she said.

Another customer, Lucille Boyd, shops the store weekly, especially on Wednesdays when she gets a senior discount.

“They have specials and they'll give me discounts. … The price is right for me,” she said.

Walt Churchill, owner of Walt Churchill's Market, said he has been in Mr. Jabro's Toledo store, and respects what the new operator has done.

“They seem to be aggressive operators,” said Mr. Churchill, whose family still owns and operates the Churchill's Super Market on Central Avenue a few blocks west of the Food Town.

“We estimate if they closed, the [Churchill's] Central Avenue store's [weekly] sales would go up $10,000 almost immediately,” he said.

Pete Shawaker, a commercial real estate agent and retail specialist with CB Richard Ellis/Reichle Klein in Toledo, said Mr. Jabro made a smart move by opening his Toledo store and reviving the Food Town ties there.

“Demographically, it's densely populated around there, and I think it's logical for a grocery store. Plus, there's a history of the shopping pattern there,” Mr. Shawaker said.

Kroger is stiff competition at Monroe Street and Secor Road, “but that Kroger … is very busy and, you know, some people by default don't want to fight that crowd,” he added.

Mr. Shawaker said that nearby competitors Churchill's, Schorling's Five-Star Market, and Fresh Market are considered upscale smaller grocers while big rivals Walmart, Meijer, and Giant Eagle are too far away to be threats, he said.

At 51,000 square feet, the Lambertville store was one of Seaway Food Town's larger ones before Mr. Jabro acquired it from Spartan in 2003. It is adjacent to a Kroger.

Mr. Jabro said he didn't want to sell the Lambertville store, “but when the economy tanked in 2008, we had to do some restructuring. People started buying less and lending stopped. The banks tightened up lending on everyone,” he said.

The bigger store had a higher overhead, and he was trying to focus on the Toledo store, so last spring he sold it to Mr. Pattah, whom he outbid for the store when Spartan put it up for sale.

Mr. Pattah was very glad to get it.

“So far, everything's working OK,” he said. “Business is not booming, but that's the economy and we just started.”

Mr. Jabro said he would like to open a third 20,000-square-foot store, possibly in Maumee or Monroe, if his Toledo store sales rise to around $190,000 weekly and banks relax their lending policies.

“I think with the right partnership we could add more stores,” he said.

Contact Jon Chavez at:

jchavez@theblade.com

or 419-724-61

First Published November 21, 2010, 6:48 a.m.