Valli Produce to close its Loves Park grocery store after 18 years in business

By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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LOVES PARK — Valli Produce is preparing to close its grocery store near Alpine Road and Riverside Boulevard after nearly 18 years in business.

The store at 6550 N. Alpine Road will close in late August or September, depending on the sale of its inventory, owner Dominic Presta said.

The Valli Produce at 5880 E. State St. in Rockford will remain in business, and employees from the Loves Park location are expected to transfer to the site in Rockford. The company also has grocery stores in Evanston and Hoffman Estates.

“We’ve never closed a store in our lifetime. We’ve been in business since 1977. It’s actually a first time for us,” Presta said. “We just want to let the Rockford community know that we appreciate more than anything the last 18 years of Loves Park, the commitment and the faithfulness of a lot of the customers who are still coming there today. Hopefully they come visit us at the Rockford location.”

The Loves Park Valli Produce opened in November 2007, filling a space that had been vacated by Cub Foods.

It has already started discounting produce and other perishable items as it prepares to clear its inventory. Discounts will follow on the dry goods in the center store before it closes at a date to be determined.

“The center store will be the last to go. It might be end of August, it might be the end of September,” Presta said.

Presta said a multitude of economic factors played into the decision to close, from increased competition at its stores across Illinois to the rise of the prepared meals industry. That ready meals market has a compound annual growth rate of 7% as more people opt for delivery of those meals, according to a report Yahoo Finance.

“It’s so many different avenues delivering attacks from all sides on the brick-and-mortar grocery stores,” Presta said. “We’re competitive. We’re aggressive. We’re trying not to go anywhere, but it’s not an easy thing.”

Presta said Valli Produce plans to bolster its private-label products as it works to strengthen its business.

“We already started our Valli pasta sauce. That’s one of our secret recipes that we use in our own home,” he said. “We know it’s quality and at the right price to help us keep going forward.”

He said the decision to close was difficult. He’s gotten to know many of the regular customers, talking to them in the aisles while they shop.

“After the course of 18 years, things have dramatically changed. I’m sure that when everyone goes into their grocery store, it’s not as busy as what it used to be at a grocery store,” Presta said. “Hopefully by closing Loves Park we can continue with the dedication of the loyal customers that we having to come to our State Street store.”

This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on X at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas and Threads @thekevinhaas