As Di Bruno Bros. prepares to shutter three stores, shoppers say it lost its ‘special touch’
Di Bruno's shoppers are mourning the imminent loss of its Main Line stores, but also said they weren't surprised.
As word spread Friday that upscale grocery Di Bruno Bros. would shutter three of its five grocery stores in the coming weeks, many customers mourned the imminent loss but added they were unsurprised, citing a noticeable change in quality over the last few years.
Xavier Hayden, a lawyer who lives in Narberth, said he stopped shopping at Di Bruno’s a few years ago when he noticed changes in the rolls, the bread, and other items that gave Di Bruno’s its strong reputation. “The quality went down, the taste went down,” Hayden said. “Why am I going to pay upmarket prices for a midmarket product?”
Hayden remembers childhood trips to the Italian Market to visit the original Di Bruno Bros., which will remain open, along with its bottle shop and the store at 18th and Chestnut Streets in Rittenhouse. Its Ardmore store will close Feb. 4, while the location in Wayne as well as the shop at the Franklin Residences at Ninth and Chestnut Streets will close Feb. 11.
Di Bruno’s, established in South Philadelphia in 1939, had become a major player on the Main Line grocery scene since opening at the Ardmore Farmer’s Market in 2011 and in Wayne’s Strafford Shopping Center in 2021 to complement its two stores in Center City.
Now, the company is pulling back to focus on the Italian Market and Rittenhouse locations and its online business.
The closings will affect 59 employees, said Sandy Brown, executive vice president of Di Bruno’s parent company, Brown’s Super Stores. She said the workers have been offered new jobs with the other Brown’s stores in the area, including 10 ShopRites and two Fresh Grocer locations.
On social media, some Di Bruno’s patrons attributed a change in the store’s offerings to Brown’s, which bought an ownership stake in the company in early 2024 from the Mignucci family, which had led Di Bruno’s expansion. (It’s a complex arrangement; while Brown’s owns the stores, the Di Bruno’s brand and its packaged-product portfolio were later acquired by Wakefern Food Corp., a New Jersey-based supermarket cooperative that includes the Brown’s stores.)
In an email exchange Friday, Sandy Brown pushed back on the Brown’s company’s role in the closures, saying Di Bruno’s was “very distressed” when her group invested. “We were the only interested party due to the numerous challenges they had,” she said. While many commenters online are blaming her company for the closings, Brown said, “I don’t think they realize the status of the brand at the time of transition.”
Brown said the company had worked to bring back business that was lost prior to the purchase, “but that did not occur.” She added that her company had a plan to sustain Di Bruno’s but declined to share it at this time.
Main Line customers said they were sad to see Di Bruno’s retrenchment from the suburbs, though several said the stores had slipped in recent years.
“It used to be spectacular, delicious ... extra special,” said Dana Reisbord, a professor who lives in Ardmore. Reisbord said she used to stop into Di Bruno for a chicken parmesan sandwich and other goodies. Now, she’ll venture into the city if she’s really craving Italian fare. Di Bruno’s fare is too expensive to justify, she said, having “lost that special touch.”
Diane Fanelli, a retiree who lives in Overbrook, visits the Ardmore Farmer’s Market Di Bruno’s at Suburban Square a few times a month. She said she would be sad to see the store go. Although she did notice a drop-off in quality, she said it wasn’t significant enough to send her shopping elsewhere.
“Their food is expensive. It’s very good, but it’s expensive, and everybody’s watching their budget,” said Mike Manley, a cartoonist from Upper Darby who used to patronize the Ardmore store when he was in town for doctors’ appointments.
It wasn’t necessarily the high-end products that kept Manley coming back. It was the customer service. He liked chatting with the cheesemongers and enjoying samples. Di Bruno’s reminded Manley of his old days in West Philadelphia, when he would regularly patronize Koch’s Deli, known for friendly faces behind the counter.
“That gains you loyal customers, but I don’t know if corporate appreciates that,” he said. (The stores had lost some longtime employees since the Brown’s purchase.)
Earlier this week, Di Bruno notified two landlords that they would be shutting down, said Douglas Green, a principal at MSC, who handles real estate for Kimco Realty Corp. (owner of Suburban Square) and Korman Communities (owner of the Franklin). A representative of Equity Retail Brokers, which leases at Wayne’s Strafford Shopping Center, declined to comment.
“Operations have not been what they were when the Mignucci family owned the business, and this outcome shouldn’t be a great surprise to most people,” Green said. “It’s a sad day for a very proud Philadelphia brand.”
He suggested that Di Bruno had expanded into too much space at Suburban Square “and affected [Kimco’s] ability to diversely merchandise the farmer’s market. It felt like they spread themselves too thin, and the quality suffered.”
Speaking specifically of the Franklin and Suburban Square locations, Green said both locations are in areas with “pent-up demand and limited supply, and there should be tremendous interest.” He said Kimco, with MSC, wants to “re-merchandise” the farmers market and Di Bruno’s spaces.
“This gives us a bit of a blank canvas,” Green said. “There are cuisine types not currently represented that we’re excited about bringing to the project. Hopefully, the end of this chapter opens the door to new concepts.”