First Posted: 3/31/2015
LIMA — A second Ruler Foods will open in Lima later this year.
After buying a lot on West Elm Street in mid-December, Kroger has confirmed the lot will become a Ruler, though it couldn’t confirm a date for the groundbreaking.
“Our store in Lima’s doing very well,” said Mark Belleville, executive director of merchandising at Jay-C and Ruler Foods. “We feel the area has enough to support two of our stores.”
Ruler Foods, owned by Jay-C Food Stores, is a subsidiary of the Kroger Co. Ruler opened its first store in Lima at 2154 Elida Road in November 2012, according to a previous Lima News article.
The new store will be at 515 W. Elm St., the location of the former Faurot Elementary School, which was torn down in 2005.
Kroger bought the land from Lima City School District on Dec. 15 for $25,000, according to the Allen County Auditor’s website.
Ruler Foods offers discount groceries in Kroger brands and a bag-your-own format to reduce costs. The company is “thrilled” to open the new store, Belleville said.
The store will be about the size of the other Lima store and will employ 12 to 20 people, Belleville said.
The company isn’t hiring yet, but will post a banner at the site when construction begins to tell people how to apply.
It’ll be a standalone store, unlike the other Lima location, and is located in a food desert, said Kayla Monfort, a dietitian with Activate Allen County.
“It’s a low access area currently,” Monfort said. “The addition of the store would be helpful I’m sure to the community.”
Belleville is familiar with food deserts, but not the ones in Lima, he said.
“What we truly look at is how do we serve the needs of the community,” he said. “We think we can really serve the need in that area of Lima.”
