For more than six decades, Sparkle Markets have stood as a formidable presence on the retail landscape of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley. At its height, more than a dozen of the full-service grocery stores, emblazoned with the perky “Save With Sparky” mascot, kept hundreds of thousands in our region well-stocked with food and household supplies.

Sadly, however, time and circumstances have taken their toll on the once-thriving iconic regional grocery store chain.

Nearly all of them in the Valley have shuttered or rebranded, such as the last remaining two in Trumbull County that recently joined the Golden Dawn franchise. Today, the Cornersburg Sparkle on Meridian Road — the anchor of the Cornersburg commercial district — remains the lone Sparky survivor in Mahoning County. In Youngstown, it also is the last standing full grocery store in the city.

That’s why it’s disappointing to hear news this month that it is bleeding red ink and teetering on the brink of permanent closure.

While that news is certainly disappointing, it is not totally surprising. Regional supermarket chains — particularly those in large- and medium-sized cities — have long been facing a wealth of operating challenges. Competition from nearby and more competitive big-box grocers such as Meijer, Walmart, Giant Eagle/Kroger, as well as shrinking profit margins, losses through shoplifting and costly store maintenance have led to mass shutterings of once-thriving grocers throughout Ohio and the nation.

Youngstown and Cornersburg Sparkle are no exceptions.

In an effort to right Sparky’s ship, representatives of the Furrie-Vitullo Sparkle Market chain appeared before Youngstown City Council’s Community Planning and Economic Development Committee earlier this week on behalf of a proposal from Councilman Pat Kelly, D-5th Ward, and Mayor Derrick McDowell.

Kelly and McDowell are proposing a city-funded community retention grant of $350,000 for Sparkle as well as a three-year agreement to return all city income taxes paid by store employees to the supermarket on a monthly basis.

City council members wisely chose not to rush to judgment on that proposal as an emergency measure at its full meeting this week. But when they do act, we recommend rejection of it in the name of risking a poor, costly and unfair precedent.

DeMaine Kitchen, Youngstown’s community planning and economic development director, urged council members to fast-track approval of the bailout plan this week. In so doing, he labeled Cornersburg’s predicament “a unique situation.”

With all due respect to Kitchen, the grocery store’s financial troubles are hardly unique. Many commercial establishments throughout the city have struggled and continue to struggle with an abundance of operational challenges. Consider, for example, the yearslong pain and disruptions many downtown businesses have endured in recent years over the COVID-19 pandemic, the Realty Tower explosion and never-ending frustrations over road closures and detours.

First Ward Councilman Julius Oliver put it bluntly: “Why Sparkle and why not every other struggling business, particularly in our downtown? You got businesses talking about closing up constantly because they can’t maintain, they can’t meet payroll, they can’t pay utilities, and that’s happening all over the city.”

What’s more, Cornersburg Sparkle owner Joe Vitullo could not guarantee to city leaders that the rescue plan would ensure the store’s long-term survival. “I don’t want to mislead anyone here. I cannot predict the future here,” he told them.

One need only look to our larger neighbor to the north to see just how risky such a bailout could be. In recent years, the city of Cleveland, the county of Cuyahoga and other enterprises provided the downtown Cleveland Heinen’s grocery store a reported $400,000 in operating aid. Earlier this month, however, that downtown grocer announced it will permanently close July 31.

All of which is not to say, however, that all other options should not be exhausted to help keep Sparky alive in Cornersburg. Ohio, for example, oversees Healthy Food for Ohio, a public-private partnership under the umbrella of the Department of Job and Family Service that provides loans and grants to food retailers in low- to moderate-income communities.

Assistance from foundations, philanthropists and programs under the National Grocers Association could be explored. Additional internal cost-cutting moves could be considered. Reinventing itself as a community co-op supermarket might also be pondered.

Permanent closure of the Cornersburg Sparkle should be considered only as a last resort as we realize the importance of the 33-year-old institution to residents of the West Side, as well as to those in contiguous Austintown, Boardman and Canfield. Though the loss of that retail landmark in Cornersburg would deal a devastating blow to them, steamrolling a risky bailout with no firm long-term commitments could very well provide minor short-term artificial insulation butt only delay the inevitable at a high and unnecessary cost to the city.

SCRIPTURE

Who has ascended into heaven and descended? Who has gathered the wind in His fists? Who has bound the waters in His garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His name, and what is His Son’s name? Certainly you know!

Proverbs 30:4 AMP