Scolari’s Closing California Stores

RENO, Nev. — Scolari’s Food & Drug said it plans to close all four of its stores in California within the next 60 days, citing a difficult economy and the long distance from its headquarters here.

“This was a gut-wrenching decision,” Joey Scolari, co-owner of the family-run company, said in a statement.

Scolari’s had operated stores on California’s central coast for more than 60 years. Scolari’s stores in Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Paso Robles will be sold to NTK Commercial, a real estate company based in san Luis Obispo, which will seek new tenants. A fourth Scolari’s store in Pismo Beach, Calif., is also closing. The company said it would continue to operate its 14 stores in Nevada.

Co-owner Jerry Scoalari said the decision was made even more difficult because “we grew up here and our parents and our sister still live here. Our family has been in business here since the late 1940s. But there comes a time as a business owner that you have to face the reality of your situation.”

The brothers stated that their Central Coast stores presented significant challenges operationally, being separated from each other by more than 120 miles, from the southernmost in Santa Barbara to the northernmost in Paso Robles, and separated from the company’s headquarters in Reno by more than 400 miles.