Summer Sale - $1 for 3 months - Expires 8/2/26
By
CLEVELAND, Ohio – Heinen’s might not be the only downtown Cleveland grocery store to close this year.
Yogi Patel, who owns Simply Food inside Reserve Square, said challenging conditions downtown are forcing him to consider shutting down his business, which he opened in 2011.
“We’re on our last leg,” he told cleveland.com.
Patel spoke in the aftermath of Heinen’s announcement last month that it would close its location in the historic Cleveland Trust Building, at the corner of Euclid Ave. and E. 9th Street. Heinen’s declined comment for this story.
Patel’s store covers 9,000 square feet and draws customers from surrounding buildings, senior housing and nearby offices. In addition to general food staples, beer and wine and grab-and-go items, Simply Food has a lunch counter. The coronavirus pandemic ended its breakfast service.
A diverse mix of customers used to frequent his store. So many Indian students and doctors who attended Cleveland State and Case Western Reserve University shopped there that Patel created an aisle of products for them. They used to offer specialty Arabic items for families who came in.
But Patel and store manager Anthony Carter said a variety of factors are working against them. Among them, Reserve Square is in receivership and while costs are rising in the marketplace across the board, staffing is heading in the opposite direction.
The shop -- about three blocks south of Heinen’s -- is down to nine employees, a big drop over the last few years, they said. But both said crime is a big issue.
Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer has reached out to Cleveland Police for data on theft and other calls from downtown grocers.
“There was so much optimism when Heinen’s came,” Patel said. “The optimism was there. Now it’s disappointment. The city is not functioning right.”
He indicated that business “a third of what it used to be.” Like many other downtown businesses navigating post-pandemic, a rhythm never quite returned.
Constantino’s, a grocery store that covers just less than 13,000 square feet on the other side of downtown, does not have the same concerts. Should Patel’s business close, will be the sole full-service grocery downtown.
“It’s always tough. We took a chance 20 years ago. We’re happy we did, we’re happy we were part of that growth,” Andrew Revy, whose family owns Constantino’s Market on W. 9th Street.
“It’s been tough if you look especially at the last six years; the struggles are there. Every small operator, we’ve been through it – Covid was huge, but staffing, inflation, all of it. Those are very real impediments to stable operations, but we’re still standing, we’re still here, we’re still going strong.”
Carter said the slide started in 2023 as they tried to pull their business out of the pandemic’s aftermath.
“Trump came in office January ’24. It was a downhill spiral since then. I can’t put his presidency solely in charge of us losing business, but Indian students stopped coming, Chinese students, the fear of immigration status. The fear of working here. All of the fear.”
Patel added: “We have not made money in two years.”
Patel and Carter said regular patrols and additional security would help, but it’s an uphill battle. They worry that without their store, the eastern side of downtown would be a food desert.
E. 13th Street has at least 300 apartments of senior living, he said, and many of those people probably will have to head to Dave’s Markets. Simply Food sits almost perfectly equidistant between two Dave’s – one in Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood and one on E. 61st Street in the Midtown neighborhood. Each is more than 2 miles away – a bus ride for many.
Not everyone shares Patel’s pessimism.
“Downtown has a growing residential population,” said Cleveland City Councilman Austin Davis, whose Ward 7 covers Gordon Square, Tremont and Ohio City neighborhoods as well as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
“We’re among the top in the nation, we’re national leaders in commercial-to-residential conversions. So the downtown residential grocery-demanding population is strong. The idea that downtown would end up as a food desert doesn’t seem congruous of those stats,” Davis said.
“Losing Heinen’s is a terrible loss for the community. Heinen’s is a fantastic grocery store. But whether it’s in that building or someplace else I am very confident we will find another grocery retailer to offer to downtown residents.”
Data supports that confidence.
Downtown Cleveland apartment occupancy sits at 85%, according to Downtown Cleveland, Inc., which maintains a sophisticated portal of residential data. That number is down from 90% a few years ago.
There are approximately 21,000 residents downtown; a third of those people are in the 25-34 age bracket. In addition, Cleveland State University’s student body accounts for around 13,000 students; 8% of them living on campus.
Stephanie Howse-Jones, whose Ward 8 covers Asia Town, Hough, St. Clair-Superior neighborhoods and parts of downtown, Glenville and Midtown, envisions a solution that is more of a microcosm than a giant grocery coming into downtown.
It all starts with a closer look at “how are people getting groceries at this moment?”
“There’s a level of assumptions that go into place when people live at a certain social economic status,” she said. “The average income of a downtown resident is $84,000. I know that is not for everyone. But that’s average. That in and of itself lets you know the average person downtown has the means to get what most of our neighborhoods don’t.”
She added she understands many residents in senior high rises did not shop at Heinen’s, that those people have gone to Asia Town, Save A Lot, Aldi’s or Dave’s.
Anthony Carter manages Simply Food in downtown Cleveland. He and owner Yogi Patel said the store has been losing money.Marc Bona, cleveland.com
Her solution: “What does it mean in this day and age? I think more smaller boutique shops could be explored, looking at fresh fruits, things like co-ops. This could be an opportunity for us as a community to truly explore different models based on the shopping and consumer habits of residents and guests.”
Downtown Cleveland Inc. President and CEO Michael Deemer said he is “very optimistic about the number of options people currently have to meet their grocery and daily food needs, and the opportunities in front of us to create even more options.”
He cited Constantino’s Market in the Warehouse District in particular as a “wonderful independent grocer” as well as small convenience places like City Foods, delivery services and a weekly farmers market in Public Square.
With the aforementioned downtown residents and a lot of visitor traffic, he said, “I think downtown is a great opportunity for a large grocer.”
The rotunda and adjacent building that houses Heinen’s would lead that list of possible locations, he said.
“It is important to make sure that we have sufficient options that match up to how today’s residents and workers are shopping and how tomorrow’s residents and workers are going to be shopping,” said Deemer, who said there’s a collaborative effort under way between his office, property owners, city and county officials and brokers to consider those options.
Whatever the option, Patel said, “We hope we can survive. There is hope.”
Carter added: “We have survived so much being here.” That means watching county workers leave, seeing the nearby Embassy Suites hotel close, having the building fall into receivership and seeing Greyhound move out this year.
Ironically, parking - often mentioned when it comes to downtown issues - has not been a problem, Patel said. A handful of spaces line E. 12th.
“Parking has always been the bane of any business, suburban or urban,” said Revy of Constantino’s. “I don’t think is the biggest issue. By nature a downtown grocery store is predicated on pedestrian shoppers. It’s about having the density of population to support a retail establishment.”
Simply Food offers Indian food among its general groceries for its customers.Marc Bona, cleveland.com
Costs are a huge concern, Revy said.
“We’re just a single, independent family-owned operator. People think we’re setting the prices, and we’re not. We have a margin that we’re operating on… Costs are really tough. Everybody is cognizant of being pinched, and that includes us.”
Operating costs are compounded by staffing, he said. While Constantino’s has had a consistent core team, “retail is transient by nature” so “training, retraining, hiring is extremely difficult.”
What else is difficult is seeing Heinen’s leave downtown, Revy said.
“‘What a beautiful building’ - that’s the first thing you hear about the downtown Heinen’s. But I’m going to tell you, building is nice, but it doesn’t pay the bills,” Revy said. “I do have genuine respect for Heinen’s. It is a real loss for downtown. We may be competitors, but that doesn’t mean I’m happy that they are gone. I think competition is good. I think any retail loss is a loss for the city. This affects all of us.”
But on the subject of crime, Revy’s opinion differs from Patel’s.
“I don’t care if you’re in Solon or Westlake or Cleveland Heights or downtown Cleveland, everybody has to deal with crime. It’s not like downtown Cleveland is the only place with a police station. There’s a general perception downtown Cleveland is unsafe, and I don’t think that’s fair. I think downtown Cleveland is a very safe place.”
Deemer emphasized that safety is the “bedrock foundation” for any projects downtown.
“Any crime is too much crime. Safety is our No. 1 priority.” Data from April to May shows crime downtown dropped nearly 10%, and from May 2025 to May 2026 points to an almost 17% decrease, Deemer said.
Whatever the cause, Patel and Carter are left facing an uncertain future.
“It was a magical place, a busy place, always something happening,” Carter said about the store.
Now, Patel said, “That magic is gone.”
As a features writer on cleveland.com's life and culture team, I primarily cover food, restaurants, beer, wine, sports entertainment and sports history. I have written four books, all on sports including "Not... more
Comments
Please take a moment to review our community guidelines. To change your display name, go to youraccount settings.
Read Original at Cleveland.com →