Garafalos Finer Foods

Years ago (1982-83) I worked at the Garafalos Grocery Store in Glenwood Plaza. A year or so after I left, there was an armed robbery where, sadly, a fatality ocurred. Does anyone have any details on this? After all these years, I still wonder if there was anyone there that I knew-both customers and employees.

The offender was arrested and convicted. Garfalos closed about a year later and is now an empty storefront.

Good to hear that there was an arrest and conviction in the case. I heard that it was a customer that died trying to help a cashier, but I may be wrong. Any info on this would be of great help. Thanks.

Bob wrote:

The offender was arrested and convicted. Garfalos closed about a year later and is now an empty storefront.

Garfalos closed about a year or so before the shooting. They opened a new store in Chicago Heights that also closed a few years later. Garofalos went bankrupt and they lost everything. I think the Glenwood store was a Fairway grocery store when the shooting happened. I worked at the Glenwood location for 15 years and moved to the Chicago Heights location when they opened.

My Mom used to go to Garofalo's when I was young, from 1954 to 1964 or so. Is Jim Garofalo, who was convicted of a mortgage scheme apparently, their son or grandson? Was the store in Flossmoor? Homewood? I can't remember, since I left the Flossmoor area when I was 10.

Does anyone know when the Garofalo's in Homewood in South Gate was established? Even better, if anyone has any pictures of it, that would be particularly helpful. I'm a writer working on a story set in Homewood and I'm trying to get details down.

It was Garofalo's when it happened. An employee from Dragon Inn next door came in to get change and was fatally shot.

when did this happen?

Wasn't there a Garofalo's located in the American Plaza in South Chicago Heights Il?

i love food wrote:

when did this happen?

It happened on May 20th, 1992. Three people were charged. Robert Simpson, Carolyn Lagrone, and Lurlean Young. It was actually a Fairway Finer Foods at the time. Simpson was the trigger man and was sentenced to life. He is currently in Stateville. Not sure about the other two.

JLG wrote:

It was Garofalo's when it happened. An employee from Dragon Inn next door came in to get change and was fatally shot.

No, it was actually Fairway Finer Foods. The Bar Manager from next door came in to purchase lemons and limes for the pub.

JLG wrote:

It was Garofalo's when it happened. An employee from Dragon Inn next door came in to get change and was fatally shot.

No your wrong she worked at joe s pup

I had never heard about a shooting at the Garafalos Glenwood store front and, I am related to the family. my name is David Mazzotti, I worked at the Glenwood store from, about 1973 thru 1974. And, my sister worked at 1 of the other store fronts for aprx 15 years- up until Garafalos went B.K.. Someone posted a statement that Marty's Son (Jimmy) had committed Mortgage Fraud. This is not so because, Marty's son is Named Dominic. And, Marty's grandson died about 1982. It was Marty Garafalo's brother whom was named Jimmy. The Garafalos mother was sister to my dads mother (our grandmother). My father and grandmother came to Chicago, via New York, aprx 1949. Marty & Jimmy Garafalo's father & mother came to Chicago, via New York about the same time period (maybe a few short years earlier). The Garafalos started in business by pushing a cart around the streets of Harvey (early 1940's) which contained: produce, milk, eggs, bread ect.... Next, they bought a small store front (corner building in Harvey) that had an apartment above the store front- The Garafalos moved into the apartment and ran their own store front. Jimmy Garafalo had owned, at 1 time, a store in Harvey and latter, he owned a cafe in Harvey at the corner of Wood & 159th street. I had heard that The Garafalos business was having financial difficulties ( i went into the U.S.M.C. mid to late 70's and sometime (if my memory is correct) they filed for B.K. during the late 80's early 90's. Marty attempted to re-build his business (post B.K.) By opening a store front in Cherry Creek where a strip mall was built. He had opened a small store front and, my father worked the produce department but, Marty could not make a good go of it (it was not profitable- Marty had borrowed some 9k from my father and never paid him back when the Cherry Creek store front failed). The reason Garafalo's failed, the several stores they owned at 1 time, was because Marty had went into a "strip mall development project with a developer". The story goes, depending on whom you believe because Marty could be a swindler, is that the developer could not come up with his full portion of monies to complete the 8 million dollar project. This forced Marty in to a bad position. Again, i had never heard of a robbery and shooting at the glenwood store but, it could had been Garafalos at the time- I will ask my sister Rita Mazzotti Marquez (now 56 years old)- she would certainly know because she worked for the Garafalos for a very long time. Marty, his sisters (Augistine and Gen- "Big Jen") are all deceased. Jen has a daughter whom cashiered at the Glenwood Store (Cathy). Auggy worked at the office located in Glenwood. Marty's grandson, Dominic Jr. died in a Motorcycle accident around 1982 (aprx). It hit the Garfalo's hard. I do know that a lot of good employees had lost out on their pension benefits, paid vacation ect... because of the B.K. Filing. I believe Marty did all he could to hold onto the many stores but did not have the funds to make it happened.

Interested wrote:

Years ago (1982-83) I worked at the Garafalos Grocery Store in Glenwood Plaza. A year or so after I left, there was an armed robbery where, sadly, a fatality ocurred. Does anyone have any details on this? After all these years, I still wonder if there was anyone there that I knew-both customers and employees.

It was a fairway then if I remember it was 1991/1992 when the lady was shot,from what I heard she didn't know the store was being robbed asked what's going on and was shot,also heard they caught the people because they were pretending to shop b4 the robbery touching items and left finger prints,, think the guy in robbery received the death penalty