KY grocer Bob Slone, operator of Big Valu, Slone’s Signature Markets, has died
Bob Slone, an independent grocer who operated grocery stores in Central and Eastern Kentucky for more than 50 years, died July 7. He was 87.
Slone, of Lexington, operated Foodtown, Big Valu Discount Foods and Slone’s Signature Market grocery stores over the years under the umbrella of Foodtown Supermarkets of Kentucky. At its peak, the chain had 17 stores, said Slone’s daughter Laura Newsome.
The chain operated stores in cities including Danville, Versailles, Lawrenceburg, Morehead, Olive Hill, Grayson and Irvine.
In Lexington, Slone had stores in shopping centers all over town, including Southland Drive, Woodhill, Hartland, Lansdowne Shoppes on Tates Creek Road, Park Hills Shopping Center, Gainesway Shopping Center on Centre Parkway and Stonewall Center on Clays Mill Road.
Slone was also chairman of Kentucky Food Stores, which Newsome said was “a wholesaler to hundreds of other independent grocery stores throughout the state.”
He started his business in 1960, with MRS — which stood for Murray, Reed and Slone — on South Broadway near Waller Avenue. He told a Herald-Leader reporter in 2010, as he celebrated his 50th year in the grocery business, that the first store was smaller than a convenience store.
“I still enjoy going to work, I still enjoy the business and still enjoy the people,” he said at the time.
Over the years, Slone earned a reputation as an innovative businessman who was eager to help others.
He had a reputation for supporting local farmers and small business owners by putting their products on his shelves, which sometimes helped them gain entry with larger grocery chains.
Slone was also known as an innovator.
His were the first stores in Kentucky to have a scanning system, Newsome said.
In 2003 — well over a decade before Kroger offered such a service — Slone launched “Groceries to Go” at a Slone’s Signature Market in Lexington. Customers could order online and choose store pickup for $5 (ready within three hours if ordered between 8 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.) or delivery for $10. People who didn’t own a computer could call the store to place their orders.
His Hartland Shopping Center location had childcare services for customers.
“When you walked in, you could drop your child off ... do your shopping and come get them,” Newsome said.
When Festival Market opened downtown in the 1980s, Slone opened a wine retail business called The Wine Merchant.
He tried putting a coffee shop, Perk, inside his Slone’s Signature Market in Lansdowne Shoppes. That grocery closed in 2006 to make way for The Fresh Market.
“He was always almost too far ahead of himself,” Newsome said. “He was ... always looking to see what the newest and latest and greatest was.”
But despite multiple efforts to carve out a niche, larger chains slowly pushed Slone out of the markets he served.
“Kroger came in big and strong,” Newsome said.
Walmart began opening grocery stores not only in cities like Lexington, but also in small towns everywhere.
“It just got very difficult to compete,” Newsome said. “You just couldn’t buy at the same level that they did.”
In 2000, Slone’s company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Though it was able to close some stores while keeping others in business for a while, all of Slone’s stores eventually closed.
Lexington’s last Slone’s Signature Market, which was on Southland Drive, closed in 2010 and was converted to Save A Lot.
Slone served on the Fayette County school board, as well as a number of community organizations.
Slone graduated from Henry Clay High School and put himself through college at the University of Kentucky, earning a business degree, Newsome said.
She said he “felt strongly about people reaching their potential.”
“Anything he had, he always wanted to use it to help others,” Newsome said. “That was the heart of who he was. ... He always wanted to push other people forward.”
“Years before workplace inclusion became part of the national conversation, he used his business to create meaningful employment opportunities for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities,” Slone’s obituary stated. “Bob saw every person as possessing gifts worthy of opportunity and dignity. He also served on the board of ARC of the Bluegrass to further help in this area.”
Slone was married to the late Mary Ellen Slone, who died in 2021. Mary Ellen Slone ran Meridian Communications, which merged with Jordan-Chiles Advertising to form Meridian-Chiles in 2008.
He is survived by daughters Mary Diane Slone and Laura Slone Newsome and her husband, Brad Newsome, along with grandchildren and a great-grandson.
“Bob treasured his family, and holds an important place in the hearts and lives of his sister Vivian Slone Gambill, his many nieces and nephews and Laura and Diane’s mother Kay Collier McLaughlin,” his obituary stated.
Visitation is scheduled for 4 to 7 p.m. July 23 at Milward Funeral Directors’ Southland Drive location.
A celebration of life will begin at 1 p.m. July 24 at Good Shepherd Episcopal Church in Lexington, where Slone was a member. Visitation will begin at noon at the church.
