Jet’s grocery store closing its doors in Bentleyville
After 85 years’ service, Jet’s is being grounded.
Siblings Bob Orsatti and Leona Kozloff, the owners, are closing Jet’s Food Center, the Bentleyville grocery founded by and named for their father in 1930. The family operated the store continuously during those nine decades, a business that remained popular among local residents because of its homemade sausages and salads, its produce and personal service.
Bob and Leona, the second-generation operators, planned to shutter the store Sunday. But Leona answered the phone at Jet’s Tuesday morning and said she and her brother were cleaning up and opted to stay open during the day. So a true closure hasn’t occurred yet.
They are simply retiring, though it isn’t that simple. Brother and sister are leaving reluctantly.
“We don’t want to do this, but it’s seven days a week and long hours,” said Bob, who has been working there for more than a half-century and will soon be 73. “We are leaving, but what will I do next week?”
“This is a huge decision,” said Leona, who declined to give her age, saying with a chuckle, “I’m his younger sister.”
It isn’t known whether this is a permanent or temporary grounding of Jet’s, a Main Street fixture. Bob said he and Leona haven’t decided whether to try to sell the business or just shutter it.
They plan to spend more time with their families, who live in the region. Leona has two daughters and four grandchildren, and Bob a son and two grandchildren,
An Italian immigrant, Romolo G. “Jet” Orsatti ran the store for 73 years. He died Jan. 5, 2004, at age 98.