BOARDMAN Rulli brothers compete for grocery store name

The owner of a competing grocery store filed suit over the new store's name.
By CYNTHIA VINARSKY
VINDICATOR BUSINESS WRITER
BOARDMAN -- A long-running feud between the owners of two competing Rulli Bros. Market grocery stores is continuing, this time over the stores' shared name.
Owners of the former Rulli Bros. Market in Boardman, who were evicted from their South Avenue building last summer, have reopened with a new format on Lockwood Boulevard. The store's ads feature the label, "The Original Rulli Brothers Market."
Frank Rulli, who owns the competing Rulli Bros. Market-West store on Kirk Road in Austintown, filed suit Tuesday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court asking that the new store be ordered to stop using the Rulli Bros. name.
The lawsuit says the "unauthorized use" of the store name is confusing to customers and will hurt the Austintown-based store's reputation. It also asks that Frank Rulli be awarded unspecified punitive and exemplary damages, plus the store's sales proceeds while the Original Rulli Bros. Market slogan was in use.
Mike Janik, one of several owners of the Lockwood Boulevard store, said he had not seen the lawsuit and declined to comment.
The new Rulli Bros. Market opened in mid-November in the Tippecanoe Plaza. The new store is smaller than the old one and specializes in meats, deli items and Italian foods, with a limited selection of miscellaneous grocery items.
Owners of the new store include Anthony and Karen Rulli; Anthony's sisters Mary Carano, Marian Parish, Angela Rulli and Josephine Janik; and his nephew Mike Janik. Anthony and Karen Rulli were the owners of the South Avenue store.
"We don't have a president and a vice president anymore," Mike Janik said. "We're family run, and we make all the decisions equally now."
Family dispute
For years the Rulli Bros. store on South Avenue was embroiled in a family dispute between Anthony Rulli and his brother Frank Rulli.
Frank Rulli bought the South Avenue building and property for $825,000 at a real estate auction in October 2001. A bankruptcy court judge ordered the sale to reorganize debts incurred by Anthony and Karen Rulli under their personal Chapter 11 bankruptcy case.
Anthony Rulli continued to operate the Boardman store, however, for more than two years after the auction.
Then in late August the Mahoning County Sheriff's Department, acting on a court order, changed the locks on the South Avenue store and evicted the business. The closing left 37 employees jobless.
Mike Janik said the new store occupies 2,000 square feet, much less than the 16,000-square-foot South Avenue location. It employs seven, all family members.
The old location was a full-service grocery store, but the owners believe their new, specialized format will be just as successful.
"It's more of a niche market," he said. "We don't really have to compete with guys like Giant Eagle and Sparkle. We're a unique kind."
Frank Rulli, the Austintown market owner, also has a new store in the works. The 50,000-square-foot store is under construction on South Avenue near Maple Avenue and is set to open next summer.
vinarsky@vindy.com