For years, Ranen Alvanez was a regular at Scolari’s Food and Drug on Sun Valley Boulevard. As the only full-service grocery store in Sun Valley, it was his closest option for fresh, healthy food — and it was also where he got his first job.
“I used to work here, actually, like, a decade ago, which is pretty cool,” Alvanez said.
But this Scolari’s run, on a Tuesday afternoon in mid-August, was to be Alvanez’s last. That’s because the locally-owned grocery chain shut down last month, after more than 70 years in business.
“It's a bit of a ding,” he said. “Scolari’s had, like, the best prices, as far as the area went. It was just the place you went to when you wanted, like, a good price, something reasonable.”
The closure left Sun Valley without local access to groceries, even as the population continues to grow. Now, residents must travel up to five miles for fresh, healthy food — often in stop-and-go traffic. So they’re hoping more investment comes to their community soon.
“It's like we get ignored, you know? They don't care,” lamented Heidi Soper of the Sun Valley Citizens’ Advisory Board. Soper has lived in Sun Valley since the 1980s, and serves as the board’s chair.
Over the last few decades, she has watched Sun Valley’s population explode. But Scolari’s remained the only grocery store, meaning that even before it closed, the community was a federally-designated food desert.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines food deserts as low-income areas where at least a third of the residents have limited access to healthy food. That can lead people to rely on overpriced convenience stores and fast food chains.
In Sun Valley, the average income for an individual is just over $27,000 — far lower than the greater Reno-Sparks metropolitan area. Some of the streets are privately owned, including Soper’s, and remain unpaved.
Soper said, beyond access to groceries, Scolari’s used to provide a space for community members to play slots and stay up-to-date with their neighbors. In fact, she was there hanging out when she first learned the store was closing.
“I put my five bucks in the slot machine, and she goes, ‘Oh, we're closing,’” remembered Soper. “I went, ‘Excuse me?’ She goes, ‘Yeah, this store is closing.’ I went, ‘Oh, geez.’”
As soon as Soper heard the news, she went to Washoe County Commissioner Mariluz Garcia, who also lives in Sun Valley. Since the community is unincorporated, she serves as the community’s lone local elected official.
“We've already seen the damaging effects of not having a really strong anchor store, and a really strong anchor bank, that has kept up with the times and been able to revitalize itself,” Garcia said.
According to Scolari’s spokesman Jimmy Minor, the family-owned grocer wanted to either extend its lease in Sun Valley, or purchase the building. But negotiations with the property owners weren’t successful, so the Scolari family instead closed its remaining two stores.
“In light of the substantial capital investments that would be required to modernize operations at both stores, coupled with changing consumer habits, the family has made a difficult decision to retire from the business,” Minor said.
Once Garcia heard from Soper, she started working with other policymakers like State Senator Angie Taylor to try and find a new store to take over the old space.
Taylor represents Nevada Senate District 15, which extends from Holcomb Ranch Lane to the North Valleys.
“The traffic back up there alone, right, will show us that the growth out there is tremendous,” Taylor said of Sun Valley.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Sun Valley is home to more than 23,000 residents — making it especially troubling to see the community lose its only grocery store, Taylor said.
During the last legislative session, she cosponsored a measure that could have helped grocery stores in food deserts, like Scolari’s, stay open. But the bill died without a vote, so she’s looking ahead to 2027.
“People are going to continue to need more help, and our job as a legislature is to provide that help, if there's any way that we can,” Taylor said.
Meanwhile, Garcia wants to build on the old grocery store’s role as a community hub. She hopes to see part of the massive parking lot become a venue for local food trucks.
“I would love to create a space that people would be drawn to, and have this parking lot activated into a gathering place for families to come not only get a great bite to eat, but to socialize,” Garcia said.
Back in Sun Valley, Heidi Soper welcomed the idea of creating a communal space in the parking lot. But she’s still worried about the impact of losing Scolari’s. After all, Soper said, Sun Valley residents pay their taxes just like anyone else — and they deserve the same access to essential services.
“This is going to be very traumatic for this community,” she said.
