Marino’s Market

On Bessemer Road in Birmingham, Alabama, Marino’s Market has been selling groceries to west Birmingham families for a century, a run that began in 1925 when Tony and Mary Marino opened Marino’s Grocery. The family has kept the business going through four generations since, from Joe C. Marino’s founding of Marino’s Supermarket in 1953 to today’s operation, run by third generation owner Anthony Marino and fourth generation AJ Marino, at the Central Park location on Bessemer Road as well as other Birmingham area stores.

The market’s identity is built around fresh food handled in house. Meat is cut daily on site rather than shipped pre packaged, and the produce section emphasizes fresh greens and fruit rather than the shelf stable staples that dominate a typical chain grocery aisle. Marino’s also carries a wide range of international and home country food products, reflecting the diversity of the west Birmingham neighborhoods it serves, alongside familiar name brand groceries, frozen foods, and private label staples for everyday shopping.

That mix of specialty and everyday goods is part of what has kept Marino’s relevant even as national supermarket chains have expanded across the Birmingham metro. Customers who might drive past a larger store for competitive prices still make a point of stopping at Marino’s for cuts of meat prepared to order or for imported staples that a bigger chain does not stock. The store has also become something of a community fixture in its own right, a place where longtime customers recognize the staff and vice versa.

The Central Park store at 1965 Bessemer Road keeps long daily hours, opening at 7 in the morning and staying open until 9 at night seven days a week, which makes it a practical option for shoppers who need groceries outside the standard nine to five window. The store accepts SNAP and EBT payments, a detail that matters to many families in the surrounding neighborhoods, and its straightforward layout means a grocery run rarely takes longer than it would at a big box store, without sacrificing the personal service of a family run business.

Shoppers visiting Marino’s for the first time should expect a straightforward neighborhood grocery store with on site parking rather than a polished destination retail experience, which suits its role as a working market rather than a specialty shop. The best selection of fresh cuts and produce tends to be earlier in the day, a detail regulars have learned over years of shopping there, and staff are generally quick to help a first time customer find an unfamiliar international product.

Marino’s Market is also a useful stop for visitors curious about how Birmingham’s west side neighborhoods have kept their own grocery traditions alive even as retail patterns have shifted citywide. A century of continuous family ownership is unusual in the grocery business anywhere in the country, let alone in a single Alabama neighborhood, and the store wears that history lightly rather than turning it into a marketing gimmick. It simply keeps opening its doors early, cutting its own meat, and restocking shelves with both the everyday and the specialty items its neighbors ask for. The store’s longevity also reflects the loyalty of generations of customers who grew up shopping there with their own parents and grandparents, a pattern uncommon among grocery businesses that so often change hands or close within a few decades.

Anyone exploring Birmingham’s food scene beyond restaurants and farmers markets will find Marino’s Market a worthwhile detour, less a tourist stop than a genuine working grocery store that happens to carry a century of family history behind the counter, still run today by the same family that opened its doors nearly a hundred years ago.