FAIRFIELD, Ohio −James "Jungle Jim" Bonaminio is the same entrepreneur today in 2024 that he was back in 1971 when he set up a produce stand in Hamilton.
Year by year, Bonaminio's grocery empire grew into Jungle Jim's Internation Market in Fairfield and a similar store in Eastgate that opened in 2012.
More than 50 years later, at age 75, Bonaminio is still thinking about what's next. He recently bought 15 acres adjacent to the Fairfield store. The question now? What to do with it.
He sat down with The Enquirer's "That's So Cincinnati" podcast to talk about how he got his start, what's next for the stores and why he always looks forward. And yes, if you see photos from the event, he was wearing a wizard costume. He has a whole closet for costumes he'd picked up in his travels and he likes to dress up, he said.
"We just bought the radio station behind me and that is nine acres, and we got another four acres," Bonaminio said. "So we have about 15, 16 acres attached to one of the busiest grocery stores in the United States. People keep asking, 'What's your plan?'"
He's not sure yet. Three possibilities, he said: Apartments, a hotel and even an indoor hockey rink, the latter a suggestion by investors.
Even with acquisitions, Bonaminio is still working to make the stores the best they can be.
"Now we're we're concentrating on more of the inside," Bonaminio said. "We're bringing people in from different parts of the country who have different things to offer. We just brought a gentleman in from Chicago who was the head buyer for five different stores like mine, and he's bringing new things in. We just brought in a meat man from New Orleans. That's what I'm doing right now., concentrating on being the best meat market, the best at seafood and so on."
Miss last week's episode? No problem. Listen here. Follow Cincinnati.com editor Beryl Love on X @beryllove and City Hall reporter Sharon Coolidge @SharonCoolidge.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Jungle Jim's bought 15 acres adjacent to the Fairfield store. Now what?