Kenosha's Lou Perrine's brand set to shut down tomorrow, but stores will remain, says store

LAST UPDATED: 7/14/2023 AT 5:46 AM

Update 2: author name of 2nd part of story information retracted due to controversial history. Name can be found in the linked article.
Update 1: incorrect information we've provided regarding marital status has since been updated.
We've also added additional information regarding the domestic abuse.

Lou Perrine's Gas & Grocery. Location: 5145 Sheridan Rd, Kenosha, WI 53140.

According to Lou Perrine's Gas & Grocery themselves, their last day of business will be July 11th, 2023, which is tomorrow after serving Kenosha for 68 years.

Recent news dropped about the Kenosha gas station loved by many Kenoshans. Anthony Perrine announced on their Facebook page before it was deleted that they were shutting shop.

To Our Customers and Employees of Lou Perrine’s Gas & Groceries:
It’s bitter sweet to announce that 
July 11 with be our last day in business.
Anthony, Laurie and myself want to Thank all of you for supporting our family over 68 - years. My Dad started it in 1954, I took over in 1985 and Anthony took the reins in 2010. My Dad always said your not customers to us but Family. We hope over the years we treated our customers and staff with the same philosophy my dad had 68 years ago. We sold both locations to a investment firm out of Indiana. Anthony was in talks with them the past 4 years, they wanted our locations and he finally came to a agreement with them after long talks over the past years. It was not just selling the stores but Anthony felt it was time for his Mom - Laurie 
(  Mama P ) to take a long and will deserved retirement. Not only did she do the bookkeeping for our business in the basement of our Sheridan Road location but she was the backbone to our success. Going up and down those stairs 10 to 15 times a day the past 40 - years. We retained the Mama P’s cake and will be back with that. We also, kept the brand name Lou Perrine’s Gas & Groceries.
To Our Employees we had over the years, over 5,000 of you,Thank You! All of you deserve more then we could ever given you. Anthony, Laurie and I hope you all prosper in the future to reach your goals. From our Full Service at the pump employees to our cashiers and Managers. Thank You! 
To our Family of Customers from across the US that came to Kenosha and stopped at our store over the years THANK YOU!!! You Supported our Perrine Family. 
Anthony, Laurie and I want to say we will Always Love all of you in our Hearts and will see all of you very soon.

The Perrine family decided to sell the business to a private investment firm. Lou Perrine's has a location on Sheridan Rd & 52nd St (their original location), and a location they opened on 80th St & 22nd Ave less than a year ago.

According to them, they've sold their business to a private investment firm outside of Wisconsin.

According to store employees, the gas station isn't completely shutting shop.

We've talked to store employees, and the Lou Perrine's locations themselves aren't going anywhere. They'll still remain, although the brand will change, but the Mama P's Ho Ho Cakes is going away from now. According to Anthony Perrine, the Ho Ho cakes will come back in some way, shape, or form. The details just aren't clear yet.


But what about my rewards points?
According to employees, the points will transfer over.


There's no word on how much they were bought out for as the Perrine's haven't shared.
We couldn't talk to the owner himself due to his busy schedule.

A recent rocky history of the owner

Anthony L. Perrine (mugshot by the Kenosha County Jail inmate detail page)

Upon research of this story, we've come across the discovery that Anthony Perrine, the owner of Lou Perrine's that took over from his father, was recently under some legal troubles and was arrested for domestic abuse of Jessica Perrine on July 30, 2022, covered by Kenosha County Eye. It seems that Kenosha County Eye has been the only source that has covered this story, and no other outlet has mentioned it.

A YouTube video was also posted by Kenosha County Eye of the bodycam footage by the Pleasant Prairie Police Department on July 30, 2022, shown above. The video time length is 38:40 showing Anthony Perrine cooperating with officers during his arrest. The couple had discussed being in an "open relationship", to which they both agreed to. Jessica found someone to be with in the open relationship, to which cause Anthony to get upset, according to PPPD records. This caused Anthony to attempt to unlock Jessica Perrine's phone, to which he was unsuccessful, and proceeded to smash it. Anthony has also admitted to hitting her on July 26, 2022. Mrs. Perrine had shown one of the officers the bruise below her left knee.

​His defense was that "he had bought her the phone, and that it was his phone." The officer responded with “marital property.” The officer was likely referencing Wis Stat §939.22(28) which says ” ‘Property of another’ means property in which a person other than the actor has a legal interest which the actor has no right to defeat or impair, even though the actor may also have a legal interest in the property.”

PPPD RECORD BY KENOSHA COUNTY EYE >

KSD inmate inquiry (anthony perrine) >

The couple has since divorced.

According to Wisconsin CCAP, the couple has since divorced, and the case was closed in February of this year.

Latest update: according to court records, the divorce has been dismissed as of 2/21/23.

WISCONSIN CIRCUT COURT ACCESS PAGE DETAILS >

For the full details of this report, see Kenosha County Eye's story regarding this >

When we checked the Lou Perrine's website, no statement is given on there, and all of the gas station's social media pages have since been deleted, with the Twitter page being deleted before the announcement, but after the domestic abuse case that we've noticed. We believe the social media pages were shut down after the gas station was bought out by the private firm.

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Thank you to [retracted] and Kenosha County Eye for 2nd part of this story's information.