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Dominick's in North Riverside to close by April

(11 posts)
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  1. ChrisHajer
    Member

    From http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0702030033feb03,0,837.story?coll=chi-news-hed

    Dominick's to close 14 area stores by April
    Chain revamp could affect 600 workers

    By Robert Manor
    Tribune staff reporter
    Published February 3, 2007

    Dominick's said Friday it will close 14 underperforming stores by spring while spending heavily to renovate remaining stores that will carry more organic and upscale food.

    [snip]

    Meanwhile, Dominick's said it is going to convert 20 more of its grocery stores this year to what it calls the "lifestyle" format, meaning that half of its remaining 83 stores will have been renovated.

    [snip]

    The new format features subdued lighting and earth tone decorating schemes and prominently features prepared meals, fresh-baked bread and more upscale items, including an extensive selection of wines.

    The effect is to make the grocery store a more attractive, almost intimate place stocked with easy-to-consume premium products.

    [snip]

    He also said the stores to be closed were probably doing so badly that Dominick's management could not justify spending the money to renovate them.

    Andrew Wolf, a food and drug retail analyst for BB&T Capital Markets, said the lifestyle format has its appeal both to shoppers and to Safeway.

    "It is more than just a better shopping environment," Wolf said. "You are going to sell higher-priced items with higher [profit] margins."

    [snip]

    Dominick's said Friday that it planned to close the following locations by early April:

    [snip]

    - North Riverside: 7401 W. 25th St.

    Posted Saturday Feb 3, 2007 20:09 #

  2. MikeT
    Member

    First impression: I liked that dominics because it gave bagging jobs to some people with mental handicaps. 'nice guys finish last'.

    plus, the jewel it competes with is always so congested and crazy to me at least. So I lost the one I frequented.

    an impression I have now is that this might be an opportunity for a Riverside to fill a hole of people who also do not like that jewel; also fill the mkt of people who like higher quality foods. I have several people in riverside, like me, who actually drive to trader joes for the organic stuff they have there.

    i'd say there is a lot of similar minded people in Riverside and in west Berwyn. That harlem-burlington might be a good place for such a go - tif or no tif.

    that's one thing about a tif - I wonder if it can actually muck up development, paradoxically.. It is already well understood that it is an artificial force in the market place when it is enacted and doing its thing (providing incentives to developers). I wonder how this artificial factor affects things even BEFORE a tif is enacted officially?

    On my talk w/ the Pleasantdale superintendant, he suggested to me as much (that developers think that they cannot do anything w/o a tif).

    So, here we might have an opportunity (local dominics closing), and I wonder to what extent a entrepreneur might NOT seize this moment because there is no tif.

    miket

    Posted Saturday Feb 3, 2007 20:21 #

  3. spatny
    Member

    I went in that store a couple time, and because I can do mathematics in my head, saw that it's prices for produce, etc., were much, much higher than, for instance, the Egg Store across the Harlem, and saw it was mostly empty, and figured they had no sense of the clientele they were dealing with, and I thought, "this is a real loser." I was right. And that's the thing about marketing in Riverside. There may be some clients for a Whole Foods with organic green onions at $1.29 a bunch, but i doubt if there are enough to pay the freight. The Riverside Foods shoppers look like they buy what's on sale, perhaps rightfully so. Selling perishables and conforming with health codes is a tricky business. You need a lots of traffic to sell #1 produce at reasonable prices.

    Posted Saturday Feb 3, 2007 21:17 #

  4. Catherine
    Member

    I have always thought that that store was unfortunately situated behind the Jewel and harder to get to than the Jewel.

    We would have made the extra effort to go to a store like the one they're now concentrating on. Too bad.

    We go to the Berwyn Market to get our produce. Have you seen what a business they do in that place! Phenomenal.

    Not so much a Whole Foods as something that would meet the unmet need for food that falls into both the health and gourmet category.

    When I moved here from Evanston and Chicago, I was appalled at the decline in the quality of food that was readily available to me. I'm not sure anything has changed, other than my expectations.

    Posted Monday Feb 5, 2007 14:51 #

  5. spatny
    Member

    Catherine - you can also get some good things at D'Andreas in the Cermak Harlem Plaza, and at the Egg Store. There is also a new Mexican-owned market a few blocks down Ogden from White Castle on the north side of the street called Justice Market that has some nice things.

    Posted Monday Feb 5, 2007 16:51 #

  6. corbi328
    Member

    The grocery store on the SE corner of Harlem and Archer (can't remember the name)has good products with an Eastern European emphasis. The Egg Store has the best produce I've seen in the vicinity. D'Andrea's used to be pretty good but it has been going down hill since it changed owners about 18 months ago. If you really want a great grocery store, try Caputo's on Harlem Avenue north of Grand. Great store with the best selection of authentic Italian products I have seen in Chicago. They have great homemade Italian pastries as well. Worth the trip.

    Posted Monday Feb 5, 2007 18:39 #

  7. TJS
    Member

    I find this thread very telling. We have a very fine grocery store in town in the CBD, Riverside Foods, yet everyone here is lamenting the loss of Dominick's. The only way businesses will succeed in Riverside is if we the residents support them, with or without a TIF. We shop Riverside Foods, we frequent Parallel 42, we shop Coveny Lane. Make an effort to shop Riverside first. No need for me to go to Harlem and Grand for groceries.

    Terry

    Posted Monday Feb 5, 2007 18:58 #

  8. corbi328
    Member

    TJS,

    You are right, this thread is very telling. What it says is that the current mix of businesses in town does not significantly satisfy the needs of the town's diverse population. I shop Riverside Foods as well but they don't carry all the products I want and therefore occasionally I find that I need to shop outside of town to get what I need. Do you mean to tell me that you never purchase any groceries at a store other than Riverside Foods? Hopefully over time we can attract more businesses to town so that more, but not all, of our needs can be satisfied by shopping Riverside.

    Posted Monday Feb 5, 2007 22:15 #

  9. ChrisHajer
    Member

    Other than MikeT, I don't think anyone was lamenting the loss of the Dominick's. I wasn't. spatny thought the prices were high and they did not know their market. Catherine thought it was unfortunately situated. Other comments were about alternatives for good produce, mostly. Catherine is absolutely right about Berwyn Fruit Market. That place sure has grown in the last 20 years from that little piece of the strip mall into taking over the whole block.

    corbi: the store on Archer and Harlem is Joe and Franks Homemade Sausage. And you're right about Riverside Foods.

    Posted Monday Feb 5, 2007 23:46 #

  10. Catherine
    Member

    Agreed Chris. I never shopped at Dominick's. To imply that one could live by Riverside Foods alone is laughable, valuable as it is; one would not want to do it in any event.

    What I do think is telling about this discussion is that there is a market for more high quality niche food, and we already knew that from the NIU survey. Why can this simply not be pointed out to some prospective vendor. TIF does not need to make the market; it is there. If it were not there, no TIF would create it. Again, it is parking that needs to be rationalized. Lots that are separated need to be connected; businesses should be induced to share their unused capacity. The cross-fertilization would improve everyone's business.

    PS, thanks for all the food shopping tips! I did know about the Egg Store and do shop there.

    Riverside businesses can expect good will up to a certain point: all things being equal, yes, shop Riverside. But no one is going to adjust demand to meet the market. It is for the market to meet the demand.

    Posted Tuesday Feb 6, 2007 10:53 #

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