Garden Fresh opening new store(s).

Garden Fresh is rumored to be leasing/purchasing the old Cub Foods store on US14 in Crystal Lake which will add another independent market to the mix. It WILL do better than the Cub store which was nearly always empty (but was a great palce to bank).

Also, I heard that the partners purchased five other Cub sites in the NW Chicago area.

It is amazing the number and quality of groceries that are springing up in the skeletons of old shuttered Cub Foods and Eagle Supermarkets.

Unlike their predecessors which used the same old tired methods, these stored give shoppers a reason to want to come to the store.

The REAL question in the Chicagoland is when will Safeway admit that they made a mistake and divest Dominicks? Hopefully, before there is nothing left worth divesting. (Although we'll miss all the dairy markdowns.)

Yay! Just saw signs for this while trapped in the snow along Touhy today:

Opening in Fall 2008 Garden Fresh Market - Skokie Corner of McCormick & Touhy

(sorry if this is old news, I did try to search) At last, a produce store with parking relatively near my house!!!

There's also one opening (ground up construction) on Elston between Foster and Bryn Mawr.

Hi,

The owner of Garden Fresh moved in to the end of my street recently. If you knew the house, you can easily say, "Grocery business has been very, very, very good for him."

I took a friend from Milwaukee to my local Garden Fresh store in Northbrook. She was quite dazzled by the variety of foods from all over the world. I like the store, though some grocery items are lumped more by ethnicity than by product type. Sometimes I find myself backtracking because an item is available at the ethnic location and not the grocery location or sometimes both.

Regards,

The store in Garden Fresh in Crystal Lake was shuttered at the beginning of the year. It was one of the WORST grocery stores to shop.

When it opened, I thought that the Cub store had resurrected. The place was pretty much NON-ethnic. It looked like the BLAND Cub store that it replaced. The produce really did not look that good and the deli was ... all Boar's Head.

When the crowds that they expected did not materialize, they started to convert to a Mexican grocery store which turned off the people that did like the store.

The store was so UNLIKE the Garden Fresh in Mundelien where we really enjoyed shopping for their ethnic bakery and deli selections.

I'll be happy with3 price pointson red caviar...

jlawrence,

Garden Fresh was obligated to operate the store in Crystal Lake for six months. They never planned to stay, which is likely why you saw a half hearted response there.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:jlawrence,

Garden Fresh was obligated to operate the store in Crystal Lake for six months. They never planned to stay, which is likely why you saw a half hearted response there.

Regards,

What was that all about? And why did they not just buy out the contents of the store originally?

Hi,

They were obligated to keep it open for six months to get access to the other Cub Store locations they now have.

Regards,