Oak Park was once home to dozens of independent grocery stores. Some were mom-and-pop operations, others high-volume emporiums, with fleets of delivery trucks. Ironically, it was two Oak Park residents, Franklin Ross and brother-in-law Frank Skiff, who started the decline of the small grocer, when they opened their Jewel Tea Co. in 1901.
In 1957, there were 47 grocery stores in Oak Park. Ten years later, there were only 13. Though many grocers are gone, they are not forgotten. Here’s a look back at some of them:
Strickland’s
Frank L. Strickland was born in Ashland, Ohio in 1875, moved to Oak Park as a young man in 1898, and settled in a home at 7227 Oak St. in River Forest. He initially had a partner and formed “Phillips & Strickland” at 127 Marion St., right next door to a Lyon & Healy music store (where the antique mall is located today). In 1905 Strickland’s store became “Strickland & Hart, Grocery and Market.”
One of the earliest photographs of Strickland & Hart shows a man making deliveries with a horse and wagon circa 1900. Later, Strickland’s acquired a fleet of automobiles to keep up with deliveries. Along with the grocery’s title on the side, the cars sported the slogan “Quality First,” which Strickland’s held to without failing until the day it closed.
Although Strickland’s was not the first grocery market to be built in Oak Park, it was well received by the public. So well, in fact, that Frank Strickland opened another store at 721 Lake Street (the Medical Arts building annex) in 1938.
By the time Frank Strickland retired in 1946 and handed the shop over to E.E. Seeck, Strickland’s Grocery had established a reputation for the excellent quality of their food, while making modern upgrades to stay in competition. They were the first grocery built in Oak Park with an entirely separate shipping room, as well as the first to install electric machines for grinding meat and coffee.
More than just the owner of the grocery, Frank Strickland was also a fair-minded businessman, deeply involved in his community. As his obituary in a 1947 issue of Oak Leaves noted, he had been elected president of the Oak Park Business Men’s Association (now the Chamber of Commerce) and was a charter member of the Oak Park Rotary Club. “Well known throughout the nation as a progressive and alert grocer, Mr. Strickland was also noted for his fairness in his dealings with competitors,” the obituary stated.
Barbara Rinnan was a neighbor of the Stricklands, whom she knew as “Aunt Myrta and Uncle Frank.”
“Strickland’s was a delightful store,” Rinnan recalled, “It offered customers free delivery. It was a family business, not a dog-eat-dog operation.” She described the owners as being very giving and community-minded. She said that Strickland’s was “part of the evolution of Oak Park” from family-owned grocers to modern supermarket chains.
And today’s shoppers are not the first to complain about sharply rising food prices. An “Open Letter to the Public” that Strickland & Hart published in the Oak Parker in 1919 began, “In these days of abnormal prices, considerable abuse and much bitter spirit is directed against the retail dealer, especially the retailer of foodstuffs.” The authors of the letter go on to acknowledge the effect of The Great War on prices and product availability. “Just at the present it is almost impossible to secure sugar at any price,” they wrote, then pledged their commitment to the high quality that Oak Parkers had grown to expect. “There are two courses open to every dealer-he can buy an inferior grade and charge accordingly, or he can insist on the best quality irrespective of price. We have never handled the inferior grade.” Strickland and Hart concluded their letter by asking their customers to be patient with grocers under trying conditions.
Blase’s
While Strickland’s pursued modern innovations, Blase Foods, which shut down just 10 years ago, took a different approach to business. They made their name by focusing heavily on old-fashioned surroundings and service.
Born in Germany, Fred Blase, Sr. worked as a butcher’s apprentice in Baltimore until he moved west at the age of 14. He built a home at 165 N. Harvey, and eventually opened a butcher’s shop on Ridgeland Avenue, planting his roots firmly in Oak Park. His son, Fred Jr., born in 1910, was the first child baptized at Trinity Lutheran Church on the corner of Ridgeland and Erie.
Blase, Sr. started his business in 1892, relocating to Lake Street 10 years later. Originally operated as two adjacent shops, Blase’s was combined into one in the 1920s, when many housewives began to call for their order to be delivered instead of making the shopping trip themselves. The store, however, received plenty of foot traffic from the students at neighboring Beye Elementary, who never tired of running to the store during lunch hour or recess to get their fill of penny-candy.
Because the Blases knew all of their customers by name, it made sense that 90 percent of their business was by charge. Several generations of patrons kept returning to Blase Foods for the quality produce and unbeatable service.
Unfortunately for Blase’s, it was their commitment to individual shoppers that doomed them: shopping habits changed, children of longtime customers grew up and left, while many new Oak Parkers weren’t aware of the store or shopped there infrequently. Gone were the days when Fred Sr. called on his customers by horse and buggy, returned to the store to fill their order, and delivered it that afternoon or the next morning.
When the Blase family gave up ownership of the store in 1970, the grocery was still doing most of its business by phone, delivering three times a day-9 a.m., noon, and 3 p.m. The Blases had not lost the personal touch; their deli counter offered homemade meatloaf, and their beef was ground to order. The store also maintained its old-fashioned appearance, with wooden shelves that Blase Sr. had bought second-hand when the place first opened. The original store counter is presently on display at the Historical Society of Oak Park & River Forest.
Spoos
Spoos’ Quality Market was established by Dick Spoos in 1926 at 1100 Chicago Ave. The store was open daily from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. On Saturdays, the doors didn’t close until midnight but like all grocers of that era, Spoos’ shut down on Sundays. Dick and Emily Spoos lived at 1041 Wenonah Ave. The store was later operated by their sons Dick, Jr. and Kenneth.
In 1965, Spoos’ moved to more modern quarters at 1113 Chicago Ave. Renee Glos-Block remembers going to Spoos’ as a little girl.
“Everyone in the area went to Spoos’,” she said, “It was a family-owned local store, with cement stairs in front and two aisles of groceries.” She fondly recalls Spoos’ being part of the trifecta of treats that could be found on Chicago Avenue. “There was Spoos’ for candy, a bakery next door and Petersen’s for ice cream,” she said, still giddy at the memory.
Neighborhood anchors
Pan’s Food Center was named for owner John Panicola and it operated for 23 years at 215 Harrison. Before that it was an A&P. In 1986, Panicola sold the store, and it moved to Oak Park Avenue. “I have mixed feelings about the sale,” Panicola was quoted as saying, “I did get a good offer but we have customers I’ll miss. There’s one who’s been shopping at our stores for 50 years.” Pan’s is still in business today.
Cardinal Foods opened as Muriello Foods at 603 Madison (Southwest corner of East and Madison) in 1922. Frank Muriello’s father, Joe, started it. “It was a grocery and meat market,” Muriello recalled, “but during World War II the butchers kept getting drafted. Bud Cardinal was a butcher who had his own store on Madison. So, in 1945, they went into business together.”
Frank Muriello grew up living above the store. “We were ‘upper crust,'” he joked, “compared to those who lived behind their stores.” He recalled that his father extended credit to shoppers during the Depression. “He was always happy to help people and he knew them so well, he knew when their ‘moment of triumph’ was coming, so they could pay their bill.”
He sold the business to Bud Cardinal in 1945 and continued to work there until he died in the mid-70s. “He never missed a day of work,” his son said. Joe’s sister, Charlotte, worked the checkout counter. The store provided steady employment for members of the family. “We had our six boys delivering groceries for their summer job,” Frank Muriello recalled. He noted there was better profit margin for grocers in those days-8-12 percent. These days, the profit margin is in the 3- to 4-percent range. After Cardinal was sold, it was converted into an ice cream parlor that failed.
Another Oak Park store operated by an Italian-American family was the Cairo Sausage Shop at East & Roosevelt. Frank and Theresa Cairo opened their shop in 1962. Their best customers were Oak Park firemen who came every Saturday to buy ingredients for sandwiches and pizza. Frank and Theresa treated them like family. The pair kept their store open 362 days a year and never took a vacation in 44 years. They finally retired in 2006. The storefront recently reopened as Turco’s.
Boesenberg Brothers Grocery opened at 141 Lake St., in 1909. This store is noteworthy because burglars broke into it after giving the watchdog, Brutus, knockout drops encased in sausage. The thieves blew the safe and escaped with $200. When Brutus woke up, he was fired from his job.
Honorable mention should also go to Smithfield’s, 121 N. Oak Park (where Erik’s is located today); Hirsch’s Longfellow Food Shop, 644 S. Cuyler, and Morken’s at 208 S. Marion. Many of these shops, along with Faye’s and Molly’s, were beloved candy stores.
Hillman’s opened at 1125 Lake St. in 1931 (the first floor and the basement of the east side of the Colt building). It provided daily delivery and the store continued to expand during its long run on Lake Street. “I loved that store,” Bobbie Raymond said, “We used to go there for fresh shrimp.” Raymond also enjoyed the Val-O-Will chicken store located at Lake and Forest, close to Certifiedland, which recently closed after 26 years. “It only sold chicken, eggs and squabs, which were baby pigeons,” Raymond recalled. “It was really fresh chicken that was raised on a farm in Lake Geneva.”
William Grunow was the owner of the store and named it after his children William and Valerie. Grunow had retired to Lake Geneva to live off the fortune he had made in the radio business. He had a private golf course built but found he didn’t like golf. So he converted the course into a chicken farm, using the latest innovations to raise tender, flavorful chickens.
Jewel catches on
The store that would ultimately knock Oak Park’s small grocers out of business was started by two men who lived in adjoining brick mansions on East Avenue. In 1901, Franklin Pierce Ross and his brother-in-law Frank Vernon Skiff combined their assets of $4,000 to launch the Jewel Tea Co. They wanted to name their company after something high class and picked the name “jewel.”
Originally, the company lived up to its name, dealing strictly in tea and coffee. In fact, 80 percent of their business was coffee, 10 percent tea and 10 percent groceries. In 1908, the partners made the largest purchase of coffee in the history of the U.S. They bought 42 railroad cars full of coffee beans. Sale of coffee and tea gave them enough money to expand their grocery selection. They were also able to purchase a horse and wagon for deliveries.
In 1909, they built a six-story manufacturing plant in Chicago. By 1916, they had amassed $16,000,000 in capital. Skiff died in 1933 and Ross in 1947, but their grocery empire was well on its way to dominating the Chicago area market. In 1957, Jewel had five stores in Oak Park.
One of those stores closed, though, on Chicago Avenue and was replaced by The Villager. Owners Butch and Katie Novak met at OPRF High School. Butch’s father, Joe, opened the store, 1135 Chicago, in 1968. The Novak family had already been in the meat business since the 1920s. The Villager, still very much in business, is an example of a family-owned grocer supplanting a chain store and should give hope to small independent grocers everywhere.