New Grocery Store Set to Open this Month in South Shore

Local Market, a full-service grocery store at 2101 E. 71st St., is expected to open by the end of this month. Photo credit: By Wendell Hutson
Local Market, a full-service grocery store at 2101 E. 71st St., is expected to open by the end of this month. Photo credit: By Wendell Hutson

New Grocery Store Set to Open this Month in South Shore

BY WENDELL HUTSON, Contributing Writer

A much-anticipated grand opening for a new grocery store in South Shore appears finally ready to happen this month for the holiday.

“We are working hard to have it open as quickly as possible,” said Rory Hancock, general manager for Shop & Save Market, parent of Local Market. Local Market by Shop & Save will open its new store inside the former Dominick’s at 2101 E. 71st St.

Shop & Save already operates two Chicago stores at 5829 S. Archer Ave. and 6312 N. Nagle Ave. as well as a store in Downers Grove, Bridgeview, Des Plaines, and Niles where it is headquartered.

Ald. Leslie Hairston (5th), whose ward includes the new grocery store at the Jeffery Plaza, said she is hopeful the new store will be open before Thanksgiving.

“While we don’t have an exact date yet, it will open this month,” said Hairston, who added that Local Market would occupy about 62,000 square feet vacated by Dominick’s in December 2013.

Hairston said Local Market will be tailored for the community and have a community room, wine bar and outdoor patio. Hot foods to go will also be sold. But unlike Dominick’s, which leased its space, Shop & Save, an independent operator of grocery stores, purchased the entire 113,000 square-foot Jeffery Plaza strip mall thanks to $10 million in tax-increment financing from the city of Chicago.

“The beauty of this (ownership) is that they want to work with the community and they like working with the community,” Hairston told the Citizen.

Hairston said she’s not worried about a 48,000-square foot Jewel Osco store that recently opened nearby at 6014 S. Cottage Grove Ave.

“Residents want to shop in their neighborhood and not drive elsewhere for groceries,” she said. “I can’t tell you how many people walked up to me over the past few years and asked me when will I get a grocer to come to South Shore?”

The store has 97 full-time positions to fill before it opens, according to Hancock. And since August, three hiring fairs, including one on Nov. 1, were held. Hairston said

about 500 people attended the last fair and 300 previously for the other two fairs.

Gwendolyn Burns, 69, who’s lived in South Shore for 37 years said she welcomes the new store to the neighborhood. “I wouldn’t mind walking to the grocery store during the summer with my cart like I did before at Dominick’s before it closed. And frankly, I could use the exercise,” Burns said.

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