Store will occupy former South Shore Dominick’s location in Jeffrey Plaza
Crusader Staff Report
Job applicants are still being sought to work for Shop & Save’s Local Market, which will soon open in the Jeffrey Plaza in South Shore.
Applicants are encouraged to apply online at localmarketfoods.com. The Local Market is seeking cashiers, cooks, bakers, stockers, cart handlers and managers in the bakery, deli and meat departments.
A job fair was held November 15. Shop & Save held another job fair in August at the South Shore Cultural Center.
No exact opening date of the local market was released, but a spokesperson for Alderman Leslie Hairston (5th) said owner, Eva Jakubowsky, expects to open sometime during the holiday season.
“Starting up all of the equipment takes several weeks to test. Preliminary meetings with the health and building departments have taken place,” Jakubowsky said in a statement. “We want to at least two weeks of training in advance of opening.”
The store is holding a few more hiring fairs leading up to the opening before the store reaches its hiring goal of approximately 130 full and part-time employees.
Although Jakobowsky and her husband Cezary, own seven grocery stores throughout the Chicagoland area, the opening and success of the Jeffrey Plaza store comes with a great deal of pressure because of how long the community has gone without a neighborhood grocer.
“This was a very lengthy process, but we’ve had such an amazing outreach from the community at large and so many people are counting on us,” said Jakubowsky. “We want to reach the goal that we’ve set for ourselves to meet or exceed everyone’s expectations.”
The veteran grocers explained this is a different concept and new name and they want to offer the community great new fresh ideas.
In addition to the store, the Jakubowskys own the entire shopping center and are listening to residents for the types of retail they would like to see open in the near future.
The store will open in the former space of the Dominick’s store, which was shuttered in 2013. Parent company Safeway closed all of its Dominick’s stores after years of decline. Most of the Chicago area Dominick’s stores were taken over by Mariano’s and Whole Foods.
The former Dominick’s space in Jeffrey Plaza was the last store to be taken over. In 2017, Shop & Save signed a lease on the building at 71st Street and Jeffery Boulevard. In 2018, plans were set back after $10 million in tax-increment financing was delayed.
