Will Mariano’s experience become just another version of Krogering?

It seems to be the fad these days in shopping for groceries – many Chicago-area residents take some pride if they happen to live within a short commute of a Mariano’s.

The latest Chicago-area fad ...

From my own experience, the stores stock several items that the Jewel might consider to be luxury, and also offer a prepared foods section that puts the aforementioned chain’s deli counters to shame.

SO WHAT SHOULD we think now that Roundy’s, the Milwaukee-based company that owns Mariano’s, has been bought out by that ubiquitous chain of supermarkets whose very name has become synonymous with shopping for food.

I’m talking about Cincinnati-based Kroger Foods.  Will taking a trip to Mariano’s soon become a slightly-more urban version of “Krogering?” And no, I don’t mean the slightly racier definition of the term that the UrbanDictionary.com website provides for the term.

Now we in Chicago don’t really have Kroger supermarkets – although those Food4Less stores that exist in many suburbs are an offshoot of Kroger and many products bearing the Kroger brand are sold there.

My own memories of being able to go Krogering date back to college in Bloomington, Ill., when they had one of their supermarkets literally a two-block walk from my college dorm room.

NOT EXACTLY THE upscale atmosphere or image that the Mariano’s stores try to convey. Although one that is common enough across the nation. There’s no doubt that the company has some financial heft.

And it’s not like those of us who do our shopping at “da Jewels” have some reason to be high-and-mighty.

Besides, the Chicago Tribune reported Wednesday how one of the possibilities of this merger is that the financial might of Kroger could be put to use to further expand the Mariano’s experience.

... has become part of a national institution

Could we see their stores in even more Chicago neighborhoods and suburban communities? Could this be the “military might,” so to speak, that gives us a Marianos’s takeover of the Chicago food market wars?

COULD IT EVEN turn out that the Kroger stores across the country – just over 2,600 scattered across 34 of the 50 states – get themselves a move upscale in their retail experience?

Perhaps a touch of some of the finer items that a Mariano’s convert has come to expect will be found there! That could be an improvement for people whose lot in life is to be stuck buying their food from the Piggly Wiggly!

For what it’s worth, the Chicago Tribune reported that Kroger officials said Wednesday in announcing the deal that Roundy’s and Mariano’s will continue to operate as distinct divisions within the greater Kroger Co.

We’re not about to see the blue-and-white Kroger logo take over the Mariano’s any time in the near future.

WITH NO STORES set to close in the near future, and the possibility of expansion, it could turn out to be a boost up for those people who persist in doing all their food shopping at Mariano’s. (Personally, I hit a few different stores, usually looking for who offers the best price deal on certain staples I buy regularly).

I’ll admit that Mariano’s does offer some interesting buys that aren’t easily replicated at other supermarket chains. Although there is a degree to which all of this can be carried too far.

For as my brother used to say whenever he would try to knock down the pretentiousness of people who thought they were better than everybody else because they shopped at a Mariano’s, “A box of Lucky Charms is a box of Lucky Charms no matter where you buy it.”

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A constitutional debate? Or a business out-of-touch w/ its community?

The arrival of a new Mariano’s supermarket within a neighborhood or community these days is usually an occasion for local celebration.

Wasn't posted on Mariano's Opening Day in Northbrook

The chain of markets that offer a somewhat upscale shopping experience for food (they stock some items that the local Jewel finds to be a tad esoteric) is usually seen as a reason to celebrate.

YET UP IN suburban Northbrook, people were picketing because the new Mariano’s had management that wouldn’t take up their pet cause – concealed carry of firearms on one’s person.

Activists said they would be at the store when it opened for business Tuesday morning because they want the store to post those stickers that depict a red slash though a silhouette of a pistol.

Making it clear that people who feel the need to carry a firearm are not welcome in the store. As in they ought to leave the gun inside their cars while they shop inside for groceries.

Now insofar as the law in Illinois is concerned, people can get permits that allow them to carry a pistol in a shoulder holster or a purse (open-carry is a separate issue). Which means a shopper with a permit could have his pistol on his person while picking out a piece of trout or grabbing a gallon of milk.

STATE LAW DOES permit businesses that don’t wish to have firearms on their premises to post the stickers on their doors that the activists desire. In short, they want their new Mariano’s to make a political statement!

One that the Mariano’s management indicates they’re not willing to make.

WBBM-AM radio reported that Mariano’s parent company justified its actions by saying it is in compliance with Illinois law. They say their Chicago-based locations do post such stickers, because city ordinances require them in the stores that also sell alcoholic beverages.

It's not exactly Georgia

Short of a state law that would require the stickers in all their stores in Illinois, they’re not about to go any farther than they have to.

WHICH MAKES SOME sense. Mariano’s is in the business of selling groceries and some prepared-food items. It isn’t a social organization out to make statements on anything.

So the idea that it doesn’t want to tick off anyone by bringing up what it wants to regard as an irrelevant issue is to be expected.

But it also makes a certain amount of sense that a business doesn’t want to needlessly tick off its customer base. Which in the case of this new supermarket is the north suburban area in and around Northbrook.

It’s not exactly a rural community filled with people who think they’re about to take their shotgun out and kill their dinner tonight. If anything, it is a community inclined to be sympathetic to rules and restrictions intended to reduce the potential for crime.

THOSE WOULD INCLUDE restricting the access to weapons by people who aren’t the police. It’s not one of those communities filled with people who think they’re going to be called upon to shoot someone else to defend themselves against a would-be mugger.

Let’s not forget that Northbrook is just a couple of towns from Morton Grove – which was once the first community in the nation to ban the sale and ownership of firearms.

It makes me wonder if Mariano’s management is that out-of-touch with who their customers are. It’s not like this is a store in Kennesaw or Nelson in Georgia – the communities that require their adult residents to own firearms.

Of course, if Mariano’s were to now decide to add the desired stickers, they’ll wind up attracting the attention of the National Rifle Association and every other gun group.

THEY MAY EVEN wind up like those Starbuck’s franchises in certain states where gun owners make a point of bringing their weapons into the stores and making sure everybody knows they’re armed while they buy a cup of overpriced coffee.

Which puts Mariano’s in a very awkward position – one they may not be able to escape from. Unless people decide that the novelty of the exotic food items they can get from a Mariano’s makes them overcome any concern they have about firearms.

If people get hungry enough, that may become a very real possibility.

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Dominick’s task force put in public eye

I don’t envy the people who will be serving on a newly-created city government task force that will draw the public’s scrutiny – even though the issue it is dealing with is far from the most significant problem confronting Chicago these days.

Will Dominick's stores soon have no parked cars nearby?

That problem being, of course, Dominick’s.

AS IN THE chain of supermarkets that are about to cease to exist in Chicago and surrounding suburbs. Jewel early on said it would purchase a few of the Dominick’s locations and convert them to their brand.

While the new Mariano’s chain of supermarkets came in last week and said it would purchase a few more Dominick’s stores, while also building some new sites for their brand of upscale markets.

But those two deals account for about 15 supermarkets out of the 72 facilities that were part of the Dominick’s chain.

Come the end of 2013 (Dec. 28, to be exact), there are likely to be a whole lot of Dominick’s stores that suddenly become vacant storefronts – even if companies such as Whole Foods or Pete’s Fresh Market come in and buy out a few more Dominick’s locations.

IT’S ALSO NOT the same as if a little neighborhood market were to close its doors. We’re talking about the large stores that, with their parking lots, can easily take up an entire block.

Those are going to be gaping holes in the appearance of Chicago and the suburban communities. Just envision the kid whose teeth are falling out, giving him a smile with gaps.
 

Only in Chicago’s case, there’s no equivalent of the tooth fairy coming along to leave money to help us cope with the loss.




How many will live on like this former Dominick's store?

Instead, Mayor Rahm Emanuel created a task force to be chaired by Deputy Mayor Steve Koch whose purpose will be to figure out what to do with all those “gaps” – as in the stores that no other supermarket chain has interest in obtaining.

WHAT OTHER KINDS of businesses might be capable of using the structures for their purpose? Or, might be capable of coming in and using the land upon which those former Dominick’s stores are built?

The one thing that ought to be apparent is that we can’t just do nothing about the situation.

These kinds of gaps in a community can become a blot that spreads to a major hole going far beyond the lack of a supermarket nearby.

It’s also important because, while this task force is only concerned with the soon-to-be abandoned Dominick’s locations in Chicago, the way the city handles this issue will also impact the way surrounding suburbs will cope with their loss of a Dominick’s supermarket.

YOU’RE GOING TO have the public watching to see what becomes of their former Dominick’s, and you’re going to have suburban municipal officials taking their lead from this task force.

Which means this task force is going to face pressure. If it manages to screw things up, it is going to get ridicule on a level far above its mere dollar figures.

Because Dominick’s was a part of the Chicago character – one of the chains that for many decades dominated where we got our food from. What could be more important to some people than that?

There may be deals that would have a larger economic impact on Chicago than the replacement of supermarkets. But this is one of those deals that people will place undue attention to.

Will a vacant Dominick's be uglier than '13 baseball?

SO FOR THOSE city, organized labor and industry officials who will devote their coming weeks to figuring out how to replace the Dominick’s stores, they had better realize we, the public, will magnify the significance of their every screw up.

So they better not make any, or else they’ll become even more detested among Chicagoans than either the White Sox or Cubs are these days after the god-awful seasons they produced in ’13.

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