Lakeview Pantry
Present: Emily, Jen, Grant, Lee, Dan, Greg, Dana, Anthony, Sofia

Why do we need Chicago Market when we already have farmers markets?

Good question (and we get it a lot) so we thought we would answer it.

Spring asparagus from Mick Klug farm at Green City Market - photo by Malcolm Haar.

“Show me the money!”

Even if you are too young to have seen the film “Jerry Maguire” when it was released in 1996, you’ve likely heard the line above – the movie’s most famous quote.

In the scene, the football-player character Rod Tidwell, played by Cuba Gooding, exhorts his agent, played by Tom Cruise, to get him as big a contract as possible. It’s a classic scene – even if a bit over the top. The backstory, according to director Cameron Crowe, is that the Tidwell character isn’t motivated by greedy impulses, he is simply trying to secure his family’s financial future before his football career ends.

Right about now Chicago Market finds itself in a similar spot, you might say.

Chicago Market is thrilled to welcome newly married Owner #984 Myles Soverel and Elliott Massuda. Learn more about them...

Chicago Market Owners’ dreams for our Co-op store have been clear since the beginning: We want a big, bright, beautiful community-owned grocery store open to all that features local, sustainably farmed, organic produce, meat and dairy products, as well as all the other staples and amenities you’d expect from your market. And because it’s a cooperative, it will be devoted to a triple bottom line: People. Planet. Profit. 

As you can imagine, it won’t come cheap.

How much money do you think we will need to fund the design, construction, store-build-out, purchase of equipment, shelving and refrigeration units (and the food to stock them), employee training, publicity…and all the rest that goes into owning and operating a 13,239-square-foot grocery store? Go ahead – take a guess.

Now that we have the keys to the Gerber Building, it’s all systems GO!

So where, actually, do we “go” from here?

We turned to Chicago Market Board member and Site/Architecture Team leader Dan Miller (Owner #485, pictured with his wife Celeste)

to learn about the necessary steps in the design, architecture, construction and getting-operational process. Conveniently, he broke it down into 10 (not-so-easy-for-us-nonprofessional-types) steps. Let’s take a look.

The Chicago Market community got together on May 12, 2018 at Nick's on Wilson to celebrate our signed lease for the Chicago Transit Authority​'s Gerber Building at Wilson Station!

New people became Owners! Existing Owners left inspired to tell their friends and neighbors the good news and have them also join us as Owners!

And big thanks to Nick's for hosting and to Pastoral Artisan Cheese, Bread & Wine​ for the delicious cheese,
bread and veggie trays.

All photos from Owner Malcolm Haar!

I was one of the early Owners of Chicago Market (#148) — a start-up cooperative grocery that was founded in 2014 — and I have been volunteering with them ever since. 

Frankly, I have yet to have the opportunity to walk into "my" co-op and buy anything. So...

Why did I plunk down $250 and buy a share?  

Annette and Lee Herman at a recent Zero Waste event at Shedd Aquarium.

Chicago Market Owners got together at LONGACRE on May 10, 2018 to celebrate our signed lease with the
Chicago Transit Authority for the
Gerber Building at the Wilson 'L' station!

All photos from Owner Malcolm Haar!

Every Chicago Market Owner and enthusiast is shouting it from the hilltops (sea level, actually): We have a store location!

And it’s official. On May 9, CTA officials announced that the architectural marvel known as the Gerber Building will henceforth be home to Chicago Market – A Community Co-op.

As thrilling as it is to finally have a site, what’s even more spine-tingling is that the future site of our Co-op sits squarely in the middle of one of the North Side’s most diverse Chicago neighborhoods it intends to serve. Uptown.

What makes the Wilson El stop such an ideal spot for Chicago Market? Let’s count the ways…