Chatham Food Center: An oasis in a ‘food desert’

An article from the Methods Reporter. I don't know how I missed this but I don't normally read the Methods Reporter. This article comes from earlier this month on March 6th...

As the only black-owned supermarket in Chicago, Chatham Food Center stands as a vestige from an era that saw the dilapidation of many businesses In the South Side’s Chatham community, a neighborhood now teeming with fast food restaurants.

Inside this 4,000-square-foot, 25-year-old supermarket owned by Leonard Harris, 63, and his wife Donna, 50, at 327 E. 79th St., soul music zings through the air. It’s a subtle reminder that this neatly manicured grocery store is indeed the last of its kind, according to the Chicago Urban League.

But it’s also a multi-million dollar business run by a University of Chicago MBA.

Chatham Food Center, which remains open 24 hours, seven days a week and employs about 45 people, helps stabilize a community struggling to find nutritious food choices. The steady flow of customers streaming in and out the doors reinforces its utility. Stepping outside Chatham Food Center, a Burger King and a McDonald’s appear ominously in the background on 79th street.

According to Chicago researcher Mari Gallagher, Chatham is a “food desert.” Gallagher, who in 2006 published a study “Examining the Impact of Food Deserts on Public Health in Chicago,” describes these neighborhoods as areas with isolated grocery stores but surfeited with fast food, convenience stores and liquor stores that offer scant wholesome food options.

According to the study, Chicago’s majority black areas such as Chatham where the black citizenry comprises 98 percent of the population, according to the most recent census data, are disproportionately plagued by a lack of healthy food options. This, she argues, causes obesity, diabetes, cancer and heart disease to gush through the community. “In areas that have few grocery stores there is a greater preponderance of fast food,” she says. “People will resort to the things they have in their neighborhood more often than not.”

There was a time, Harris says, that Chatham became not only a food desert but also an “economic desert,” as children matured and left home, and as husbands died, leaving their wives widowed. Before the “graying of Chatham. you had one household shopping a grocery basket for five people, now you had a household shopping a grocery basket for one person,” he says. Economic instability plagued the community, says Ald. Freddrenna M. Lyle (6th), declaring Chatham had “aged in place.”

Before turning to a joint program formed by the Chicago Urban League and Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management - called “nextOne” - Chatham Food Center found itself entwined in an economic maelstrom, almost giving way to stagnant revenues and competition that huffed, puffed, and tried to blow it down.

Between 2001 and 2006, business was sluggish. “Sales over the last five years had declined 10 percent and now [in 2006] they were flat,” Harris says. What’s more, he says, there was increased competition; a Dominick’s supermarket and a Jewel Osco supermarket were encroaching on his business.

With the help of marketing, finance and management coaches provided by the Urban League, that all changed. “We shifted from social services to economic development,” stated Urban League CEO Cheryle R. Jackson in a press release. The program gave the Harrises a guide to spark revenue but also helped them continue their efforts of serving a community where they both grew up.

The Harrises believe the time-built loyalty of their customers allowed them to stay afloat despite an aging population and the deep-pocketed competition.

In fact, Donna Harris, whose day job is executive director of the Chatham Business Association, says, “We feel like the community owns the store, not us.” Leonard Harris remembers instances when customers would tap him on the shoulder and whisper of external and internal theft. “This is their store and I’m just a caretaker for them,” he says.

Customers say that Chatham Food Center is more appealing than its competitors because of its meats, fresh produce, short wait times, customer service and proximity to their home. “This is the only one that’s still together,” Chatham resident Melvin Bradford said.

At Chatham Food Center, a gallon of milk costs $2.99. A gallon at Jewel ranges between $3.49 and $3.99. Dominick’s sells a gallon for $3.49. However, the same loaf of 100 percent Sara Lee whole wheat bread costs $2.89 at Chatham, $2.29 at Jewel and $2.69 at Dominick’s. Chatham resident Lee B. Tate, 74, who has been shopping at Chatham Food Center since its inception, says though it’s not always cheaper, “the butcher always cuts the meat the way I like it for free.”

“They help with your groceries. They help you to your car. They are very nice people to be around,” she adds.

Berniece Gibbs, a bookkeeper who has been working at the supermarket for nine years, says there have been occasions when elderly customers have come in, only to find their coveted item out of stock. But, she says, Mr. Harris has ordered and then hand-delivered those items to his customers.

His management style reflects lessons he learned while under tutelage of the now-deceased Ernest Collins, a linchpin in the Chatham community, supermarket owner and co-founder of Seaway National Bank. “Essentially, I said ‘I want to be like you when I grow up,’” Harris reminisces. Following Collins’ guidance, in 1972 he invested $15,000 in Food Basket Inc. for 3 percent of the company. Seven years later, he left as president of the company, holding an 11 percent stake and with a dazzling new Executive MBA degree from the University of Chicago that Collins helped to pay for.

Ever the shrewd businessman, when asked about the challenges his supermarket faces, he promptly shifts the conversation and says, “lets talk about the opportunities.” Behind closed doors, employees talk about Harris’s conservative, if not frugal, spending habits and his need to stay abreast. “He is a hands-on owner,” says Fernando Manlove, a deli and meat department associate. “He gets into the trenches and I like that.”

Does anyone think this store wouldn't survive a Wal-Mart? Looking at this article the formula is there. Who knows if the mantra against Wal-Mart is that they put smaller stores out of business Chatham Food Center could put that to rest. We shall see!

ADDITION: I should note that Dominick's was right down the street on 79th but within the last two years they've closed down, but then following business news Dominick's have their issues. Though on this news I'm going back a few years with a strike and at one point Safeway, the store's corporate owners, putting the grocery chain on the auction block.

EXTRA ADDITION: Same article but this time from Medill Reports and scroll down to your right a little under some pictures (or the map and graph) is a video with Leonard Harris and his wife talking about their grocery store.