New Kid Coming to Grocery Block in Skokie

Steve Pavlopoulos’ first choice of Skokie for his produce-meats store was deferred for more than 20 years.

Now that it will come to fruition by year’s end, the opening of a third Produce World at a site on Skokie Boulevard will put it across from the long-established Jewel. The result could start a mini-grocery war.

Just four months after opening a greatly expanded Produce World on Harlem Avenue and Dempster Street in Morton Grove that competes with a nearby Dominick’s, Pavlopoulos is starting up a new outlet in an old office supplies storefront. If shoppers’ initial reaction to the bigger Morton Grove store is any indication, he will be giving Jewel a run for its money.

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In Morton Grove, Pavlopoulos spent between $2 million and $2.5 million in remodeling the store, before inventory was factored in. He doubled the number of products offered, from 4,000 to 8,000. He added a fish counter and expanded the deli counter.

The Skokie space, though smaller, will also feature the deli and fish counters. Pavlopoulos expects to spend less in Skokie because of the decreased space and the presence of some compatible equipment.

Pavlopoulos said the store might be able to compete with Jewel in regard to produce and meat prices. He also plans a full staff at the checkout counters, to counter the long waits common his competitors.

“Skokie came up before Morton Grove,” Pavlopoulos said of his original plan in the late 1980s to open on Skokie Boulevard, south of Golf Road. “But the landlord put us on hold, hold, hold. We decided while we were waiting, we’d grab [the original Produce World location at Waukegan Road and Dempster Street] and forget Skokie.”

But talks reignited for a Skokie location in 2010 as Pavlopoulos planned a supermarket-sized space in Morton Grove. He got the go-ahead for both sites last September.

Pavlopoulos, who operates another Produce World on Cumberland Avenue on Chicago’s North Side, doesn’t consider himself a competitor to Dominick’s despite the expanded space and product line. He says he specializes in ethnic foods, particularly Indian and Asian, in Morton Grove.

In Skokie,  Pavlopoulos expects to field a different product line serving more “Jewish and Russian clientele.” Some of that clientele might have run into a youthful Pavlopoulos, who began in the business at age 15 when he worked at the North Water Street market on Devon Avenue in Chicago's West Rogers Park neighborhood.

“You create your own niche,” Pavlopoulos said. “May the best man win. I don’t consider Gibson’s competing against Morton’s [in steakhouses].”

Pavlopoulos said the Skokie store should be open by late Decemeber.

A Jewel-Osco spokeswoman Karen May said her company does not comment on competitors to its stores.

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