Potash Opens a Store With a View

MARK HAMSTRA

Chicago — Potash Bros. Supermarkets has opened a “supermarket in the sky.”

The three-unit independent operator, known in Chicago for its deli and prepared foods offerings, recently opened a 5,200-square-foot location on the 44th floor of the John Hancock Center here that serves both the office workers on the floors below it and the condominium residents on the floors above.

“The place has phenomenal views,” said Arthur Potash, president of Potash Gourmet 44, as the location is called. “They had contacted me about opening in the space about a year and a half ago, and I took one look at the space, and saw those views, and said, just based on that, I want to open there.”

The store features a seating area for about 15-20 people with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Lake Michigan.

Potash estimated that the traffic to the store so far is about evenly split between the few thousand people who work in the building's offices and residents of the 600 condos on the higher floors. The store is only accessible to people who either work or live in the building. The 100-story tower also has a restaurant on the 95th floor.

“Lunch is by far the biggest part of the day, with people coming up from the offices,” Potash said, noting that he expects that business to grow as the weather cools and people become more reluctant to brave the outdoors.

The company spent about $900,000 to revamp the space, which previously housed a less extensive food retail business. Potash is targeting volume of about $2 million per year at the site, he said. It was planned in consultation with Mehmert Store Services, Sussex, Wis., and with Potash's wholesaler, Certified Grocers Midwest, Hodgkins, Ill.

Although only slightly smaller than Potash Bros.' other locations, the store required some special editing of the assortment. It includes just one or two options in each grocery product category, although it was designed to offer a basic grocery shop, with perishables, frozens and a dry groceries selection. About 20%-25% of the space is dedicated to food service.

“We undertook a pretty big investment to make it suitable for cooking,” Potash said.

Some of the equipment had to be disassembled to fit into the elevator, he explained — and some of it still did not fit in the elevator and had to be brought up with the elevator door held open.

The store gets deliveries once a week from Certified, but the retailer also brings supplies over itself from its sister location nearby on State Street.

“We are running it almost as a satellite of the State Street location, running deliveries over by hand,” Potash said.