When Englewood Whole Foods Opens, Expect Shelves Stocked With Local Goods
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Small business owners on Chicago's South Side say Whole Foods is offering them the big shot they need to grow their business.
CBS 2's Audrina Bigos takes a look in this Original Report.
When Eddie Downs says homemade, he means it.
"My grandmother taught me how to cook," he said. "She taught me how to bake."
For Downs, it's been a six-year grind growing FBG Cookies & Company from the ground up catering events and baking cupcakes for birthdays in the kitchen of his Morgan Park home.
But now he's been given a shot to stock the shelves with his cookies at the new Whole Foods opening in August on the corner of 63rd and Halsted in Englewood.
"There's no limits after this," Downs said.
He just needs a commercial kitchen space so he can mass produce and be ready for the August opening.
From baked goods to beauty products, Cortney and Kiprono Sigilai say it's a huge opportunity for them. The husband and wife duo base their business, Treluxe, online.
They get some visibility at local salons but Whole Foods will be their first major retailer in a neighborhood they are happy to serve.
"People don't have access to options for healthy foods, healthy products," Kiprono said. "Hopefully it will become a model for other businesses to look at an area like Englewood that other companies may have overlooked."
A Whole Foods rep tells CBS 2 they selected these businesses because they sell natural and organic products, like the cookies.
Five other South Side businesses are in the process to sell in the new store and Whole Foods is still for other products to showcase.