Made In Chicago: Potash Markets
CHICAGO (WBBM) -- It's all in the family for a longtime grocery store business on the Near North Side.
As WBBM Newsradio 780's Bernie Tafoya reports, Potash Markets – formerly Potash Brothers Grocery – has been in business for 60 years. The store has locations at 875 N. State St. in River North, and at 1525 N. Clark St. at Sandburg Village.
LISTEN: Newsradio 780's Bernie Tafoya reports
Podcast
Art Potash is the owner of the stores. He is the son of one of the founding brothers, Mel Potash.
"My father and his brothers were the original Potash brothers," Potash said. "My father and my one uncle Dave are still around, and my father works seven days a week. My uncle works four days a week or so."
Potash says he makes sure to cater to the needs of the customers who live, work and play in the two areas of the Near North Side he serves.
He says 60 of the company's 180 employees have been with Potash for more than 10 years. Some have been there as long as 50 and 60 years – as long as the company itself.
"One of my proudest moments was one of our current employees – a young man's working for here – both his mother and father worked for us in the older Potash location that was on this footprint back in the 60s and 70s, and his parents worked for us, and when he became old enough to work, his father marched him in here and said basically, 'I worked here, and I'd like my son to work here,'" Potash said.
Potash Markets was founded in 1950 as Pleezing Foods, at the corner of Clark and Schiller streets – before the soaring Sandburg Village residential towers were built.
Dave and Mel Potash and another brother, Herb Potash, opened the store along with their father Max and sister Marian.
In addition to the Clark and State Street locations, Potash Markets operates a store for residents of the John Hancock Center at 175 E. Delaware Pl.
