Longtime garden center, Every Bloomin' Thing, closes in Orland Park

Every Bloomin' Thing closed last week in Orland Park.

By Bob Bong
Southland Savvy 

Every Bloomin' Thing was opened by Bob and Linda Buikema as a Christmas tree lot with 400 evergreens in November 1985 and quickly became a popular garden center at 7648 W. 159th St. in Orland Park.

The center, which also added a gift store over the years, opened for the season on April 28 and closed for the last time last week after a lengthy going out of business sale.

The Buikemas were not available but they did post a final message on the company's Facebook page:

"I write this final post with a very heavy heart ... Our Garden Center is officially closed for business! Thank you again to all of you for supporting our small, family business ... please, continue to shop "small". Small business is the foundation on which our wonderful country was built! God bless each and every one of you!"

The business had been listed for sale for $995,000 for the past couple of years.

Shoe Carnival to open Saturday in Orland

Shoe Carnival will hold a grand opening at 9 a.m. Saturday for its new store in Lake View Plaza at 159th Street and LaGrange Road in Orland Park.

The first 100 customers will receive a $10 reward card to use toward anything in the store.

Other events include: 

·         A 10 a.m. drawing for free shoes for a year

·         An 11 a.m. drawing for $1,000 cash courtesy of Crocs

·         A drawing for a $100 Shoe Carnival shopping spree every hour from noon to 5 p.m.

·         Doorbuster deals from 9 a.m. to noon

·         Prizes and giveaways all weekend

“We are excited to open a new Shoe Carnival location in the Orland Park area," said Todd Beurman, senior vice president of marketing, in a release. "Shoe Carnival is known for our one of a kind shopping experience, unbelievable product assortment and unique atmosphere, which creates a customer focused way to shop for shoes. At Shoe Carnival, our customers will not only be treated to great value on name brand footwear and accessories for the entire family, they’ll also get a fun and exciting shopping experience.”

The Orland store will be the 24th store in the Chicago area. The Evansville-based chain has about 400 stores in 32 states and Puerto Rico. Stores typically carry name brands such as Nike, Asics, Converse, Keds, Reebok and Skechers.

Culver's now open in Lockport

A new Culver's restaurant opened last month at 15940 S. Farrell Road in Lockport. It's the second Culver's location for owner Ron Dalrymple, who opened his first Culver's in Romeoville in 2004. The restaurant is open daily from 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Mokena, Homer Meijer stores now  open

Grand Rapids-based Meijer opened its latest Chicago-area locations this week in Mokena and Homer Glen.

The two supercenters will each be about 160,000 square feet and each will employ about 300 team members. The Mokena store is  at 11305 Lincoln Highway, and the Homer Glen store is at 14169 S. Bell Road.

Work started on the two stores a year ago.

Each store will feature a pharmacy, gas station, optical store and U.S. Bank branch. The Mokena gas station opened a few weeks ago.

The new stores will also offer more than 600 varieties of fresh produce, a meat department with butcher shop service and a bakery that carries bread baked fresh four times daily.

Meijer operates a smaller scale store at 159th Street and Harlem Avenue in Orland Park. 

The company purchased 13 acres in Flossmoor last year and is planning a supercenter at Vollmer Road and Crawford Avenue.

 If you see a new business in town or wonder what happened to an old favorite, drop me a line at bobbong@hotmail.com.

You can also catch up on Comings & Goings in other parts of the Southland at www.southlandbusinessnews.com

St. Vincent de Paul thrift store moving to Orland Park

Berkot's will be opening later this year in the former Sentry Foods in Midlothian.

By Bob Bong
Southland Savvy

The St. Vincent de Paul Society is holding a closing sale at its Midlothian thrift store in advance of moving the store to Orland Park.

The store at 4644 W. 147th St. has discounted merchandise to 75 percent off from July 14 to July 22. Anything that remains unsold will be sold for $1 from July 23 to July 26. Hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

The store, which has been operating in Midlothian for more than 20 years, will close on July 26 and reopen later this year in the former Sears Appliance and Hardware store at 7010 W. 159th St. in Orland Park. 

Remodeling has already begun on the 11,000-square-foot store that closed earlier this year, which is about twice the size of the current space in Midlothian.

St. Vincent de Paul said it would  announce a grand opening date for the new store on its website. 

Bargain hunters are asked to shop at the society's other thrift stores at 9321 S. Western Ave. in Chicago and at 1125 S. Milwaukee Ave. in Libertyville.

Proceeds from the thrift stores help the society operate food pantries and provide emergency vouchers and other programs for the needy.

Berkot's to open in Midlothian

While Midlothian may be losing its thrift store, it will be regaining a supermarket when Mokena-based Berkot's Super Foods opens later this year in the former Sentry Foods store at 4640 W. 147th St.

The deal for the Midlothian location was announced last week on the supermarket's Facebook page:
 

"We are proud to announce that the people of Midlothian will be getting their very own Berkot's! It will be located at 147th and Cicero in the former Sentry and thrift store location. Thank you to Village President Sharon Rybak and the Midlothian board for allowing Berkot's to become a part of the community!"

Sentry Foods closed March 17 after being in business at that location for 22 years.

The Midlothian store is expected to open by December. It will be the 16th store for the supermarket chain that got its start in a former grocery store in Mokena in 1990. The company has a history of opening in former supermarkets instead of building new construction.

Health foods store moves into new digs in Orland

New Vitality Health Foods will hold its grand opening from 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday, July 15, at its new home at 14225 S. 95th Avenue, Suite 410, in the Orland Park Crossing. The ribbon cutting is set for noon.

Store hours are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday to Saturday and from noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday.
 

Owner Barbara Griffin said the store has been in Orland Park for 25 years and sells gluten-free and allergy-friendly foods and nutritional supplements.

Baby's Cheesesteak reopens in new Orland Park location

 

Baby's Cheesesteak is open again in Orland Park.

By Bob Bong
Southland Savvy

Baby's Cheesesteak, which closed its first Orland Park location last August, reopened last week at its new location at 15020 S. LaGrange Road in the Art Van Furniture plaza.

"We closed because of the expansion of LaGrange Road and because Starbucks wanted our location," said Baby's owner Andreas DeLeon.

But the company remained open at its original location in Country Club Hills as it looked for a new location.

"We had plazas from as far away as Berwyn and Oswego coming to us asking us to open a franchise," DeLeon said. "But we didn't want to venture that far.

"This location is smaller than what we're used to, but it's bigger than our original store. We went from 85 tables to 21 tables," he said. It also doesn't have a drive-through window.

Business has been booming in just the few days the store has been open, he said.

"We are looking at taking the space next door to us," DeLeon said.

Although the front counter staff is mostly new, all of the cooks have made the trip to the new location.

"I was able to keep them on at our Country Club Hills location," DeLeon said.

DeLeon said the opened was delayed because it took longer than expected to get the beef slicer for the new store.

"We wanted to open smart," he said. "Our customers have been pretty cool with the delayed opening. For the past eight months, we've been getting emails asking when we were going to open. So I knew we had something to go with."

DeLeon said the menu was the same as at the old location with one exception.

"We're doing pizza with Clubber's Pizza, which is a hand-tossed pizza that is very cost effective for us," he said.

Baby's will sell whole pizzas as well as pizza by the slice, he said.

Also new is an oven-baked cheese steak.

"We call it the OBC," he said. "We wrap the cheese steak in pizza dough and then we bake it for about 15 minutes. It comes out like a calzone."

You can still get the original cheese steak or the most popular version "crispy."

DeLeon said he's planning a grand opening for later in July and he's working on 10,000 fliers to announce the new location.

"We deliver to all of Orland Park and Orland Hills and to 183rd and Harlem in Tinley Park," he said.

Hours are from 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday to Thursday, from 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday.

For information, call 708-349-9800 or follow them on Facebook.

Starbucks, which closed a location in March 2013 across the street at 15833 S. LaGrange, is planning on opening in the former Baby's site. One of the reasons for moving the coffee shop was the lack of a drive-through.

Al's Beef teams up with Da Coach

Mokena-based Al's Beef, who signed Mike Ditka as the company spokesman back in May, has announced that in honor of July being National Hot Dog Month, the chain will add Spicy Jumbo  Ditka Dogs to its menu this month.

The special dog will weigh in at one-third of a pound of Vienna Beef on a poppy seed bun. That's about three times the size of a normal hot dog.

Free Slurpees on 7-Eleven Day

Free small Slurpees will be given away from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Friday, July 11, which is the annual 7-Eleven Day at participating locations.

The giveaway is the Texas-based company's way of celebrating its birthday.

This year, the company will also give away free stuff every day from Saturday, July 12, to Saturday, July 19, to anyone who downloads the 7-Eleven app for your smartphone.

You can get the app at http://bit.ly/1q9Xzbu.

Victoria's Secret to open first PINK store

The first standalone PINK store in the Chicago area will open at 10 a.m. Friday, July 11, at Louis Joliet Mall.

The Victoria's Secret offshoot "will offer lingerie, sleepwear, loungewear, collegiate clothing, beauty products and accessories for college-age women," according to a release from the company.

As a store within a store, PINK was so successful that it was expanded into its own storefront.

Victoria's Secret will expand into the space once used by PINK.

First Midwest buys Great Lakes Bank

The parent of First Midwest Bank has agreed to pay $58 million for a group of eight banks in the south suburbs.

Itasca-based First Midwest Bancorp Inc. is acquiring Blue Island-based Great Lakes Financial Resources Inc., the parent of Great Lakes Bank. The bank, with assets of $582 million, has offices in Alsip, Blue Island, Flossmoor, Homewood, Lansing, Matteson and Mokena.

“We look forward to welcoming Great Lakes’ customers and employees to First Midwest and to building on the long-standing relationships developed over the more than 100 years that Great Lakes has provided financial services to its clients and communities,” First Midwest president and CEO Michael L. Scudder said in a prepared statement.

The companies expect the sale to close by the end of 2014.

 If you see a new business in town or wonder what happened to an old favorite, drop me a line at bobbong@hotmail.com.

You can also catch up on Comings & Goings in other parts of the Southland at www.southlandbusinessnews.com