So I found this old article from the Journal Star, from 2008. I found it interesting;
Adams Street Market closes
Friday
Posted Jul 11, 2008 at 12:01 AM
Updated Jul 11, 2008 at 10:02 AM
The struggles of the Adams Street Market finally ended on Sunday with the store’s closing.
By Steve Tarter
The struggles of the Adams Street Market finally ended on Sunday with the store’s closing.
Since its opening last August, the market’s problems have been discussed at numerous City Council meetings.
A council-arranged security requirement finally proved too much for the market to handle, said a member of owner Ahmad Abud’s family.
Abud, a Chicago-area developer unavailable to be interviewed, had agreed to hire off-duty police officers at $30 an hour during evening hours in return for selling liquor at the store.
But that arrangement turned sour in a hurry. Less than two months after opening the store at 4103 SW Adams St., Abud was back before the council seeking to reduce the number of hours required for security officers in his store.
The supermarket’s location was a 15,000-square-foot building near Harrison Homes that once housed a Miracle Mart but had stood empty for more than a decade.
Despite spending $1.5 million on renovations to the building, business proved to be slower than projected at the site.
“In the grocery business you need six months to get started before you get regular customers to come to you. We might make it another two weeks,” he told the Journal Star last October.
Longtime South Peoria resident and neighborhood activist LaVetta Ricca said, while the security provisions might get the blame, the store failed because it didn’t live up to expectations.
“We need meat and fresh produce in this neighborhood. You can get canned goods anywhere.
“I told the owner that if he offered (meat and produce), I would be his best customer. But, if he didn’t offer those things, I would be his worst,” said Ricca, who accompanied City Councilman Jim Montelongo to the market two weeks ago to review the store’s status.
“There was no meat available. That had been gone a long time - maybe three to four months - and very little produce. It became just a convenient store with more liquor. People stopped going there.”
Ricca questioned the need for a grocery store to sell liquor in order to stay in business.
“Aldi’s (on Western Avenue) doesn’t sell liquor and it does a good business (in the South Peoria),” she said.
Steve Tarter can be reached at 686-3260 or
[email protected].