“It’s easier to get in and out of,” commented Brent Schmit, president of Elburn, IL-based Eclipse Dist., Inc. “The old market was set up for horse and buggies. Now they can handle 53-foot trailers, and trucks have a lot of room to maneuver.”
Outfitted for modern information systems as well as state-of-the-art produce technology, the facility supports ripening rooms, custom repacking, packaging, and private label programs as well as full truckload service, forward distribution, cross docking, and fast delivery throughout the vast Chicagoland area.
While Chicago resides on the second-largest Great Lake and is intersected by the Chicago River, produce is not shipped via these waterways. Though the river was used for shipping in the distant past, its barges move mostly coal, scrap, building materials and occasionally grain, but it gets far more recreational use. Lake Michigan is certainly a shipping route, but it is much faster to move produce over the country’s many expressways than over the often unpredictable lake.
Location, Location, Population
The market’s physical location in the center of North America puts it at an advantage, but Jose Vega Jr., owner of La Galera Produce, based on the market, says it’s the people in the city that keep the CIPM thriving. “Chicago is good because of its diversity,” he says. “It’s perfect to be on the market; you’re where all the action is. I would never go somewhere else.”
“We handle a majority of the Midwest,” Gonzalez explained. “Clients come from as far as Nebraska, Iowa, Ohio—Chicago is a central hub for everything. You have the flexibility of picking everything up in one morning.”
The ‘shoulder-to-shoulder’ competition and the CIPM’s incessant hustle and bustle serves both customers and sellers. The market, casually referred to as ‘the Street’ by its merchants, is a bona fide fixture in the fresh fruit and vegetable trade. “Other produce wholesalers who aren’t on the Street, they miss that vibe,” Fleming says. “There’s a definite ebb and flow” where customers “have the ability to get posted on what this guy is doing on lettuce, what this guy is doing on broccoli…”
When it was determined that the market had to relocate from its Water Street facility, Fleming remembered his father (Robert Strube, Sr., son of the company’s founder Fred Strube) getting owners together to commit to moving to a new market. “We had to find a way to all come together and realize that we do feed off each other, [having] ten different satellite companies all over the city wouldn’t be good for anyone.”
Changes and Challenges
While weather-related issues have been a factor for many at the market, the slow economic recovery, increased competition, and fuel costs have played a significant role in creating challenges. Many at the market were cautiously optimistic most of last year, as business was recovering and they hoped it would continue. “It’s not as good as we thought it was going to be,” Vega admitted. “It has been changing a little bit, it hasn’t dropped much. It’s still steady.”
