Business
00k
ewish Living In Metropolitan Detroit
The most popular
Cattleman's Closes
Its Oak Park Store
N
BILL CARROLL
Special to The Jewish News
Your SourceBook is chock full of interesting
information, like this "Detroit Detail."
Check out your copy... and see what you're missing!
To order a SourceBook for
We can handle eve
and they hove
some cloy send.
on most presalphons ,
s really cool
BUY DIRECT & SAVE! EVERYDAY!
rr
EYEGLASSES
1 EYEGLASSES 1 I
COMPLETE 1
1
I $29
I
57
-
1
WITH NO-LINE
PROGRESSIVE BIFOCALS
OVER 1000 FRAMES I I $ 79
57
TO CHOOSE FROM! I 1 —
I I
INCLUDES FRAME &SINGLE
W/COUPON
CLEWS _ LEXP. 12/10/98
W/COUPON
'EXP. 12/10/98
Limit one coupon
Not
COMPLETE - INCLUDES
FRAME & SCRATCH
RESISTANT ,
uV PROTECTED LENSES
FRESHLOOK DISPOSABLE
CONTACT I
LENSES
I $7
I
57
I I
I
I 1
I I
7
AFTER $20.00 REBATE I
COMPLETE - INCLUDES EYE EXAM, 7 PAIRS OF
FRESHLOOK VISITINT CONTACT LENSES, CARE I
1 1
KIT & ALL FOLLOW-UP APPOINTMENTS
L
W/COUPON EXP. 12/10/98
b
re en
t t im e f rd
delivery. Nub t i t
h
coupon offers.
Id rd7;
o i!,r7c irnPijrCha est
s. o Lt1 r TIgnas Lan
n.l not
3 ot o be er
combined
co ll - b
otsherL'Itgsncso% rOfeferT
FARMINGTON HILLS
WESTBROOKE SHOPPING CTR.
WALLED LAKE
PENNY LAKE PLAZA
31531 W. 13 MILE (100 YARDS W. OF ORCHARD
LAKE RD. ON THE S. SIDE OF 13 MILE )
1258 S. COMMERCE RD.
(CORNER OF S. COMMERCE & PONTIAC TRAIL)
(248) 553-8270
(248) 926-1490
FOR MORE INFORMATION CALL TOLL FREE 1-877-BUY EYES
e-trail us at:directopt@earthlInk.net
OPEN 6 DAYS & EVENINGS FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE • LAB ON PREMISES
DOCTOR OF OPTOMETRY EYE EXAMS • MOST INSURANCES ACCEPTED
Alla-
HEATING
& AIR CONDITIONING CO.
RESIDENTIAL & COMMERCIAL. SERVICE • SALES • INSTALLATIONS
YOUR INDEPENDENT DEALER FOR
Michael Levey
IITTPIWWW.GLOUNK,COM/ALRMASTER
12/4
1998
BERKLEY
399-1800
66 Detroit Jewish News
LENNOX &
W. BLOOMFIELD
788-9073
"UWE
It's Hard 7b Ay, A 7h2n,
N. OAKLAND
682-9090
GROSSE POINTE
882-4870
of even the prospect of
increased business during
the busy triple holiday sea-
son could save Cattleman's
Meat and Produce Market in Oak
Park.
The store closed Nov. 22, leaving
most of the employees out of jobs,
many customers dismayed, and some
neighboring store owners stunned.
They're now hoping that a new food
business will preserve the shopping
continuity in the Oak Park Plaza at
Coolidge Highway and Nine Mile
Road.
Only two retail stores — on Mack
Avenue in Detroit and on Telegraph
Road in Taylor — and a meat process-
ing plant now remain in the
Cattleman's operation, founded in
1972 by Markus Rohtbart.
His son, David, president of the
firm, said the Oak Park store closing
was a "business decision based purely
on lack of volume and nothing else."
Low prices and
specialty items
were not enough
of a draw.
A Cattleman's store in Farmington
closed two years ago, several months
after authorities linked bacteria ema-
nating from an allegedly faulty rooftop
air conditioning system to some
deaths in the community caused by
Legionaire's disease. A few civil law-
suits by the families against
Cattleman's still are pending and are
"being handled by our insurance com-
pany," said David Rohtbart.
He said the Oak Park store had
been producing only about 5 percent
of the total volume in the Cattleman's
chain recently, apparently because the
Jewish and Chaldean people, who had
been the majority of the store's cus-
tomers, "just stopped shopping there.
It's a changing market area. We con-
tinued to run specials, and we tried
our best to keep prices down, but our
customer base dwindled to a point
where it was no longer profitable to
keep that store open.
"The fruit and vegetable business
always has had a thin profit margin
anyway," Rohtbart explained.
"Produce is very expensive and you
have to price it accordingly. Fruits ands
vegetables must be fresh every day ...
and you need good buyers to select
the best merchandise. Meat prices also
have risen. You have to maintain a
high sales volume or you just can't stay
in business in a neighborhood store
today."
Cattleman's bought the Oak Park
store five years ago from Oak Farms
Produce, and had enjoyed a reputation
of having low prices and specialty
foods, besides being convenient for
older shoppers. There always was a
large produce display, and meats were
kept in a huge refrigerated walk-in
room.
"Closing before Thanksgiving,
Christmas and Chanukah was no big
loss," said Rohtbart. "It's a myth that
these holidays are good for the food
business, especially Thanksgiving. I
was paying 69 cents per pound for
turkeys and I had to be competitive
and sell them for 29 or 39 cents per
pound to keep up with specials at
other markets. The same goes for most
of the other fresh food lines. Lettuce
and tomatoes are especially expensive
this time of year, and we were losing
money on them.
"Christmas and Chanukah are great
holidays for toys and clothes, but not
very profitable for food sales. We felt
it just wasn't worth keeping the store
open past November."
Another reason for closing the
store, Rohtbart offered, was to stream-
line the Cattleman's chain and make it
easier for him and his father to oper-
ate. "We feel that meat is the most
important part of our business any-
way, and we want to focus on that as
our core business," he said.
The firm has a meat processing
plant at the Eastern Market in
Detroit, where approximately two mil-
lion pounds of beef are processed each ci
week and sold to wholesale meat com-
panies around the world.
Most of the Oak Park store's 33
full-time and 10 part-time employees
lost their jobs when it closed. Only
some were able to get jobs at the
other Cattleman's stores. Although
Rohtbart said all were given two
weeks' notice, one employee, who
preferred not to be identified, said she
didn't know about the closing until a
window sign was posted several days
before the last weekend, announcing a
store closinc, sale." Most of the stock
was liquidated ar a 50 percent dis-
count to customers.
"Most of us were pretty much sur-
prised when we heard the store was
CC