This Week
One Stop Kosher's Benji Silverstein walks through Hiller's in Southfield with specialty foods representative
Bill Nelkin of West Bloomfield.
The Next Level
One Stop Kosher will replace Hiller's Food Emporium this fall.
AMY MINDELL
Special to the Jewish News
I
t was fate." That's the explanation that manag-
er Benji Silverstein offers for the explosive
growth of his small, all-kosher grocery store,
One Stop Kosher in Southfield.
In November, Silverstein will re-open One Stop
Kosher in a new location that is more than five
times his store's existing 2,650 square feet.
Silverstein and his two partners will buy the fix-
tures and lease Hiller's Food Emporium, the former
Shopping Center Market at 25155 Greenfield, north
of 10 Mile Road in Southfield, in the New Orleans
Mall. The move was a long time in planning but will
be short in execution.
"We had been looking for a larger space for the
last two years. I could tell you every piece of proper-
ty in the city," Silverstein said. "Then the right deal
came through."
An unnamed third party made the shidduch (mar-
riage) between Hiller's Inc. President Jim Hiller and
Silverstein.
Silverstein declined to reveal details about the
business deal, saying only, "It was meant to be."
Hiller, who owns and operates seven Hiller's
Markets in the metro area, will shut down his
Greenfield store at the end of October. One Stop
plans to re-open in the space in mid-November; an
exact date is yet to be determined.
Changing Times
Hiller found that the Greenfield store, which his
family had operated for 40 years, simply was too
small now for his business' needs.
At 15,000 square feet, the store was no longer
"an appropriate location for me," Hiller said. "It
was just too tiny," he said. "We couldn't run our
type of operation there."
By contrast, Hiller's Ann Arbor store is
55,000 square feet, his Plymouth store at Five
Mile and Haggerty is 65,000 square feet and
his Commerce Township store at 14 Mile
Road and Haggerty is 70,000 square feet.
But Hiller wasn't willing to auction off the
Southfield store to the highest bidder.
"In the past five years, I've had a lot of
offers for that location," he said, "but I
declined to sell it to just anyone out of my
sense of obligation to the Jewish community.
It wasn't until I found someone who would
take care of the community, as we had for
the last 40 years, that I sold. With One Stop Kosher,
I don't have to be concerned," Hiller said.
Silverstein, 28, has only been in the grocery busi-
ness for four years, but he has big plans.
A native of Southfield, Silverstein has studied at
several yeshivot. He was working in his father's
scrap-metal business when friend Shlomo Goldman,
a traveling salesman, came up with the idea for an
all-kosher grocery store in Southfield.
Silverstein and Goldman had been friends since
childhood. Goldman lived in New York, but traveled
the Midwest selling kosher products. When he came
to the Detroit area, however, he didn't have any
place to sell his goods.
"One month later, we were operating One Stop
Kosher," Silverstein said.
The pair brought in a third partner, New York
businessman Henri Schmidt, and the business has
been a success from the start.
Specially Certified
What set their venture apart was selling all kosher,
name-brand products. Local supermarkets sell some
kosher brands as well as some general products with
kosher supervision. But no one in the area was offering
a full selection of kosher name-brand products alone.
"Kosher name-brands have double, triple supervi-
sion," said Silverstein. The products carry proof of not
just the OU or OK — officially recognized hechshers,
or kosher-certification symbols — "but special rabbinic
supervision. There are some people that require that."
One Stop also sold "ultra-supervised" dairy prod-
ucts, a new offering to this area at that time.
But after four years, the store was bursting at the
seams.
Update
On Kosher Outlets
There have been changes in recent weeks at the following kosher-food outlets:
26026 Greenfield Road, Southfield, 1 1/2 miles from the old store. The new loca-
• Jerusalem Pizza
tion offers better parking and access for an increasingly diverse clientele. The shop offers gourmet kosher
pizzas, as well as an expanded line of kosher salads, sandwiches and hot entrees, such as eggplant parme-
san and egg rolls. It also carries a full line of vegetarian products made from soy protein.
—
• All/K Kosher — 26035 Coolidge Highway, Oak Park. A new kosher market and carryout that sells
corned beef and other ready-made kosher items.
• Dexter-Davison Kosher Meats — 13181 W. 10 Mile Road, Oak Park. Changed ownership on Sept.
1. Due to a conflict with the Vaad Harabonim (Council of Orthodox Rabbis of Greater Detroit), the
store is not supervised.
• Bagels Plus and New York Pizza World — 15320 W. Lincoln Blvd., Oak Park. Closed until fiirther notice.
• Dunkin' Donuts — 10 Mile and Greenfield roads, Oak Park. Now under new ownership, the store
will re-open. It is negotiating for kosher supervision.