cover story: business/entrepreneurship

Photos by Je rry Zolynsky

{

Bill Carroll I Contributing Writer

Business always drops off at

the end of Tisha b'Av, really

rises sharply just before Rosh

Hashanah and Yom Kippur and

is steady every Thursday after-

noon as shoppers get ready for

Shabbos."

That's not a Jewish economist talking
about the national grocery business. It's
Farm Fresh Market owner Jerry Denha
describing what happens at his store in
Oak Park — and he's not even Jewish. But
Denha is up to speed on all things Jewish:
holidays, customs and local, national and
international news events.

He prides himself on this because
about 25-30 percent of his clientle is
Jewish. And the store has a 6,000-square-
foot kosher food section to take care of
them. (The holiday Tisha b'Av this year
was Aug. 9, Rosh Hashanah was Sept. 29
and Yom Kippur will be Oct. 1.)
A native of Iraq, Denha is one of the
many Chaldean owners of independent
Detroit-area grocery stores; some of
these Chaldean grocers took over stores
owned by Jewish grocers. In this case, the
Farm Fresh site was originally occupied
by a Dexter-Davison Market, a suburban
venture of the chain that began at that
intersection in the heavily Jewish neigh-
borhoods of the city. Dexter-Davison then
was purchased by Farmer Jack, another
Jewish-owned chain. Denha bought the
store in 2007 from the national A&P
chain — which had purchased it from
Farmer Jack.

Brothers Bought First Store

As a teenager in the mid-1970s, Denha
worked as a stock boy and packer at local
markets while attending Oak Park High
School. He and three brothers bought
a Food Giant store in Detroit, formerly
part of the old-time, Jewish-owned Great
Scott! chain.
"I then decided the time was right to
go into business on my own, so I came
here and used the Farm Fresh name,
which I saw on stores in West Virginia;'
he said.
Denha's partner is his nephew, Mike
Salmo of Farmington Hills.
"You have to work hard to make even
small profit gains in this business, but
we're doing very well:' Denha added.
"Sales are steadily increasing. The state's
economic situation hasn't hurt us too
much because, no matter what else hap-

Farm Fresh owner Jerry
Denha, right, looks over a
kosher product with Bill
Melkin of Southfield, a
sales representative for
the kosher products com-
pany Leo A. Dick and Sons
of Canton, Ohio.

Farm Fresh on page 6

October 2011

CHALDEAN NEWS I JEWISH NEWS 5