Very Few Chains Worked Out in Illinois Part 2: Cub Foods

          Going off of yesterday's post, and first installment of VFCWOI, this seems to be a good follow-up, the chain Chicago, and other markets like Atlanta, Cincinnati, and parts of Wisconsin knew, now only in Minneapolis, Cub Foods. Cub Foods is a chain owned by Supervalu and serves exclusively the Minneapolis- St.Paul city and suburbs of Minnesota, but 30 years ago, was opening stores throughout the Midwest, which specifically we are focusing on the Chicago stores.

          As late as 2006, Cub Foods decided, under new ownership, or as they claimed, caused them to decide to leave Chicago, as well as other markets later on, now other than one location in Freeport, Illinois, only are found in Minnesota, but old buildings and labelscar's live on in the neighborhoods that called the stores...home.

          Here are some excellent pictures I found a few years ago, these are taken by a fellow retail photographer Billburmaster, and here is the link for the Cub Foods page.

Here is the store in Bloomington, Illinois, I posted some of my pictures in June, right when the Hawks won the Stanley cup, that the Cub Foods would close in the end of the month. This picture was taken January 2005, and now the store is empty.

Here is the store on South Larkin Avenue, in Joliet, Illinois taken in March of 2005, the store sits abandoned and is a dangerous sight, the city wants to put a church in it, but that is not happening.

Here is the store on North Larkin Avenue, in Joliet, Illinois, taken the same time, in March 2005, this store has since become an Ultra Foods store, as most of the Chicago Cubs changed to that store, this one quite some business, despite Jewl-Osco and Food 4 Less being on the same street.

I do not care for what is in this spot now, taken in February 2006, the Cub Foods in Tinley Park, Illinois is a generic Spanish market, high prices, bad service, the works, coming for many personal experiences shopping there in the past that keeps me out today!

This is the capital store, in Springfield, closed way later that the other Illinois stores, sometime in 2010, this store front remains empty.

If I recall, this store sits next to the former K's Merchandise office, but in 2012, the store in Decatur, Illinois converted to a County Market, maybe something else since then.

Here are some pictures suggested to me by a reader, from an Flickr photostream so_superbad, this is the store on Elston Avenue in Chicago, much like the store in Plainfield, that was a Strack n Van Til, as this store became a Strack as well, but this one is still open, maybe because they are much closer to Indiana than Plainfield was, being the chain is favored and headquartered in Highland, IN.

Former South Larkin Avenue store, picture provided by this article, saying how the store will be a church, but it is 2015, nothing has happened since.

The former Peoria, Illinois store, picture provided by Coldwell Bankers

This store seemed interesting, much like the location near Midway airport, which is an Art Van furniture, the stores in Aurora, Naperville, Winston Plaza in Melrose Park, and a few others, were called Grand Market, the ones that did not get purchased by Ultra Foods, this Grand Market must have been awful, out of the half dozen stores, only 3 or 4 open and stayed open for just months before closing, could have been a bank think, not funded to open. This store in Bridgeview, Illinois is now a Pete's Fresh Market, a growing local chain.

Here is also the link to the video I made on the Aurora, Illinois location, pictures from August 2012.

This is the store seen from the Sam's Club parking lot in Crystal Lake, Illinois around the fall of 2006, since then the entire plaza is closed, and lot is full of weeds. A Garden Fresh Market was in the Cub for a year or so, then closed, and the Walmart closed and moved along route 31, as the Toyota dealer down the street did.

A glimpse of what it looks like to day, pictures provided by this link here

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