Fairplay Foods Moving into Oak Lawn

By Bob Bong

Southland Savvy

Supermarket choices in Oak Lawn, which took a beating in recent months with the closings of the Oak Lawn Fresh Market at 95th Street and Cicero Avenue and the Dominick’s Finer Foods at 87th Street and Cicero, will pick up with the coming addition of Fairplay Foods, a neighborhood supermarket chain with seven locations across the Southland.

“We’re celebrating,” said Fairplay’s Mike Kozlowski, Vice President of Retail Operations and a partner in the business, which will be moving in to the former Dominick’s at 87th Street.

“We had a nice meeting with town officials and some of them knew us from shopping at our store in Worth,” he said.

“We’re not sure when we’ll be ready to open,” said Kozlowski. “We are redoing the store entirely. We’re going to give it a new look. We have to bring in all new equipment.”

Kozlowski said when ready, the new Fairplay will feature a bakery and hot food department, expanded produce and deli departments as well as the company’s trademark fresh meat department.

“We concentrate on our fresh meat department,” Kozlowski said. “It’s one of the things we’re known for; great quality.”

“We are a neighborhood store,” Kozlowski said. “Unlike some of the big box supermarkets, we know what our clients are looking for and we want to give them what they are looking for.”

The Oak Lawn store will be almost 52,000 square feet, which would make it one of the bigger stores for the 40-year-old chain.

Fairplay has three locations in Chicago as well as suburban locations in Hickory Hills, Worth, Markham and Dolton.

For information, visit http://www.fairplayfoods.com/.

New Nail Salon Opens in Mokena

Kal Nails Spa opened a few weeks ago at 10148 W. 191st St. in the space next door to 191 South in Mokena.

The salon offers manicures, pedicures and similar salon services. On its website, the salon says that one thing that sets it apart from other nail salons is that all of its specialists speak English so a customer can relate exactly what kind of service is being requested. It also will take customers as young as 5 years old.

The salon is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

For information, call 708-478-6285, or visit its Facebook page or its website.

Farmer Agent Moves into City

Jose Saldiver recently moved his Farmers Insurance office from 7236 W. Benton Drive in Frankfort Square to 5215 S. Archer Ave. in Chicago’s Garfield Ridge community. The phone number is still 708-263-4493.

His office manager said the move made sense because the vast majority of their customers were from the city’s Southwest Side.