The history of Dominick's Finer Foods, as culled from Chicago Tribune archives, is a quintessential American success story and one that, after several ownership changes and an influx of new competitors, has apparently run its course. Nine years later, he opened a second location with his year-old son, Dominick DiMatteo Jr. In , Dominick's unveiled its first large-scale supermarket, at W. North Ave. By , Dominick's had grown to 18 stores.
During the next decade, Dominick's would expand into a formidable No. Bob Mariano the CEO of Dominick's during the Safeway takeover had instituted prior to Safeway's acquisition but were in turn removed in by Safeway.
Items such as hot prepared foods, salad bars, localized merchandise, and enhanced customer service, once removed by Safeway, were put back into service to try and win back the Chicago consumer. Mariano currently the CEO of Roundy's Mariano's as of , expanded under the Mariano's banner and put pressure onto the Dominick's stores, which eventually closed in late Dominick's and its sister operation, Omni Superstore, was a pioneer in experimenting with unique ways for in store communication method between employees and methods for announcing messages to customers.
Most retail stores in the early to mid s still employed the use of analog 1A2 telephone systems with separate analog paging handsets or even microphones. Stores could be dialed using short codes and without long distance charges. An employee at the service desk would announce "Produce, you have a call on " and then the employee in produce would simply go to any phone in the entire store and dial to retrieve a call.
Around , this was highly advanced as most grocery stores still relied on analog 1A2 phone systems with a separate intercom handset that only had one or two voice paths. In addition to the overhead paging and parking capabilities of the phone system, employees could directly dial to each telephone in the store via an intercom extension such as or , etc.
For example, general merchandise would be extension The store manager could dial to directly dial general merchandise without having to overhead page across the entire store. While paging was frequent, Dominick's operations also experimented with walkie talkie radios. The radios weren't meant to replace the overhead paging, but to cut down on a few announcements, but overall, overhead paging was the most common way for Dominick's employees to communicate.
While the typical lay in ceilings stores used standard ceiling mounted loud speakers, the exposed structure stores used unique high powered Atlas Soundolier paging horns directed downward from the roof trusses in the s stores. Most of the s stores used white Soundsphere spherical speakers attached to the bottom of the roof deck. There was some experimentation with column mounted boxed speakers at customer level as well.
With the Option 11 systems, an even higher advanced feature package was outfitted into the Dominick's and Omni Superstore stores. Park and Paging using extension codes such as and were still common but the voice quality of the M and M Meridian 1 telephone sets was unsurpassed in quality and paging audio was tied into Soundsphere speakers and extremely clear.
In addition to reusing the Nortel BCM system from Safeway, Roundy's Mariano's tied in wireless SIP handsets for department managers and store directors to carry around on the sales floor. In , Dominick DiMatteo, Jr. According to the local press, his daughters and son did not have the same passion for the supermarket business.
There was corporate infighting that also contributed to the family selling the chain. It took three years before the company was sold to a Los Angeles-based grocery investment firm headed by Yucaipa Companies. In , the chain's then stores were acquired by Safeway Inc. Safeway soon began to sell its own private-label brands at Dominick's locations, replacing Dominick's former private-label brands. Marinara, Pesto, Napolitano, Bolognese or Alfredo.
Romaine lettuce, red onion, Gorgonzola cheese, tossed in our homemade, creamy balsamic vinaigrette dressing. Large Tiger shrimp, fresh ground Italian sausage and broccoli in a gorgonzola cream sauce topped with mozzarella cheese and baked golden brown. A loaf of classic seeded Italian bread stuffed with mozzarella wrapped in proscuitto ham, baked with simmering garlic and butter. Kelly, Chicago Tribune, March 25, Ralph Madrigal, stock boy on the night crew, loads shelves at the Dominicks at N.
Long time friends and late night shoppers meet in the Dominicks at N. Broadway in Chicago after the store started a hour operation.
Late night shopper Mrs. Broadway after the store started a hour operation, June 15,
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