Jeff and Tom Heinen are bracing for their biggest and busiest opening day in Heinen's 86-year history on Wednesday morning, Feb. 25.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- If it seems like Heinen's Fine Foods' downtown Cleveland store can't possibly live up to the hype surrounding Wednesday morning's grand opening, that might be true.
But just in case, Jeff and Tom Heinen are bracing for their biggest and busiest opening day in the company's 86-year history, with visitors ranging from curious downtown office workers to residents who've never stepped foot in their other stores to die-hard shoppers armed with their lists and Heinen's reusable shopping bags.
It's a far cry from the tiny butcher shop their German immigrant grandfather Joe Heinen opened in 1929 in what is now the City of Shaker Heights.
According to family lore, "as customers came into Heinen's new shop for their meat purchases, they began asking him to carry groceries as well. Joe added homemade peanut butter, pickles and donuts, and by 1933, business had grown enough to include a line of produce and canned goods. Heinen's Grocery store was born."
If Joe Heinen were to step into any of his now-22 namesake stores in Northeast Ohio and Greater Chicago, he would probably be astounded by the breadth and range of products and services modern supermarkets now offer.
But he would probably also notice some of what his twin grandsons haven't changed: The parcel pick-up service he developed in 1953, so customers wouldn't have to take their carts into the parking lot or pack their own groceries in their trunks. Not to mention the extensive selection of meats, perishables and prepared foods; the tremendous emphasis on keeping customers happy; and that homemade peanut butter.
When the Heinen brothers expanded into suburban Chicago, they told the media there that they were expanding in part to invest in the fourth generation of Heinens, the children they hope will one day run the family business.
Kira Hennessey, who both lives and works downtown, said the beauty of Heinen's first Cleveland store is that it is still a work in progress, and won't be the same a year from now as it is today.
"I think that there are probably going to be some things that they thought would work really well that nobody's going to be interested in, and other things that they haven't done that people will really want," she said. She is looking forward to being part of that transformation.
86 Years of Heinen's:
1929: Meat-cutter Joe Heinen opens a 30' by 80' store in Shaker Heights that becomes what the family believes is Cleveland's first supermarket.
1939: Cleveland Heights store opens at South Taylor and Cedar Roads (it closed briefly after a fire in 1956 and was sold in 1986).
1950: Shaker Square store opens on South Moreland Boulevard (it closed in 1983).
View full sizeHeinen's founder Joe Heinen hands a customer a parcel pickup tag for her groceries in this 1954 photo from Heinen's Facebook page. 1953: Parcel pickup service - the first of its kind in Cleveland - debuts in November.
Joe's eldest son, Jack, turns down an offer to pitch for the Boston Red Sox to stay in the family business. A Plain Dealer story notes that "in his younger days, Jack had a fast ball that could burn the letters off a Heinen's shopping bag or tear the tops off a bunch of carrots." He pitched 17 straight hitless innings for the Red Sox farm team in San Jose and was named "Rookie of the Year."
1958: Joe Heinen named "Man of the Year" by the Retail Grocers Association.
1959: University Heights store opens in February.
1960: Warrensville Heights kitchen and commissary opens.
1962: Pepper Pike store opens. A March 28 Plain Dealer story notes that Joe Heinen, 58, dresses for work in a suit with a handkerchief in his pocket and buckled, loafer-type shoes, but "he still prefers the background."
"At Heinen's you can buy almost anything, including parakeet gravel and beet aspic salad," the story adds.
1964: Bay Village store, the company's first on the West Side, opens.
1968: Rocky River store opens.
1970: Heinen's opens a 376,000-square-foot warehouse in Warrensville Heights.
1971: Jack Heinen, 42, named "Cleveland Food Retailer of the Year," the youngest person ever to receive that award.
1974: Aurora store opens.
1976: Mentor store opens.
1979: Mayfield Village store opens.
1981: Middleburg Heights store opens. On Oct. 5, founder Joe Heinen dies at age 78. The company grossed $90 million a year in sales, with 11 stores, more than 1,000 employees, and an 8-percent share of the Greater Cleveland food market.
1986: Willoughby store opens.
1989: Heinen's sends 430 boxes of chocolate to patients at Cleveland Metropolitan General Hospital for Valentine's Day. In October, Heinen's opens a cooking school at its expanded Pepper Pike store.
1990: Bainbridge store opens.
1994: Jack Heinen dies at age 66. His twin sons, Tom and Jeff Heinen, take over the business.
1997: Chardon store opens.
1998: Twinsburg store opens.
2002: Brecksville store opens.
2003: Avon store opens.
2005: Hudson Village Market opens.
2007: Strongsville store (a former Tops Supermarket) opens.
View full sizeHeinen's opened its first Chicago-area store in the Village of Barrington, Ill., in August 2012. 2012: Barrington, Ill., store -- the company's first outside of Ohio -- opens.
May 7, 2014: Glenview, Ill., store opens.
Aug. 13, 2014: Bannockburn, Ill., store opens.
Oct. 29, 2014: Lake Bluff, Ill., store opens.
Feb. 25, 2015: Downtown Cleveland store opens.
Later in 2015: Chagrin Falls store? The brothers have signed a letter of intent, but details are still being negotiated.
Early 2016: Heinen's plans to open a $9 million expanded bakery, meat-cutting facility and prepared foods kitchen in Warrensville Heights to better serve its 22 stores in Ohio and Illinois.
(Sources: Heinen's Fine Foods, The Plain Dealer archives)
Plain Dealer News Researcher and Reporter Jo Ellen Corrigan contributed to this story.