The Park Street Market’s has been open since 2010. Industry experts and local grocers said a neighborhood grocery on the Northside cannot be viable. Kiar Gamsho, Tom Gamsho, Sam “Pops” Gamsho, Sam Shina and Dean Sadek set to prove this theory wrong. Everyone deserves the access to fresh foods. Being generational grocers from the City of Detroit, they saw the Northside as a microcosm of Detroit. Corporate America and Corporate Grocery Stores abandoned the City of Detroit as they did the Northside Neighborhood. Fast forward to today, the Northside Neighborhood with the guidance of Mattie Jordan Woods and Park Street Market has become a Food Destination. Foodies from all across West Michigan patronize Park Street Market for its Award Winning Soul Food Kitchen, its top rated Meat Department, friendly staff and great environment. On any giving day, with Park Street Market’s roots from Motown, you will see customers and employees dancing and grooving to Motown Legends.
Grocery Stores are anchors for neighborhoods. In this day and age, with social media and technology, people tend to not physically socialize. Park Street Market prides itself in keeping a clean, fun and safe environment, where the neighborhood can congregate. You can feel the sense of community/family the Northside maintains when you shop at Park Street Market. This also stems from the fact that store is a Family Business. Every single moment when you are shopping , a family member is present assisting customers and caring about the store and Neighborhood.
Park Street Market has been recognized for many accolades since 2010. We appreciate being recognized, but the true satisfaction for our family, employees and store is defying what was said in 2010, that the Northside does not deserve or cannot sustain a grocery store. Reading between these lines, my family took this as certain people who live in certain neighborhoods do not deserve the access to fresh food. Local Grocers laughed at Mattie Jordan Woods and the Northside Neighborhood trying to reopen the old Felpaush, that was shuttered. Mattie had to travel 200 miles away to recruit our family to Kalamazoo. I will be honest, Kalamazoo seemed as far as Antarctica from Detroit.
God works in mysterious ways. I, Kiar Gamsho, was a 26 year old college graduate working a desk job in Bloomfield Hills, at the time Felpausch closed its doors. As a kid growing up i loved going to work at my fathers grocery store on the Eastside, Detroit. My father knew all his customers and they all knew him. It was a family environment. My father, Pops, was retired in 2010 from the business at the time Mattie started her search. I had a calling to get back into the business, so i left my desk job and worked with my brother-in-law Sam Shina in Detroit. During that six month stint, Sam invited me to a road trip to Kalamazoo to meet with Mattie. After visiting Kalamazoo, no one from my family or Sams family was in a position to move to Kalamazoo and run a formerly closed down grocery store. God’s guidance gave me the strength at the young age of 26 to convince my family to invest into the Northside and let me, at a young age oversee 50 employees and a large investment. I grew up in Bloomfield Hills but i was raised in Detroit. My father instilled humility and hard work into my family and I. With his faith, guidance and humbleness Park Street Market success is due to God’s blessings in allowing my father, who at the current age of 76, to work everyday and oversee and protect Park Street Market and the Northside.
Awards :
Taste of the Chamber Kalamazoo – 1st Place
Kalamazoo Rib Fest – 1st Place
NAACP Vangaurd Award
Top 10 Michigan Markets
MSBDC Small Business of the Year
MSBDC 50 Companies to Watch