"We worked the stock and the produce, and we delivered."īut Harroz's father didn't teach him everything. "I did anything they needed done," Harroz said of his first job, at the southwest Oklahoma City store his father opened in the early 1930s. If the peddling of produce, canned goods and T-bone steaks seemed an obvious career choice, the reason was as simple as a 10-year-old boy.Īt an age when today's boys mine the Internet, skate on Roller Blades and ping hardballs with aluminum bats, Nick Harroz learned to ply his trade - at Fairview Grocers. With his military service complete, the young man didn't look far for the profession that would guide his future. They voiced concerns over traffic, noise, safety of students walking to nearby Edmond Santa Fe High School and other issues.īut the homeowners lost - and Crest won - on every front, including a citywide zoning vote in April 1995. However - in size, emotion and legal expense - neither of those stores can match the one the Harroz family will open in February or March.Ĭonstruction on Crest's third store - its first outside Midwest City - started last spring.īut before bulldozers cleared a 15-acre field of weeds at the southeast corner of 15th Street and Santa Fe in west Edmond, nearby homeowners waged a king-size zoning war.Īllied Residents in Support of a Safe Edmond used two years of public meeting protests, petition drives and lawsuits to fight Crest's plans. The Midwest City locations employ more than 650 people and produce sales that topped $100 million in 1994. "We delivered the groceries and charged the groceries."įifty years later, Harroz's two 24-hour Crest stores draw bargain-hungry customers from 30, 40 and 50 miles away. "I had a meat market man and a young schoolboy, and the three of us ran the store," said Harroz, a month shy of his 76th birthday. Through five decades in the grocery business, the Crest Discount Foods entrepreneur has stuck close to his father's advice - and enjoyed a few zillion carts' worth of success.įresh out of the Navy in 1946, Harroz used $4,000 in savings to buy his first store, Nick's Brett Drive Grocery in Midwest City. On May 2, 2017, a site plan was approved by Edmond's planning commission for the possible 106,565-square-foot store and no timeline was set on when the store would have been completed.Ĭrest is based out of Edmond at its store on 15th Street and Santa Fe Avenue.If Nick Harroz's daddy taught him anything, he taught him that. There are no plans to sell the site, Harroz said, but he is sticking to the company philosophy of paying for new stores with cash rather than taking out loans. "We are just going to wait it out," Harroz said. But after construction bids came in over budget he has delayed construction for another two to three years. The company purchased 16.72-acres of land several years ago on the northwest corner of Sooner Road and Covell Road in Edmond, and last fall began dirt work preparing a pad site.Īt that time, Harroz stated that the building project would begin in about a year. The company is looking to push forward on two stores with one in Yukon and Mustang, but the exact locations have not been released. "We are pulling back on the reins," said Bruce Harroz, president of Crest. EDMOND - Crest Foods is holding off on its future store in Edmond as the company looks to expand its footprint near Yukon and Mustang amid increased competition from new WinCo stores in the Oklahoma City area.
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