Channahon family invests in old-fashioned country market

CHANNAHON – It has been a few years since Channahon has had a country market – one where the meat is bought from area producers, the fruits and vegetables come from just past the border in season, and the guy behind the deli counter not only is the owner, but also its butcher.

Mac’s Country Market aims to fill that vacancy.

The market will soon be opening at 25224 W. Reed St. – any day now, co-owner Scott McMillin said.

McMillin and his wife, Chris, are working around the clock to get the shop up and running for the holidays.

They are aiming for the first week in December if all goes well.

If the name sounds familiar, it might be because Scott has been a trustee on the Channahon Village Board for 11 years.

Some residents might recognize him from his time at the former Frank’s Country Store, or his teen years working at the Foodliner on Route 6 and Tryon Street.

“As a kid, I worked at Foodliner. They started me on cutting chickens,” he said. “Then one Saturday, they started me on hanging halves of beef.”

Although he’s a heavy equipment operator for International Union Of Operating Engineers Local 150 by trade, Scott’s says his heart always has been in the food business.

His mother-in-law, Rose Weir, worked at Frank’s Country Store for 27 years and had run the florist department. Scott says that her expertise will come in handy at Mac’s, where she will be in charge of the new floral shop.

Chris McMillin has been a patient accounts supervisor at Morris Hospital for 28 years, but she just retired so she could work in the market. She says she will help manage the store and work in the floral department with Weir.

Together, they plan to make Mac’s a family business.

“We’ve been wanting to do this for quite a while,” Scott said.

In addition to the butcher shop, deli and floral shop, Mac’s aims to sell fresh fruit and vegetables, necessities such milk, fresh eggs and bread (Milano’s, of course) as well as some specialty items, such as locally produced honey.

The deli will feature Boar’s Head products, among other brands.

The meat carried in the store will range from grass-fed to traditional and will come from farms as close as Yorkville.

Scott knows a pork supplier at the old stockyards in Chicago, where the turnaround is only three days from market to store.

“The concept is to keep it small enough to keep things fresh,” he said. “I want to do as much [from] Illinois as possible.”

Scott’s not concerned about his competition from big stores such as Jewel-Osco; in fact, he believes both can serve the community.

“Jewel has been great for Channahon and Minooka,” he said.

Scott has many ideas for the future of Mac’s.

His Yorkville meat supplier will supply him with whole sides of beef, cut and frozen. Customized orders will be available, and customers won’t need to buy the whole cow.

Scott envisions evenings when locals can come in and learn to make their own sausage from a professional at an after-hours butcher class.

Scott said he knows of at least 30 guys in the city who make different sausages, some of which he will stock and sell in his store.

Although brown butcher paper still is hanging on the glass windows of the store, a lot is going on behind the scenes, as contractors are working to prepare the market for opening.

Some passersby have been visiting the shop, which sits between USA Liquors and Chin Chen restaurant on Reed Street, to see what’s going on and when it will be open, Chris said.

“A lot of people from the community stop, open the door and ask about certain products,” she said. “It’s great.”

“We are excited to get this open and running – and to be a part of the community,” Scott said.