ILLINOIS — From the sale of the state’s largest water park to a major bowling alley chain to a new business up for grabs, a woman-owned business success story and a big bakery merger, it was a busy week for business news in Illinois.
Here’s a look at some of Illinois Patch’s top business stories:
Raging Waves is home to 32 water slides, a wave pool, a lazy river, private cabanas and more spread across 58 acres. The water park will celebrate 17 years this summer.
Jarosch Bakery, established in 1959, is a family-run bakery specializing in cookies, cakes and doughnuts. It’s merging with a Chicago bakery that has roots going back to the 1930s.
A former Arby’s restaurant is being redeveloped into a Freddy’s — and it’s for sale! The restaurant property will cost $2.67 million and a total of 25,848 vehicles are passing directly in front of the property every day, according to the listing on LoopNet.
“I had no intention of really opening up a store because, for me, I was putting all of my focus on online,” the owner told Patch. “But it just really hit off, so I was managing both online and brick-and-mortar.” After the business reopened to in-person sales after closures associated with the coronavirus pandemic, online sales dwindled but in-store purchases “skyrocketed,” an expansion was needed.
“ALDI is always looking for ways to help customers save money, but with more experts warning of persistent inflation, the time was right to deliver even greater discounts on our already low prices for the second year in a row,” ALDI US President Dave Rinaldo said. “We don’t want food prices to hold people back from getting together with friends and family or spending time outdoors this season.”
