Jungle Jim's International Market

Wow - New Boar's Head Old World Case and Fresh Mozzarella

2009-02-12T10:52:00.004-05:00

The remodel in the deli is complete!
Everyone has asked, "What are you guys doing now!?" Boar's Head created a category for their Old World Delicacies. The Old World items are not your typical deli cuts. With that we acknowledged for people to understand we had to create an area that gives the Old World an identity. Items like Bresaola dry-cured in traditional fashion. The legendary Lomo Embuchado, the Italian version of cooked ham; Prosciutto Cotto and Serrano Ham are a few of the delicacies you will find in the Old World Tower.

In the case right of the tower will be our Fresh Mozzarella station. Of course it's not going to be your normal mozzarella station. We will make fresh mozzarella using traditional methods, but we will add a twist. After searching we concluded that our twist does not exist in retail, foodservice, or restaurants. The mozzarella station opens February 20th, 2009.

In the back right corner of the photo is the spiral slicer. Jungle Jim's deli staff will spiral cut Boar's Head Hams, Turkeys, and Pork. Fantastic items available all year. If your heart desires a flame glazed ham, our staff will custom slice and glaze your ham for you.

Want to see the space in 3D? Understand the Photosynth link only works with Internet Explorer. Click here to see the area.

Have Fun!
Phill

I wish Hobart would make ....

2009-02-10T11:44:00.002-05:00

I have a request for Hobart.

Most of you have heard of Hobart but can't remember why. Remember going through the cafeteria line in school? Remember all the stainless equipment behind the lunch lady? Odds are it was Hobart equipment.

Hobart Corporation makes a lot of foodservice equipment but they do not make the one item every household should have! A lot of you have under counter dishwashers in your house. It takes about an hour to wash the dishes from the day. I hope you are sitting down... Hobart makes a dishwasher that washes the same load in only 2 minutes! The LXI Warewasher (Hobart does not call them dishwashers) is the same size as your home version. It's not as pretty, but it's a workhorse!!

We use five under counter LXI machines in the store. The Deli has one behind the deli service case to wash all of the slicer parts. By law they have to tear every slicer down, wash and sanitize every four hours. Since we have 12 slicers that would be expensive to run all the way back to the kitchen. It saves a lot of steps, allows the staff to stay on the service line and completes its task in two minutes. The cheese shop, sub shop and Oscar Event Center each have a unit in place. The Event Center uses it when the large machine is not required. The Cooking School has one for after class cleanup.

I wish Hobart made a version for my house!

Have Fun!

Phill

Skylights

2009-02-03T08:35:00.003-05:00

I know the store is a bit overwhelming, but have you looked up lately? We installed skylights. The manufacturer refers to them as Daylighters.

What a difference. The colors in the store jumped to life! Prior to the skylights, the rooms had a metallic feel with a cast of gray.

The install for 40 something skylights was neat to watch, time consuming, loud, and took a long time. The weather wouldn’t cooperate. Every night we would schedule an install, it would rain or snow.

The simple process to add skylights on our store:

1. Create a drawing to maximize the light. We choose the checkerboard layout.

2. Inspect the layout from the floor of the store to see if the drawing makes sense. We have a lot of "stuff" hanging from our ceiling. Several were moved to fit.

3. The roofing company worked the roof. They would layout the skylight openings on the roof, cut out the membrane and insulation. At that point they would run the Milwaukee circular saw through the steel roof. If you like tools, you will love this saw! It cuts through metal like its butter! It was really cool. :)

4. Install the curb (basically a metal box with no top or bottom. It had a lip to screw to the roof.

5. Install the skylight on the curb.

6. Insulate and clean up all the vinyl membranes for the roof and move to the next skylight.

7. Each skylight took required about 2 hours.

Our skylights were installed to be supplemental lighting only. At some point we may connect some of the lights to sensors that will turn them on and off. I'm sure some of you will get excited and send emails demanding we install the computers to control the lights with the skylights. Stay Calm... we did install new lights when we put the skylights in. Our kilowatt consumption has dropped significantly. Controlling the lights is nice but we can do more inside the store to drop our energy consumption. The light control project is a lower priority. Some day...

Have Fun!

Phill

Jungle Jim's Recyling Program

2009-01-19T12:05:00.018-05:00

So you ask.... "What could Jungle Jim's Possibly recycle?"
OMG... where do I start!?

Number One on the list has to be our Monorail. In it's previous Life.... Wild Animal Habitat and Lion Country Safari at Kings Island in Mason Ohio.

Grocery Carts: IPT Brand carts are made from recycled plastics.
Cardboard: Like most stores, we recycle cardboard.
Pallets: a pallet is the wood or plastic base that the food and equipment arrive on. The plastic pallets are returned to the delivery company. The wood pallets are exchanged with the drivers or picked up by a pallet recycle company.

Building Materials: If you look around the store, you can spot a variety of items we have "recycled".

* Wine Department - venture deep into the wine department. You will find a nice collection of lay down wines. Look at the base the bottles are displayed. The wood surrounding the base is made from old delivery boxes. The bumper on the front of the display was old chair rails. the holder the bottles are laying in... same chair rail flipped over. Now look at the wine cellar. The brick wall was part of an old factory in Hamilton, Ohio. The wood upright display, by the award winning port o let bathrooms, used to be tractor trailer floors. :) The port o lets are made from recycled plastic. The fencing around the beer and wine registers are recycled.

* Riedel Glass display: Old building beams and sliding glass doors....

* Cigar Humidor: The windows and doors came from the old Performance Honda offices. The wood beams, same building the bricks came from.

* Liquor Store: The glass display counters are from Kings Island.

* Party Sign: Old Party City Stores sign.

* Cheese Shop: Every refrigerated Display case was recycled from another store. Completely restored, painted and cleaned for use in our store. The service cases in the cheese shop are from the old Cincinnati Dayton Road Thriftway.

* Deli: Same as the cheese shop. Every case was purchased from another store. The Boar's Head truck above the Deli was reconditioned and mounted above the deli.

* Olive Bar: Every case has been used outside of our store and restored. The beams are from the historic building mentioned above.
* Registers: Every check stand was a recycle from another grocery store. A little work, a little paint and we have nice functional check stands.
* Elvis: Elvis was retired from a famous pizzaria. Jungle brought him out of retirement to entertain thousands and thousand of guests a week. (make sure you make a collectable penny while singing along with Elvis)
* The U.S.S. Minnow: Yes, the big boat in Seafood. What a gem! Jungle found her in Florida sitting in a bog with no hope of sailing the high seas. Jungle purchased her and moved her north to our store. The expansion in 1992 was built around the Minnow. The boat is now our seafood managers office, the sound system for all the animatronics.

* Jasmin: Bricks, beams, and some fixtures are recycled. If you look at the glass display holders, you will notice all the metal pieces and if you look really close, you will notice the glass shelves are old windows.

* Outside of Jasmin: Bricks and cobblestone. The cobblestone was once a road in downtown Cincinnati (Now called Pete Rose Way)

* Kraft Nascar Car above entrance: from the movie "Days of Thunder" Yes, we have all the cars in storage for something... someday. :)

* On the outside of the greenhouse and other portions of the entrance. Wood blocks are installed like bricks. The blocks were guardrail blocks. The state of Tennessee changed the specs for the transition block. When you build guardrails you have the post that goes in the ground. At the top left side of the post you install the transition block and the guardrail on the outside. A bolt goes through the metal rail, transition block, post and secured with a large galvanized nut. We used the transition blocks throughout the building.

* The two "Shade Screens" outside of the greenhouse are recycled from downtown Cincinnati. They were the Metro bus stops in downtown Cincinnati.

* The little "house" on the outside of Shasta was Tupperware trade show piece.

* Inside Shasta the walls on the left side. If you look closesly, the wood is about 3 inches in width. The wood from the original building was saved for years. We recycled it into this shop. The carpenters added beautiful features with the wood. look for the wonderful designs.

* The drop ceiling (orange) was old pallet racking.

* The gift basket order station was International Paper's trade show equipment.

* The Changing room is 100% recycle... Check out the shower head. LOL.

* The jewelry case... an old deli case. Ice cold jewelry and diamonds. LOL.
* The curved brown display case against the back wall was another recycled piece from International Paper.

* a lot of the display fixtures are antiques folks have donated over the years. Some of the tables and benches are from Kings Island. (remember the pizza and food building on the left when you enter the park?)

* The cart corrals (with green roof, we have 3) were built with beams from another old building. No worries, they were supplemented with Steel and sprinklers.

* Wood barrel trash cans: old whiskey barrels.

* The water scene was created with recycled products and recycled plastic animals. (the ducks are real)

Pre Heat Water: unlike most stores, we pre-heat the water before it enters the hot water tanks. Tim Carrigann deserves credit for this. Tim was our plumber who also ran a dairy farm. In the dairy industry they recovered heat by using Mueller Free Heaters. Tim connected our compressors (refrigeration) to the pre-heaters. Thus, preheating the cold water prior hitting the hot water tanks. I ran into the Meuller folks at a trade show recently and found out they are integrating their products into the grocery industry. We were twenty years ahead of the industry. Good Job Tim.

I will update this posting periodically.

Have Fun!

The Serpent - not Puff the Magic Dragon

2009-01-09T12:54:00.005-05:00

Click on the Photos... You have to admit, He's really Cool!

The serpent arrived around mid 1997. He "slept" in our warehouse for years until we found a home for him. His home was created when we moved our rear entrance / exit over to match Fairfield High Schools new bus entrance.

He was originally designed to be part of an aquarium. And the story goes.... the designer forgot about him until the truck arrived.... LOL I kid you not. How could someone forget this little guy?! He's so cute!

His original colors were scary. We put a lot of time and effort trying to remove that scary look.

I've noticed a lot of people posting pics of the serpent on the web. That's cool!

Jeanine of Fairfield sent pictures of him after one of our ice Storms
Thanks Jeanine!

Have Fun!
Phill

2009-01-09T12:32:00.009-05:00

Directions to the Store

View Larger Map

Map to Jungle Jim's International Market

2009-01-09T12:17:00.005-05:00

Need Driving directions to Jungle Jim's?

I have a link to a google map. When you open the link look to the left side of the screen. All of our tenants are listed. If you turn on the satellite view you can zoom into the store. Google has added street view to this map. click on the little yellow man in left top side of map to see the street view of the store.

Click Here to Visit the Map

Since Ikea and Bass Pro show up in a lot of blogs with Jungle Jim's, I've added their location to this map as well.

Have Fun!
Phill

Port O Lets

2009-01-02T14:52:00.007-05:00

Wow! Who would have thought bathrooms could create that much excitement?!!
While designing the current wine shop, Jungle mentioned making them port o lets. It took us a bit of time to understand what his thought was. Once we understood and put it on the drawing it was hilarious. We talked about the looks and comments from customers. Little did we know how many looks and comments we would get from customers. LOL !
The port o lets really go back to Jungle's stand located at Erie & High. He didn't have a building with a shower so he created a wood box similar to an outhouse for his shower.

After construction and preparing to open to the public the health inspector and fire marshal both had to approve the expansion. Both were stunned and hesitated when we approached the bathrooms. Opening with temporary port o lets wasn't going to fly. LOL Even trying to convince them that we would have Rumpke service the port o lets daily wasn't getting us anywhere. LOL All was well once they opened the doors to the beautiful restrooms. :)

We designed them using the port o let that was on the job site. We quickly realized the standard Port O Let wouldn't work. The doors are narrow and short. A few phone calls cleared our minds. We can order the wheelchair accessible shells. YES! problem solved. LOL

I placed the phone call to the Port O Let manufacturer. The woman that took the call was not amused by our humor. I have to give it to her though, she understood the concept and shipped our order in pieces rather than a built unit. That saved a lot of time. Plus the contractors were able to add "Port O Let" builder to their resume. Our contractors experience a lot more building for us. Some of them love new challenges, others are shooting nails at us from the power nailer. LOL

After a year of excitement and watching people stand in front of the bathrooms waiting for someone to come out (LOL) we decided to add a sign in the store declaring ourselves as the winner by the "National Lavatory Association; LVA". Of course there is no LVA. And of course we didn't know about the national contest that Cintas holds.

Someone must have added our store to the list of restrooms for 2007. Someone from Cintas called and told Beth in Marketing that we were nominated as one of the five best restrooms in America. Of course I thought it was a prank call. LOL Once we visited thier website and realized it was for real, we informed Jungle. He thought it was a joke as well, but we convinced him otherwise.

Channel 19; WXIX arrived moments later to do the interview. Jungle wasn't available so Beth and I did the segment. That was a riot. Jungle made it to the last few minutes of the interview. Little did we know how significant that interview would be. The next day I was receiving google alerts and phone calls from people across the country. Our story had gone national. LOL. Of all things in the building we were going to be know for the restrooms.

Jungle likes contests and doesn't like to lose. During the online voting period we ran tv and radio commercials, passed out fliers and asked customers to vote for our port o lets.
About a month later Cintas arrived with the plaque! Best Restroom in America. That was awesome. Again national news. Even my "girlfriend" Robin Meade on CNN had our video. Jungle was live on national and international shows. Who would believe that the BBC would do a live interview with Jungle because of our restroom?!

Today, the port o lets stand proud in the fine wine shop with the plaque of Best Restroom. Chris; Jungle's son came up with the idea of turning the center port o let into a photo opportunity. The door was removed and the "throne" was created. Feel free to take your picture standing in the Best Restoom in America
LOL

Have Fun!
Phill

Employees and bakers

2008-12-29T15:07:00.003-05:00

Over the years we spent a lot of money trying to find employees. I figured it's worth a shot to post something about working in the jungle.
Like most retailers we post signs and advertise in the local papers. We even post jobs online. A lot of people apply for positions in the store. Most apply expecting to work around their person schedule. In the retail world... it doesn't work that way. Retail is hard work, hard hours, and requires the right person.
A good example would be our bakery. Most of our bakery is made from scratch products. Fantastic breads and pastries. But.... they require a lot of people power to make the great breads. Most of our bakers start early and work long hours. Trying to find the right person for this position is hard. Currently they have an ad running for a scratch baker. I bet they interview 25 people before they find the person that hopefully fits the position.
Everyone always wants to know... how many employees work at Jungle Jim's. Answer: We average about 400 to 425 employees weekly. Add the tenants and their employees and we probably have over 600 employees working on the complex. Hard to believe considering he started by himself out of a tent.
I believe I have worked in every department except as a cashier. Cashiers have a tough job.

If you read this and still want to work here.... click over to our link
LOL
it can't be too bad... I'm over 23 years with the store.
Have Fun!
Phill

The Pond

2008-12-26T09:53:00.014-05:00

The Waterscene, the Pond, the Jungle... I can't imagine how many photos have been taken of this area.

Jungle built it with the help of several people. Several that still work here.

Basically, it's a in ground pool. All

the filters and

pumps are in the waterfall.

We have a family of ducks that have

called this pond home. They fear no one. The ducks are cute when they are small, but can be a bit annoying as they grow.

Some of you remember the pond before it was the exit. Back in the day you had to exit down a pretty step ramp (this ramp has the large fruit and vegetables around it).

Check out the parking lot in the Older pictures.... That lot was a pain. We turned the parking lanes

90 degrees away from the building. What a difference.

New Store Locations

2008-12-24T07:59:00.003-05:00

We recieve a lot of requests for store locations and where they believe a Jungle Jim's would do really well. Yes, we have looked at a lot of locations. We will review every request.

Number one requested area: Indianapolis

Number two: Northern Kentucky

Number three: Columbus Ohio

Number four: Southeast Indiana

Many of you remember the Millworks project in Oakley Ohio. The project ran into too many issues and faded away. That would have been a fun store.

We did try to purchase the HQ in Florence many, many years ago. Another great location, but a developer purchased it and opened Linens and things....

What are we looking for? Honestly, nothing. Currently, our focus is on the Fairfield location. I have a stack of potential locations. The stack is growing fast. Commercial Real Estate must be tough. Generally I recieve one of two a month. Now I'm getting one or two a week. By mid January I expect one or two a day. Stay Calm... LOL

It would take a lot for a city or development to persuade us to take on another Jungle Jim's.

You are also thinking ... "how do they build another Jungle Jim's" Good thought.... LOL

If we did another one it would not be like the current Jungle Jim's. It would take on a life of it's own. I like to call our store an omeba. Always changing shape and size. I'm sure another store would take on the same philosophy. It would open but adjust and grow with the customers.

If you are a realator and have a location, feel free to send me an email with all the information.

Have Fun!

Phill

Remember the entrance?

2008-12-22T11:27:00.007-05:00

Pictures from September 1st, 2002

Remember the metal carts? Loud, heavy and they needed a lot of maintenance. The While plastic cover was a carry over from the days of entering the building in through this plastic building...

The picture of the bare lot and the Tuna on the chalkboard is now our main entrance with the large Jungle Jim Sign.
If you look really close you can see the sign on the wall. Jungle Jim collectable Coke 12 packs. Jungle was the third person on a coke pack. Santa, Emeril then Jungle.

The building behind the original buiding eventually enclosed the wood building. We built over it.

Boar's Head Truck

2008-12-14T10:48:00.023-05:00

Click Here for Photosynth of Truck

Another "Landmark" in the store. One of the things we realized before the 2003 expansion... people get lost in our store. It has tall ceilings, lots of stuff, and your mind is focusing on the item of the moment. So as you evolve through the Jungle you tend to get lost.

Our resolve was adding higher or taller landmarks in the store. The Boar's Head Truck, The Big Cheese, Elvis, The Boat, Robin Hood and the Tree, The singing Birds and the World Famous Bathrooms.

Unlike most grocery stores, the deli is the department you run into every trip down the American Grocery Aisle. A lot of the other grocery stores run you into the meat department six or seven times.

We wanted to create a strong statement with Boar's Head. We started in dream world with several ideas. The truck was the element that stuck with us. We created drawings and paper models trying to create this statement. With a lot of help from the folks at Boar's Head, we created the Truck.

We found the Truck in California. Had it delivered. Dissasemble it down to the last bolt. Cleaned it, reassembled it and added a fresh coat of paint. Once the truck was reassembled the box was designed and assembled. Fresh paint and the Boar's Head Logos were added.

The frame to hold the truck was created and the truck lifted high in the air.

If you look close, you will see product in the back of the truck. :)

Other companies carry and sell Boar's Head Brand Products. They are cute. They put up nice displays with fantastic Boar's Head Products.... you know what they are missing? Passionate employees.

Someone asked about our first experience with Boar's Head. In 1991 we made a trip to Atlanta. We are a small company, so the buyers/managers have to make their department unique. About 12 of us made the trip. No itenerary, no idea where to visit, no clue... LOL. We stumbled across Harry's Market. They had a spectacular Boar's Head display with a stunning red awning. It was the find of the trip.

After the trip we started making phone calls. Understand, the internet wasn't avaialable. After three years of searching, Boar's Head walked into our store. Later I found out that is was blind luck that they walked into our store.

There are very few days you clearly remember changing the direction of the store. I remember the day like it was yesterday.

One of the problems...? Cincinnati didn't know who Boar's Head was. It took years and a lot of work. Slowly other retailers picked up the brand. Once one of the local chain stores put Boar's Head in their Montgomery store our sales skyrocketed. Some day I will thank them. :)

Have Fun!

Phill

2003 expansion

2008-12-11T14:34:00.012-05:00

In May of 2003 we started the large expansion that now include Sushi, Jasmin, American Grocery area, Deli, cheese, Jungle Subs, Starbucks, Beer & Wine, Liquor.

Notice the Original building with the white siding.
The gray stone block in the corner was removed late in construction. That is now lane one in grocery.

The Fire Truck

2008-12-11T13:56:00.010-05:00

Click Here for Photsynth View of the truck

The fire truck really did come from Hueston Woods.

We removed the fuel tank and engine. A fresh coat of paint, a few "fire kill' Stickers on the side (like the fighter planes) and she was ready for the hot sauce area.

After 9/11 people started sending patches from their department. We started posting them under the truck.

Did you know?

2008-12-08T14:30:00.008-05:00

Sensory overload in the Jungle. I will post little snippets of information and pictures of odd items most people would not see or pick up. It's like a treasure hunt in the Jungle.

Example: When you enter the store by 5/3 Bank you can see the original building. You can still see the scars and "pins" in the concrete. We sold potatoes and onions in this area. The produce department was about 40 feet by sixty feet long.... and we thought that was big. :)

Have Fun!
Phill

Monorail Pictures

2008-12-05T12:08:00.001-05:00

Monorail Photos - First Full Run

Want to open your business here?

2008-12-05T08:39:00.006-05:00

Want to be part of the Jungle Jim Experience?
Send your email to: PhillatJungleJims@gmail.com
2000 square foot space with outdoor seating area available

Click here for Pic

Questions

2008-12-04T14:07:00.000-05:00

So.... we decided to join the bloggers of the world. At Jungle Jim's we receive hundreds of emails, phone calls, and handwritten questions about the store.
Number one asked question: When are you opening another store? Answer: We are not looking for a specific location. Maybe someday a developer will find the perfect spot for another Jungle.

Number two: when will the monorail run? It runs, but is not open to the public. We have a lot of little stuff to complete and hasn't made the high priority list.

Number three: when will Jungle Jim's have a restaurant in the store. Completed!! Jungle Subs featuring Boar's Head Brand Products is open.

Have Fun!
Phill