Remember Chicago Markets?

This vintage lunchbox features the smiling shopping cart mascot and the memorable slogan, “C’mon in and push me around!”—a phrase that many in the Mohawk Valley still remember today.

Chicago Markets was a locally based supermarket chain with stores throughout the Utica-Rome area. The company opened one of its best-known stores on Columbia Street in Utica in 1949, with features that included automatic doors and grocery delivery. The chain remained a familiar name through the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s before being acquired by Great American in the early-to-mid 1980s. If you enjoy remembering Utica businesses that once had a much bigger reach than many people realized, check out the story of Chocolate Pix and its chocolate postage stamps.

Who remembers shopping at Chicago Markets—or hearing the yellow cart say, “C’mon in and push me around!”?