One of the oldest businesses in downtown Skokie has been named Business of the Year by the village’s Consumer Affairs Commission under revamped rules for the award in recent years.
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Haben Funeral Home, 8057 Niles Center Road, has been a fixture in the downtown for many decades.
“Since I’ve been on the Consumer Affairs Commission, one of the more difficult experiences has been helping with Business of the Year selection,” Consumer Affairs Commission Chairwoman Joanne Haeberlin said at the Sept. 5 Village Board meeting when the awards were presented.
“The difficulty lay not in not having a business that deserves this award but just in having so many,” she said. “What an awesome problem to have.”
Two years ago, the Consumer Affairs Commission changed its format, and the name “Business of the Year” replaced “Merchant of the Year” so the award was “more inclusive,” she said.
Nominations are still made by people who frequent Skokie businesses, Haeberlin said, but then questionnaires are sent to all nominees asking for information and why that business would make a worthy winner. The commission decides the business of the year, which receives a trophy with a name inscription to put on display.
This year, the commission received more than 100 nominations and 18 businesses returned completed questionnaires, Haeberlin said.
Three runner-up businesses to the Business of the Year award this year included Tolziens Auto Service, which has been at its current location since 1978 and opened in 1952; Ace Hardware, independently owned and operating in downtown since 1928, one of the oldest continuous businesses in Skokie; and the Skokie Theatre, another key downtown attraction.
Haben Funeral Home has been located in Skokie and in the Haben family since 1923, according to the Habens.
The funeral home was also a founding member of the Skokie Chamber of Commerce, Haeberlin said.
“We’re local owned and operated, we’re part of the community, we live, work and worship in the community,” said John Haben. “We treat all client families with dignity, professionalism and respect.”
Haben Funeral Home is only a few years away from celebrating a century of service in downtown Skokie.
Haeberlin said the commission decided on Haben, realizing it is not only a business but it deals “caringly well with people in a very emotionally fragile part of their lives.”
Skokie Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Howard Meyer said John Haben’s grandfather, Ray, helped found the Skokie Chamber in 1925 and played key roles in development of the organization.
“The Haben family is arguably Skokie’s first family — the Kennedys of Skokie,” Meyer said, adding that Haben Funeral Home “touches the lives of its customers when they are at their lowest and most vulnerable, when things are at their most difficult.”
John Haben asked the funeral home staff and their families to join him when he accepted the award.
“We hope to bring the same values into the next century of business,” he said.
@SKReview_Mike
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