“Water and oil don’t mix” may be a proverb rooted in truth, but there are certainly exceptions to that maxim as is the case in the historic city of Alton, 18 miles north of St. Louis. Not far from the confluence of the Illinois, Mississippi and Missouri rivers, there is a unique experience for foodies in Alton which has captured the hearts and appetites of locals and visitors. Tim and Julie Meeks opened Olive Oil Marketplace as a brick-and-mortar store in downtown Alton in 2012 with a selfless goal: to share their love for healthy eating and flavorful cooking.

“Olive Oil Marketplace is where you can come experience quality and taste the difference in olive oils and balsamic vinegar. It’s the core brand of what we do. We also have our pastas, coffees, loose teas, sauces, dips, spices,” stated Tim. “It’s just a little bit of everything for everyone.”

“It’s a healthy way to eat,” said Tim’s wife, Julie. “It’s a whole new concept of how you want to cook. It’s not fancy, it is just using good quality olive oil and balsamic homemade vinegars.”

The motto of this mouth-watering marketplace, which carries more than 85 different favors of oils and balsamics, is “Experience the quality and taste the difference.” At Olive Oil Marketplace, customers get the opportunity to take a pull from any of the stainless steel fustis lined up inside the store and take samples from countries such as Italy, Greece and Spain as well as taste flavored balsamics including mango and lemon.

“We have wonderful flavors here. There’s not one that you cannot find that you are not going to like. But everyone of course is going to like garlic. Everybody likes garlic in something,” said Julie with a note of encouragement. “We’re talking portobello and garlic, shallot and garlic, or parmesan cheese and garlic. They can be used on anything. We use them from veggies to your meats and potatoes.”

“So many people walk in our door and they’re like, ‘Oh, my gosh! I didn’t even realize what you have here,’” recalled Tim who noted that the secret sauce to successful retail is providing customers with a memorable experience. “That’s what you got to do for retail. I mean you’ve got to give them that wow factor. You’ve got to give them what they want.”

Life changes

Julie and Tim levelled up their passion for culinary exploration after a trip to Europe, where they encountered an olive oil store that inspired their brainchild for Olive Oil Marketplace. The couple then started experimenting with olive oils and balsamics and taking their creations to the customers.

“We were just kind of doing different festivals, fairs and events,” recalled Tim. “Then, we expanded out and we’re like, ‘Okay, it’s time to put this into a brick-and-mortar.’”

Julie went on to leave her corporate job to open the business. Tim recognizes Julie as the heartbeat of Olive Oil Marketplace.

“Julie is the face of what we do. Customers come to see her. It’s really an experience just to come into our store and experience what we have,” said Tim with pride.

“I’m very much a people person, said Julie with a smile. “I enjoy opening up everything that we have here and explaining what they can do with it (olive oils and balsamics) and the healthy benefits.

“This is just more satisfying, satisfying also knowing that we have doctors today that have been sending their patients here and trusting us over the 12 years,” said Julie. “Olive oil is so healthy for your body. It helps keep things flowing.”

A business with flavor

Tim and Julie source their extra virgin oils from a wide range of domestic and global regions including Italy, Spain, Greece, Tunisia and California.

“Once we export them in, they’re all independently tested to make sure that we do have true extra virgin olive oil,” explained Tim. “We have a supply point that does the infusion process for us, and that’s all handled with natural flavors. At that point, we bottle it and here we are today.”

“We’re really conscientious about sourcing products,” stated Tim. “We try to stay away from the big box store products, you know, something different, still trying to keep it at a reasonable price.”

The flavor of life

Julie and Tim interact with their customers in a way that resembles the flow of their oils: smooth and easy. They encourage people to mix and match products, share recipe ideas, and pass out kitchen advice to anyone who will listen – and customers do listen. And so, it seemed genuinely appropriate to ask the Meeks what they want the people of Illinois to know about retail.

”What I want the people of Illinois to know about retail is that we’ve learned along the way. I mean, it’s not easy. It is definitely something that you have to put all your efforts into, stated Julie who added, “Just hard work and long hours.”

“Yeah, it’s hard working long hours,” Tim countered. “Just because our door says we’re open, 11 to 5; it’s more than that. You got to put the effort in. You got to want to want it, but it pays off.”

“As far as being a retailer, don’t give up,” said Julie. “You’ve got to hang on and hang in there. It doesn’t happen overnight, that’s for sure. Just being there for that customer and having your door open when you say you’re going to be open is a big thing.”

Location. Location. Location.

Julie and Tim decided to open Olive Oil Marketplace in Alton because they live in Alton, and they said they “wanted to be here (in Alton),” because their history-laden community enjoyed an existential renaissance.

“Alton was coming back alive. It’s a vibrant community that had just started to sprout back into more retail. There’s just a lot of small businesses, local businesses that were opening in Alton, and it was continuing to grow,” said Tim with enthusiasm in his voice. “The historic buildings were starting to be renovated or starting to get cleaned up.”

“The tourism in Alton is really more than you can imagine. I can’t believe how many people come here actually just to vacation, explained Julie with a wide smile. “We don’t think of that when you live locally.”

Almost washed away

The Mississippi River, which lends tremendous character to Alton, almost destroyed Olive Oil Marketplace just as the store started to gain its footing.
In 2015, the Governor of Illinois declared a state of emergency after a deluge swamped much of the state. Heavy rainfall sent water over the levees in Alton and wreaked havoc in the downtown.

“The water was coming into the street, to where we were,” added Tim describing what happened. “Worse yet, it was coming up through the basement. The water got so high, it almost hit the ceiling in the basement. We made a decision to pull everything out of the store at that point. We just had people that were here just helping us pack and helping us put things away, and we just weren’t sure if we were going to wind up being back in or not.”

Julie and Tim were deeply moved by the community’s response to this extraordinary crisis.

“It was very scary and scary to see when we looked down the sidewalks and all the local businesses were packing,” Julie said as her eyes welled with tears and her voice cracked with emotion. “Strangers were walking in the door asking, ‘What can we do? What can we do to help?’”

Soaked but not submerged. It turned out that the floodwaters recessed before they outright swamped Olive Oil Marketplace, and the store was spared.

“By the grace of God,” Julie explained, “The water did end up receding, and we were able to get back in our building. It took about two or three weeks, actually, to get back to where we were.”

“I think with the flood, it helped us understand and gave us comfort that, you know, Alton wanted us here,” Tim reflected on that experience with gratitude. With the doors of their business only open three years, they felt embraced by their community as loyal customers told them, “We are so lucky to have you.”