APRIL 2024

FEATURE
CHALDEAN NEWS
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Ice Wars
Home City Ice gives customers
the cold shoulder
BY CAL ABBO
Chaldeans in Detroit are known
for owning various businesses,
often party stores or gas stations,
or industries affiliated with
them. They have a specific kind of
quality that separates them from other
operators: excellence of service and
dedication to their customers.
There are many examples of the
Chaldean factor in business, but none
as clear as the recent shakeup in the
retail ice market. In late 2022, Saad
Abbo sold his successful ice company,
U.S. Ice, to a large corporate firm called
Home City Ice. Since then, retailers
have reported a dramatic increase in
prices and a substantial reduction in
the quality and frequency of service.
Sam Bakkal owns a BP gas station
on the corner of 13 mile and Greenfield.
Before the acquisition, he was a
loyal customer to U.S. Ice. In his own
words, “I, for one, never considered
calling anybody else.”
Abbo’s entire business model was
focused on providing good service for
his customers. In today’s corporate
world, this attitude is often lost. Even
as Abbo’s ice empire grew larger, and
perhaps because of it, his focus never
shifted to making money alone. It was
always about the customers.
The idea for U.S. Ice was born
when the ice delivery service failed to
deliver to the family store and Abbo’s
father suggested the family start their
own ice company. The rest is history.
“My father was aggressive,” Abbo
added. “We opened up the ice company
and put a plant together. It was
producing 10,000 pounds of ice every
day. At the time, we thought that was
a lot.”
Abbo and his brother bought a
few trucks. After the first year, they
had about 50 customers. Not bad for a
startup, but it wasn’t something to start
a career over. The following year, that
number tripled to 150. After that, they
really believed they could succeed in
this business. So they sold the store.
“The whole idea behind it is service,”
Abbo said. “We built this thing
around the idea that you don’t delay a
customer. They call, and we were there
every time.”
In the beginning, it was the Chaldeans
who helped Abbo and his family
succeed. His high level of service
and ability to keep prices down was
appealing to the large community of
store owners. Eventually word spread
about U.S. Ice, and they deservedly got
many more clients. A bit over a year
ago, Abbo decided to retire, and sold
his company to Home City Ice.
“We kept the price down in Michigan
compared to every other state in
the country,” Abbo said. “Since we sold
the business one year ago, the prices
have almost doubled from what they
used to be, which is actually a normal
price compared to the rest of the country.
And the service is not there.”
Abbo won the Chaldean Chamber
of Commerce Businessperson of the
Year Award in 2014 and was inducted
into the Great Lakes Ice Association
Hall of Fame in 2023.
This quality of service and dedication,
as represented by Abbo’s example,
is what allows Chaldean businesses
to succeed over others. The new
issues with the corporate Home City
Ice only testifies to the large divide.
In the past, other large acquisitions
of Chaldean companies went
somewhat differently. Melody Farms,
the largest independent dairy company
in the Midwest at its peak, was
24 CHALDEAN NEWS APRIL 2024