Thwarting the usual financial secrecy of private businesses, two Hyde Park entrepreneurs, Steven Lucy and Andrew Cone, post all their financial statements on the front wall of their five-month-old grocery store, Open Produce LLC.

The two young University of Chicago alumni had no business experience and not enough start-up money, but they shared a commitment to running a transparent and community-oriented business. Their customers appreciate it.

One regular shopper, 30-year Hyde Park resident Cathy Ann Elias, said, “I like coming into a small store where you know the people." She's a professor at DePaul University, and next semester a visiting scholar at the U. of C., who spends every summer in Italy, so, she said, she's used to going to a local store every day to buy fresh bread and vegetables.

When most Hyde Park businesses on 55th Street were suffering from plunging sales last year, the two neophyte businessmen were brave enough to open a store just a block away from a Treasure Island.

To achieve “sustainably ethical business,” Open Produce includes sales tax in its prices, mostly 2.25 percent for food items, because different taxes added at the final price often mislead customers and hamper them from making a rational decision, Cone said.

For the first two months, Lucy and Cone also listed how much they paid for the product on a price tag along with the amount they are charging. But because the prices of the produce section changed too often, they stopped doing that.

“We really want our business to be part of the community and people to feel like this is a place where they have input over or at least in line with their values,” Lucy said.

Erin Shaw, a junior at U. of C. who lives on the same block as Open Produce, said she comes to the store for its convenience.

“I get overwhelmed by the size of the store down the street,” Shaw said.

“It’s easy to find what I need [in Open Produce] and people who work here are really nice. People of the university thought it was cool to see entrepreneurship within former students, and I know people who live in this area support that,” she said.

Open Produce has maintained steady sales of $18,000 a month in the face of the current economic storm. Monthly earnings have averaged $600. Each month the owners spend $12,000 for inventories and $4,000 for other expenses including $1,700 on rent and $600 for utilities such as electricity, insurance and dumpster. Each owner takes home only $500 monthly.

The current flat sales pattern means the store's natural growth trend is being offset by recession and cold weather, Lucy said. Other businesses on the same block, including the Dollar Store, two Thai restaurants and a convenience store, all have lost a third of their sales, he said.

“We hope that warm weather and maybe the end of recession will help us out, because we really need about $800 [a day] to keep the business alive,” Lucy added.

Four years ago, Lucy, a history-major and Cone, a computer science-major, met in college. After graduating, Lucy freelanced as a Web designer and IT consultant in San Francisco and Cone worked as a computer programmer at JED Capital LLC, a trading firm in Chicago. Cone said he felt alienated from working in the office and reunited with Lucy who came back to Hyde Park in April.

“We started looking for a way to directly involve in the community and provide the service that people would value and respect,” Cone said.

But they're fighting some customers' assumption that their prices are high.

In fact, Lucy said, most Open Produce products are almost half the price of the supermarkets'.

He said a pound of strawberries at Open Produce costs $2.55 whereas it's $5 in Treasure Island, and the most expensive apple in Open Produce is $1.75 while the cheapest one at Treasure Island is $1.95.

The location of the grocery, the owners say, helps attract people living on the east side of Hyde Park including U. of C. students who would otherwise walk a long way to the grocery store. The main customers are from a two-block radius, plus people who commute by bus or Metra and shop at on their way home, Cone said.

Another factor that distinguishes Open Produce from the competition is that it offers diverse ethnic foods ranging from Chinese and Korean dishes to Indian cuisine to Mexican candy. Lucy said there’s more appetite for international cuisine in the surrounding neighborhood.

At the beginning of the business, however, two rookie entrepreneurs went through trials and errors, and ended up taking on a large amount of debt they did not anticipate.

“It cost more than $30,000 to improve the space, we only anticipated about $5,000,” Lucy said. Even after painting the store by themselves and building the store display structures, half of the expense went to labor costs for repairing the sink, a toilet and a fridge, and then $15,000 was spent to comply with the health code and building code, and to obtain a business license.

When Lucy and Cone traveled to a series of banks for loans, none was willing to lend money without collateral, especially to such beginner businessmen, Lucy said. After running up $10,000 of credit card charges, Lucy and Cone borrowed nearly $35,000 from their families and friends. “We majorly underestimated the business start-up expenses and this is only a 750-square-foot store,” he said.

After five months of running their own business, Cone said what he enjoys the most is not so much making money but rather interacting with the community people.

Hyde Park is known for its diverse demographics ranging from people who are directly affiliated with the U. of C., including students and faculty and other university employees, to people who work at the nearby businesses. Hyde Park is known for its strong community support of local business, Lucy said.

“I have gained much greater appreciation on who lives in this neighborhood, what they want and what their lives are like,” Cone said. “A lot of people come to the store, socialize, … and they tell me about their triumphs and failures. I like listening to them.”