chicagotribune.com - 275 views
Were fashion boutique retailers short-sighted in closing their 60614 shops as an economic recovery takes hold? Is passion for one's business missing from the shops which line Armitage & Clark Streets?
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- Amy Lechelt-Basta
- Armitage Avenue
- bank
- Chicago
- Chicago,Illinois,United States
- Circuit City
- Circuit City Stores, Inc.
- Clark Streets
- co-owner
- Commissioner
- Czar
- Designer
- director of marketing and leasing
- Ethel's Chocolate Lounge
- Fashion
- first lady
- Fitness club
- florist
- Halsted Street
- Highland Park
- Joe Padorr
- John Witte
- Lincoln
- Lincoln Park
- Linens 'n Things
- Linens 'N Things Inc
- Lois Weisberg
- M Development LLC
- Milan
- Milan,Province of Milan,Italy
- Monaco
- Monaco,California,United States
- Preferred Development
- Racine Avenue
- real estate executives
- retail
- retail complex
- retail downturn
- retail ghost town
- Robin Givhan
- Southport
- Southport Avenue
- Southport Collection
- Thread Lounge
- USD
- Chicago boutique
- chicago business
- fashion
Comments
Hannig's Armitage store manager shares that he looks for passion from an shoe sales employee who's going to be successful serving the high net worth & most prosperous of the River North residents.
Many of these shops sell on concept since their small shops lack the space of their bix box bretheren, so long-standing customer relationships are so very important.
Additional shops which may thrive during the coming economic recovery include a great men's haberdasher offering a tailored fit & a traditional Jewish delicatessen, according to my Hannig new found friend.
This is a pretty interesting story.
The gist: Over the last two years, a bunch of high-end boutiques run by fashionable women popped up on Southport. These specialty stores were generally able to survive last winter's downturn, but slow sales over the summer are finally doing them in. People are closing up shop or hustling to keep customers by hand-delivering clothes and slashing prices for friends and family. Meanwhile, the city, which has tried to push Chicago as some sort of growing fashion hub, has no suggestions or ideas about what to do and comes across as sounding fairly impotent on the matter, perhaps even apathetic.
There was a fashion expo sort of thing a couple of years ago but it disintegrated owing to problems with sponsorship or some such thing. The city was lending some support to that for a time. The School of the Art Institute has a big stake in fashion; they have their own fashion department there. But it seems like this is more of a commerce issue so maybe the indie fashion retailers could form an association or their own chamber of commerce? I'm afraid that if the city stepped in to help just these boutique operators it would look bad to the more blue collar wards. Ya gotta always consider the electorate!
I don't know if saving small boutiques makes Chicago a fashion hub. New York, Milan, Tokyo are all fashion hubs because the top designers work there, their shows are held there, and high end fashion stores exist in plentiful amounts. We have some of that here, but none are considered the flagship stores of the U.S. I've been to those shopping districts in all three cities, and compared to them ours look like outlet malls.
Developing strong retailing customer relationships is the key to making small boutiques thrive as reported in the Chicago Tribune article.
One of the leading big box electronics retailers has switched to a consultative sales approach which lavishes the customer with appreciation for shopping with the retailer & spending almost half the sales conversation building strong relationships which will weather retailing downturns.
Consultant Fabienne Fredrickson of Los Angeles is helping small business people with her workshops & Facebook social networking site.
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