When Crate & Barrel Chief Executive Gordon Segal talks, Mayor Richard M. Daley listens. And vice versa.
The mayor couldn’t be happier with Segal’s latest project: Crate & Barrel’s spacious, three-story furniture and housewares store at North and Clybourn Avenues in Lincoln Park. He even took time out of his busy schedule to attend the store’s opening gala this week.
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Segal, a pretty busy guy himself, escorted Daley around and invited him back for another tour when the store was less crowded. Perhaps midnight some Wednesday would be good.
The two already are working together to ensure the store is a hit. Segal says Daley has promised to look into upgrading the nearby dingy Red Line subway station, which is known more for its graffiti-covered walls and dirty interior than for being a gateway to home fashion.
And the city also may provide police to direct weekend traffic at the busy three-way intersection of North, Clybourn and Halsted, Segal said.
But Segal isn’t asking for the mayor to clean up the industrial, gritty look of North Avenue, which runs along one side of the store. Crate & Barrel’s architecture actually plays with the street’s manufacturing heritage by using corrugated steel to form part of the building’s ceiling.
“It’s the contrast that’s so nice,” said Segal, standing amid a grouping of Crate’s white upholstered furniture while gazing out one of the store’s picture windows at an old steel bridge on North Avenue.
Of course, Segal has taken part of the landscape outside the store into his own hands. He admits he bought the former John M. Smyth Homemakers building because discounter Costco was interested in the property.
Segal hopes to have the ugly white warehouse converted into a gathering of other house-related retailers within 18 months.
Betting big: The sporting goods business in Chicago is brutal. Just last year, Sportmart Inc. gave up the fight, selling out to Gart Sports Co. after The Sports Authority invaded its back yard.
But that isn’t discouraging other new entrants. Bass Pro Shops opened a giant store, complete with a simulated trout stream and archery range, at Gurnee Mills last fall.
Now comes Galyan’s Trading Co., a Plainfield, Ind.-based division of The Limited Inc., which is building a mammoth store in Schaumburg.
The 175,000-square-foot store, scheduled to open in early August, is located in a former Montgomery Ward site. That gives Galyan’s the space to carry 1,000 major brands of equipment and apparel, running the gamut from lacrosse to snow boarding to camping, said Joan Hurley, director of marketing.
Galyan’s hasn’t overlooked the entertainment side of retailing, either. The store features everything from a rock-climbing wall that can accommodate nine thrill-seekers at once to a golf swing simulator and a coffee shop.
What it doesn’t offer is a lot of sales. Galyan’s has an “everyday-low-prices” policy and only runs two clearance sales a year, Hurley said.
How will Galyan’s thrive with Sports Authority undercutting its prices? Easy, said Hurley. Galyan’s carries a bunch of casual apparel and footwear, such as Cole Haan shoes, that other sporting goods retailers don’t touch. And its athletic equipment is geared toward the serious enthusiast who will pay for a quality bat or a custom-fitted pair of ski boots.
Galyan’s is confident enough about its prospects here that it has a 100,000-square-foot store in Lombard on the drawing board for spring 1999.
Teeing off: Marshall Field’s sees golf apparel as a big opportunity to cater to the upscale crowd. In a smart marketing move, Chicago’s largest department store chain is hosting a women’s professional golf tournament July 20-21 at the Merit Club in Libertyville. The Field’s Classic will feature 28 LPGA Tour professionals, four amateurs, including one golfer with a disability, and will offer a prize purse of $260,000.
Proceeds will benefit the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. Ticket packages ranging from $50 to $250 can be purchased by calling 1-800-634-3537.