Edgewater/Andersonville - Tap Into Your Community

• W Smith

  Its terrible seeing these wonderful establishments shutter. Paper Trail was there for years and former Arkadash building sat vacant for decades, sad, wish them the best!

• tom

  Yeah really sucks!

  • Bobbytuba

    I really miss Angels and especially their patio.

• Anonymous

  I will really miss Marx. Absolutely convenient for tons of household needs, I shopped there once a week.

  The Kingfisher’s closing is a surprise, if only because it is so soon after they opened.

  • Myprofilereplies

    THANK YOU for that.

    • Wiscgrl74

      Well, you’re pretty ignorant yourself, so maybe that was caused the rudeness.

• Dennis

  Yet somehow the dozen or so overpriced, glorified garage sale shops stay open.

  I agree with Tom.

  • Allistair

    Really Dennis???? My initial reaction was to flip you off, but then why sink……
    They’re obviously doing something right to be able to weather the storm. Reclaiming and restoring items that most likely would be in landfills and giving them a new home? Good thing! For every chair, or table, or accessory that’s bought in those so-called “glorified garage sale shops” is one less piece of crap, imported from China, then bought, and only to be thrown out in a year. These shops are giving several people jobs aside from it’s employees…such as furniture re-finishing specialists, re-upholsterers, auctioneers, deliverymen, bread-bakers and winegrowers along with their staff for our parties and the list goes on.

    • Anonymous

      Allistair, while I support in general what you’re saying, you may be surprised to know that only 2.7% of goods sold in this country are made in China. 88% are spent on U.S. goods and services. Here’s the source if you’d like to read it:

      • Jon

        I totally here you about the farmer’s market. I’m not going to pay those prices.

• Dennis

  On a positive note perhaps, there’s movement on the old 7-11 at Clark and Olive. Anyone know what’s planned there?

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_FZGBJSNGH6FTPPBOLQUELYR2WE SCOTT CONRAD GEDDES GUNTHORP

    The building permit that I looked at on the building says that it is going to be a Chiropractic Group. Too bad, Andersonville could have used another restaurant.

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_XADV2L6RNBCWZCSBDGTB6LCUA4 Billy

  and what about Natalia’s and Yogurt Avenue and Extravagance. The vacant pantry site will be a national chiropractic shop. Some new shops comming though.

• Richard Cousins

  I would be curious to see what the Alderman (both) have to so about this and what are they doing to attract businesses while keeping Andersonville what it is and not the next Diversey/Broadway area.

  • Toto

    The aldermen can do very little to “attract” business.

  • Toto

    The aldermen can do very little to “attract” business. There are very few incentives for small businesses. Application for TIF money is enormously complicated and

  • Steven

    OMG are you kidding me with this 2 of the same comment? How many used furniture & accessories stores are on this street? How many italian / mediterranean / middle eastern restaurants? Andersonville has been mostly off my radar for some time now because there is little there that interests me. It is a pretty useless business district. I’ll take Clark & Diversey any day thank you. After all, isn’t it getting a Trader Joe’s?

  • Guest

    Jerry’s Sandwiches is nothing like Hamburger Mary’s… take a look at the menus.

• Anonymous

  Yogurt Avenue is just closed for the season. I talked to the owner as she was closing up on her last night and she said it was too expensive to stay open throughout the year but she’ll be back in the Spring. The silver lining was she was trying to clean everything out and if anyone came in that last hour they got free frozen yogurt and any toppings they wanted. Yum.

  • Jon

    Yogurt Avenue never sparks my interest. I don’t know why. There aren’t any comfortable chairs, I don’t want to feel like I’m at a cafeteria serving myself.

    • Anonymous

      They definitely need some help in the decor department; it’s way too sterile of a feel to actually enjoy yourself. But some people like being able to load on their own toppings. Probably in the end they spend more money that way too. My mother used to call that “Big Eyes” :)

• Concerned

  It is sad to see these businesses go by the way side. For one, the rents are way too high for small businesses to survive, especially now. Landlords refusing to budge on rents is BS. The Alderman has met with some building owners to voice his concern about the costs of rents in the area. But what did they do? Listened and nothing else. I’m sure some businesses got a few concessions but much too little much too late.

  I for one have seen my business revenues decline steadily since holiday 2008. I lost 30% revenues from 08-09, 20% more revenue from 09-10. 2011 was the first year I wasn’t down in sales, only even with 2010.That was until August hit, and now I’m losing even more revenues again. When people ask me how’s business? All I say is “I’m sill here”.

  Face it. People aren’t spending money…bottom line. Everyone wants quality but doesn’t want to pay for it. And can you blame them if they don’t have it? So they opt for cheaper and more convenient.

  Looks like McDonalds is pretty busy…

  BTW a chocolatier is renting Bonbon space for limited 6 months time.

  SHOP LOCAL!

• Florence Kennedy

  Local businesses in Andersonville fail.

• Ecallanan

  what were the Kingfisher people thinking?? Arkadash good location, decent space, needs the right concept, here are a lot of tables o fill

• Anonymous

  Really Mista?! I loved that place! The pizza was great and healthy compared to the other doughy pizza places around here.

  Lakeview is thriving but we are not, maybe it is because they have a mix of big chain and local.