How has the economy affected your town?

[bigb7965]

I made this thread to see how the poor economy is effecting your town. (and because I'm bored)

So far Bolingbrook has lost: Bennigans, Linens 'n Things, 2 Circuit Cities, A restaurant named Woodlands, Office Depot, Hallmark, and I believe a one of the Jewel-Osco Stores is closing

I forgot to mention applebees.

My sister worked there for about 5 years.

[monsterfan99]

In Libertyville, we lost a decent amount of small business that never had anyone in them on main street. In Vernon Hills, they lost the big chains that went bankrupt and that is it. The stores and mall are packed on weekends and doesn't look like anyone has skipped a beat.

[Jcoaster95]

In Gurnee, we lost Monster Golf (across from Great America's main entrance), a Circuit City and Value City in Gurnee Mills, and Monkey Dish bar & grill, but on the bright side, Wal Mart doubled it's size!

[Coaster Justin]

^ Monster Golf Didn't Shut Down, It got Rebranded into "Rocky's Funhouse Mini Golf" with the Same Owners.

[[jonrev]]

^At least Jim Onan quit making those annoying "Nobody, but Nobody..." commercials for that place.

A local drugstore that had been in business for at least 20 years in downtown closed, but not much else in Grayslake.

Working at Hawthorn though, I've been watching the Store Closing signs pop up in a different store at least once a month. We take bets on who's going down next.

[Ilovthevu']

For that Monster Golf /Rocky's, it's now in a different location. I think it's in the next town (Waukegan might be the name, or I could be completely wrong, but it's near there.). I didn't like that miniature golf because it just didn't have many obstacles.

In my town, Boston Market is going to be Chase bank (Banks are doing horrible remember. ), the show is going away (I don't know why, but they said this for like 3 years ago, and it didn't happen yet, but supposed to.), and 1 out of 2 Dappers closed (They were really close to each other, and no point of having two.) along with Circuit City.

[tp41190]

It has affected nothing in our town...it actually has been a benefit to us.

[onyxhotel08]

Out of business/Store closings: Value City Department Store, K&B Toys, Taco Bell, Grocery Stores, Circuit City, Menards, Linen's N' Things, Pay/Half, Steve and Barry's, Suzuki Dealer, Hollywood Video, etc. These are just the ones I can think of at the top of my head

[w00dland]

Many retail stores aren't closing in this economy, but are more scaling down their operations. So if a big corporation has experienced poor numbers in one store for a long time, now is the time to close it down. If a store was performing very well before the economy went to hell, then it might stay open longer, but hours could definitely be scaled back, which is happening in the manufacturing sector big time. Additionally, anyone looking for a job is in trouble because lots of businesses put hiring freezes out during times like these, sucks for college students.

Just be happy you live here, and not in a really unstable economy like China's. They expanded so quickly because of our consumerism, and suddenly we stop buying as much and 20 million jobs are lost in 6 months. Combine that with a government who will only feed them one meal per day and pretend like migrant workers don't exist and thats a crappy place to live.

This has been caused by bad trading and shady deals in the first place, now it won't go away because people are banks are afraid to spend, so if you wanna do something about it go out there and spend some money. Prices are cheap because businesses are looking to make sales. Hopefully banks realize its safe to give out loans to intelligent people soon, but they probably won't, whatever.

[FRD714]

We lost Krispy Kreme in our town, but that's it. It's being replaced by a Culvers soon. Really, we're adding stuff, not losing stuff....

[Mr. Oscar]

Culver's dominates
And we in Ptown WI haven't really lost much. I think we lost a business downtown that was gonna go out whether the economy was crap or not
But we have an advantage because Sargento's and Sartori's are putting a lot of money back into our economy, because Sargento's has an HQ in Ptown and Sartori's has their 2nd biggest branch in Ptown... BUY SARGENTO'S

[Jackluver18]

Our Blockbuster went out a few years ago now it's a fitness center, our Ace Hardware closed and it's now a Walgreens with a CVS just up the street from it.

[Ilovthevu']

Out of business/Store closings: Value City Department Store, K&B Toys, Taco Bell, Grocery Stores, Circuit City, Menards, Linen's N' Things, Pay/Half, Steve and Barry's, Suzuki Dealer, Hollywood Video, etc. These are just the ones I can think of at the top of my head

Question: Did that Menard's relocate to a new location? Menard's has been closing down smaller stores, and making big ones in different areas (Sometimes in the same town, but other times not.)

[onyxhotel08]

Nope. As far as I know they did not move/replace it somewhere else. Save-A-Lot went back to Chicago only and it has been replaced by a private farmer's market type store. Aronson's Furniture closed down a while ago and now being replaced by another LA Fitness.

[Goku1910]

god, don't remind me.....Burbank, Bridgview, Oak Lawn, and Chicago Ridge have all become wastelands!

Potholes everywhere and stores are closing by the hour!

My hometown (Burbank) in particular has been getting a lot more gang activity...Rebuilt the old vandalized park, and the new one has a camera on every light post. I've seen drug deals going on in there before.

And Also, my favorite store, Circuit City, is now left in ruins.

[Ilovthevu']

^What's gone? The only part of Burbank I know really is Haunted Trails, Speedway, Mcdonald's, Taco Bell, Kmart, and Pizza Hut. I don't think there was much of anything in that plaza last year come to think of it (the Haunted Trails one).

I kind of think there was an Omni in that plaza. Maybe, not? Those Omni's were hard to sell or something. It took Melrose Park quite awhile to sell that one. (Lincoln Tech now) Definitely, the one in Bloomingdale took awhile (Now, finally a produce store). In Arlington Heights, there was one that I don't even know if that one's filled up. In Niles, Dominick's took over that one, and than that store died. Maybe, it's just the fact that Omni's were quite big stores that was a problem.

[BP317]

The only part of Burbank I know really is Haunted Trails, Speedway, Mcdonald's, Taco Bell, Kmart, and Pizza Hut.

The Walt Disney Company, Warner Bros, NBC Universal, Viacom

[onyxhotel08]

lol yeah that burbank

[Goku1910]

^What's gone?

Smaller stores and Restaurants...Bennigans, Taco Bell, Burger King, Some stores in the Burbank mall are gone...one out of like 10 GameStops closed
(I hate GameStop)

[LAFFfan4lyfe]

well, i'm in Chicago, and when i was walking back from work (i work at the watertower and take the red line home), i noticed that there are three stores which were like independent perfume stores and boutiques that are gone. It's just three empty stores in a row closed. It made me kind of sad when i noticed that. Poor small businesses.

[BP317]

There are a lot of homeless people in my area. I walk by at least 2 or 3 homeless people on the way to work every day who are sleeping on the side of the road with their shopping carts with all of their belongings, and also crazy people sitting at the bus stops talking to themselves very loudly. On Harbor Blvd across the street from Disneyland (where a lot of people walk to their hotels) its normal to run into some people begging for money/food. The homeless issue is not only here in Orange County, its even worse in LA County and probably a lot of places in Cali.

[[jonrev]]

Well the redevelopment for the one large century-old building in downtown Grayslake they tore down 3 years ago fell through and now there's a big grassy spot where the building stood. This was after they demolished 3 more early 20th century buildings in the weeks before they took the promo signs down and filled in the hole where they were supposed to start construction many months ago.

The rest of downtown Grayslake is looking like a dead mall, half of the stores are closed with FOR SALE signs in the windows.

[Ilovthevu']

^Do you have some town around you besides Gurnee that has a lot of the stores, and restaurants? I noticed that a lot places you go, there are towns that have nothing much, but than they are feeding off of other towns that are nearby. For instance, Schaumburg is loaded with stuff, but yet Hoffman Estates not so much. You have Gurnee with every restaurant and almost every corporate store around, and than you have Waukegan that doesn't have much stuff at all that I've seen when I went that town. Is there a town right next to Grayslake besides Gurnee that has a lot of stores? Bloomingdale has a lot of stuff, but Glendale Heights not really (Some stuff here and there.) I think Carol Stream, and Wheaton people also feed off of Bloomingdale area (mall, and other stores around).

[[jonrev]]

Round Lake Beach. They have an entire strip along Rollins Road that's full of shopping centers and big boxes. Grayslake was planning to build a mall on the former Lake County Fairgrounds, however it looks like those plans have been put on hold, and now I'm hearing "lifestyle center". They were supposed to start this summer but the fairgrounds still stand untouched since last August, except for the grass being mowed once.

Another development in Grayslake, on the corner of 83 and Washington, was supposed to be finished last November, however the huge vacant lot now sits with a FOR SALE sign near Washington.

Also, Waukegan has its own area that's full of retail; Fountain Square, where Lakehurst Mall used to be. There's a Walmart, Office Max, hotels, LA Fitness, a nightclub, and a bunch of other crap there. They're still trying to build a casino over there as well.

[onyxhotel08]

Blockbuster FINALLY closed down in Oak Lawn about 2 months ago and what do you know as of last week a Auto Zone has already replaced it! It is renting out still the other half of the store which surprises me why they couldn't use the whole store as Blockbuster is not THAT big...