Lily Falls going out of business
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The shop wouldn't be out of place in downtown Naperville, Long Grove or some north side neighborhood in Chicago. But it didn't happen in Elgin: Zibert currently is holding a going-out-of-business sale and will shut down sometime before her lease is up at the end of July.
Zibert said things were going fine until last July, when she first noticed a slide in sales, “and last Christmas we did half of what we did the year before.”
The booming economy went bust, people backed out of deals on condos in downtown Elgin, and the center city today isn't as full as many expected it would be at this point.
As such, “there aren't enough people down here,” Zibert said.
Zibert's friend Lisa Hart of Sleepy Hollow has been helping around the store. Hart noted that as it is now, Elgin's downtown doesn't have a cluster of shops that would attract women out for lunch and some afternoon shopping as some other towns have.
And both women noted that there aren't a lot of workers downtown milling about the streets at noon or after work.
via ‘Lily’ wilts amid economy meltdown :: The Courier News :: Town Talk.
Businesses like Lily Falls and the one before it on Chicago Street are always going to have a tough time in downtown Elgin, because they rely on foot traffic.
The DNA ought to encourage destination-type businesses that people actively seek out rather than businesses that people just wander into when walking down the street. By destination-type business, I mean niche businesses that people will actually travel to from out of town.
It’s harder now than it used to be, because of competition from the Internet, but it’s still possible.
Such stores by nature are less common because they require a certain level of expertise on the part of the owner/operator, but they are also ones that are the most likely to survive.
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Trader Joe’s is a destination grocery store that would be great downtown. My opinion is there needs to be a grocery store somewhere in the downtown to attract people and if there was a great grocer at a great value that is not too big it would bring people downtown. After all, everybody has to eat. They probably wouldn’t touch downtown Elgin because of the low average household incomes and lack of parking. That being said I think if the Kimball/Symphony/Douglas block was redeveloped it would surely fit the bill.
It all comes back to reputation of the downtown not being a safe place to be for any business needing foot traffic for more than a minute or two.
Changing that is the city council’s responsibility. That is why I voted for Prigge and Dunne, among other reasons. They vowed to treat the horrible problem of illegal aliens and the crime rate. They need to show me something this year.
Any business needing foot traffic is not going to survive with the construction.
I’m in full agreement with you Boxcar.
A Trader Joes would be really nice.
I dont’ agree that the problem is crime. Downtown Elgin has suffered for decades just as other downtowns have. The American downtown was the casualty of the automobile. It doesn’t mean the problem cannot be solved, but it’s more complicated than simply reducing crime (or the impression of crime).
Businesses do not like to locate where there is a dearth of income. But the pioneers usually get hit with the arrows such is the case with Lily Falls.
I must admit, I didn’t understand the point of the store. Nothing I would want to buy there.