Help the Spice House pick a new location

Posting here but if a mod wants to move it elsewhere, feel free:

Happy Spring to our Spice House friends,

We need your advice. We are looking to open another store so we can be closer to more customers. It seemed logical to enlist your help. We hate to just have missed a great neighborhood because we did not know it existed!

Currently, we are looking in the LaGrange or Geneva/St. Charles areas. We also liked Hinsdale, but the rent prices pretty much eliminate Mom and Pop shops from opening there. Naperville and Oak Park are out as they already have spice stores.

We are looking for a nice main street/downtown type area in a nice neighborhood no more than approximately an hour from downtown Chicago. At least a half hour from our Evanston or Old Town locations. An old fashioned street with shops that are not chains, shops that are mostly owner operated. No strip malls. We need at least 2500 square feet. We try to find buildings without high end upstairs tenants - our smell is not to everyone's liking! Our affordable fantasy place may not exist, but knowing that we have asked for feedback will at least convince us that we have not overlooked any great areas.

Please email The Spice House with any suggestions you might have.

Thank you very much,
Patty and Tom Erd

I received the following e-mail from The Spice House, seeking suggestions for a new location. Feel free to let them know your preferences by clicking on the link below to go to their website. While you are welcome to post any comments here as well, AFAIK the owners do not browse this forum and will not see them here.

Disclaimer: I have no association with the Spice House other than as a customer. I post this here in order to give LTHers a chance to express their opinion and thereby influence their decision on where to open their new store.

-----Original Message-----
From: The Spice House
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 12:42 PM
Subject: New Location Suggestions


Happy Spring to our Spice House friends,

We need your advice. We are looking to open another store so we can be closer to more customers. It seemed logical to enlist your help. We hate to just have missed a great neighborhood because we did not know it existed!

Currently, we are looking in the LaGrange or Geneva/St. Charles areas. We also liked Hinsdale, but the rent prices pretty much eliminate Mom and Pop shops from opening there. Naperville and Oak Park are out as they already have spice stores.

We are looking for a nice main street/downtown type area in a nice neighborhood no more than approximately an hour from downtown Chicago. At least a half hour from our Evanston or Old Town locations. An old fashioned street with shops that are not chains, shops that are mostly owner operated. No strip malls. We need at least 2500 square feet. We try to find buildings without high end upstairs tenants - our smell is not to everyone's liking! Our affordable fantasy place may not exist, but knowing that we have asked for feedback will at least convince us that we have not overlooked any great areas.

Please email The Spice House with any suggestions you might have.

Thank you very much,

Patty and Tom Erd

Wow, deja vu.

gleam wrote:Wow, deja vu.

Ed,

I moved Nsxtasy's similar content post here from another board. The two of you had similar Spice House posts.

Enjoy,
Gary

You can come out here to the Fox Valley, specifically Geneva where there are several foodie shops and wine specialty shops along and just off Third Street. Right now I mail order from Penzey's to avoid the drive and parking situation in Naperville.

If Hinsdale is too expensive and they want an "old downtown" experience, perhaps Westmont along Cass?

You guys shoulod really tell The Spice House about your ideas using the link posted above. I doubt they're reading this thread for ideas.

Ahh, but we are! Two front runners are Geneva, next to the very popular popcorn shop, or Long Grove, next to the wonderful Apple House. Long Grove has more space and fits us better, but we are worried it is more of a tourist town where as Geneva gets tourists but also regular people from neighboring towns. Anyone thoughts appreciated.

Long Grove would make me very happy.

Since I used to live by the Wells store and now live in Northbrook I miss Spice House. Long Grove is easier for me to get to than Evanston and would love it there.
Paulette

Cinnamon Girl wrote:Ahh, but we are! Two front runners are Geneva, next to the very popular popcorn shop, or Long Grove, next to the wonderful Apple House. Long Grove has more space and fits us better, but we are worried it is more of a tourist town where as Geneva gets tourists but also regular people from neighboring towns. Anyone thoughts appreciated.

Anywhere in the NW suburbs would be very welcome! The nearest Spice House or Penzey's is at least a 40 min drive! The downtown areas of Mt. Prospect, Arlington Heights, Palatine, and Barrington are booming with business and new residents. People come to Arlington Heights area for the Japanese shops on Golf & Algonquin; the Racetrack; and it's near Woodfield Shopping Center.

Geneva is not that far from the Penzey's in Naperville. I would much rather go to Olde Town or Evanston, where there is a lot more unique shopping and eating.

Cinnamon Girl wrote:Ahh, but we are! Two front runners are Geneva, next to the very popular popcorn shop, or Long Grove, next to the wonderful Apple House. Long Grove has more space and fits us better, but we are worried it is more of a tourist town where as Geneva gets tourists but also regular people from neighboring towns. Anyone thoughts appreciated.

Geneva would make me happy! I live about a mile from that location by the popcorn shop plus it's about 100 feet from the train station if anyone wanted to get to it by that means.

Talked to some locals at the IACP convention that lived near Long Grove. As I said in my previous post, they told me that the locals just don't go to Long Grove, it is just a tourist spot. We are very close to signing in Geneva. Pucca, we looked in all the NW suburbs you mentioned, just nothing at the moment with the right amount of space in our budget.
All the input is greatly appreciated.

Cinnamon Girl wrote:Talked to some locals at the IACP convention that lived near Long Grove. As I said in my previous post, they told me that the locals just don't go to Long Grove, it is just a tourist spot. We are very close to signing in Geneva. Pucca, we looked in all the NW suburbs you mentioned, just nothing at the moment with the right amount of space in our budget.
All the input is greatly appreciated.

Geneva's Third Street gets a great deal of local traffic as well as the tourists. The train station is right there as are a number of the top restaurants. I think you would fit in just fine!

Well, it's only natural for a lot of us here to "nominate" our own hometown...so how about Rancho Santa Margarita, CA! Darn, I WOULD like it!

Ok, back to the Chicago area...I think Downers Grove Main Street would be a GREAT place for it...well-located from I-88, I-55 and I-355, historic Main Street and lots of recent building as well. Cass Avenue in Westmont is a nice old-fashioned downtown area as well...a little smaller than DG but rents are probably cheaper. The upside is that Westmont is well-known (and written up here) for a wide variety of wonderful ethnic restaurants and that would fit in well with the business of The Spice House.

We did scope out Downer's Grove but nothing in the right size was available. Sometimes, it is just the luck of the draw as to what is available when you are ready to go. Then you spend all your savings on the buildout and a month later the perfect space opens up.

We had at least six California repsonses, just a bit too far for the daily commute!

Cinnamon Girl wrote:Talked to some locals at the IACP convention that lived near Long Grove. As I said in my previous post, they told me that the locals just don't go to Long Grove, it is just a tourist spot. We are very close to signing in Geneva. Pucca, we looked in all the NW suburbs you mentioned, just nothing at the moment with the right amount of space in our budget.
All the input is greatly appreciated.

Long Grove wouldn't last very long if only tourists were going. The tea shop, the general store, British Accents, the restaurants all depend on fairly heavy usage by the locals. You may still prefer Geneva, but trust me, Long Grove is not just for tourists.

It may only be 1/2 hour from Evanston with moderately heavy traffic, but how about the old G.P. Franklin's store on the mall in Lincoln Square? It has lots of space, nice old-fashioned but renovated look, foot traffic, atmospheric street, and the building has been empty awhile, (so they may be anxious for a tenant.) I heard that the neigbors do not want another restaurant, but I don't think a store selling foodstuffs would be a problem.

Plus, I promise to become a regular customer.

Northbrook is trying to revitalize there downtown and a whole new section of stores are being built, plus there are some empty stores in the strip malls on Cherry.

There is a new shopping center quite large being built on Willow and Waukegan with Whole Foods and Lowes as anchors.

So I put in my two cents worth for Northbrook because I really do miss being close to Spice House.
Paulette

[quote=We had at least six California repsonses, just a bit too far for the daily commute![/quote]

Well, you could always train someone who could run the business(es) out here in CA! I'm sure you know that one of your competitors opened up a store in SoCal a year or so ago...haven't been there yet myself. With the large variety of ethnic populations in SoCal I'm sure he spice business would be an interesting one.

As for Downers Grove, I wouldn't give up...there's bound to be some storeront spaces becoming available along Main Street. Personally, I think it's a great location to serve a large population, but you may also want to consider Westmont (for the reasons mentioned in the previous note) or even Lombard or Lisle, all of which have downtown districts. Other suburbs in the area such as Woodridge and Darien just don't have that 'Home-y" downtown area that I think a business like The Spice House would fit well in.

Just noticed this thread...

IMO Geneva is too far west, and you'll have a steady-but-small customer base in the Fox Valley. Perhaps you should talk to some of the other small food-related shops in town. I'm friends with the proprietors of two such shops, and through the years both have commented on how their businesses have peaked no matter how hard they have tried to grow them.

Much better would be downtown Wheaton and Glen Ellyn. Both have good foot traffic, they are reasonably convenient to most of DuPage County, and both have Metra stops.

Wheaton, Glen Ellyn, and Downers Grove all fight an image problem with their downtown areas -- traffic problems caused by LONG trains blocking traffic during business hours. Geneva has less of a problem because there is an underpass on rt31 -- but people coming from the east (DuPage County) are faced with potential long backups on rt38.

If you're a risk-taker, one potential gold mine would be the small downtown area in Lisle. It's even more convenient than Wheaton or Glen Ellyn due to its proximity to I-88 and I-355, it also has a Metra train stop, and rents wouldn't be too bad. Lisle is the only west suburb that had the foresight to construct over/underpasses on all its major N/S roads to eliminate traffic backups caused by trains. And Lisle is the home of the Morton Arboretum, which opens up some interesting cross-marketing opportunities. But downtown Lisle has nowhere near the foot traffic of the other towns mentioned, so you would need to initially rely on word of mouth and advertising to get people to know you exist there. And hence the risk...

Good luck with whatever you decide!

You might check out Libertyville - great demographics and international population due to number of expatriates, etc for Abbott, Motorola, and so forth in vicinity. Great appreciation for spices in area.

Nice and interesting downtown area with good foot traffic.
Good luck.

Yesterday (7/22/07) we noticed a sign for the Spice House opening soon in Geneva, Il. This a location with a lot of foot traffic, across from the train station and a few doors down from Caribou Coffee. Parking will be a problem on this already busy part of Third Street but a new parking deck is being built almost directly behind the building.

That's excellent news to see you coming to Geneva! What great news as I'm in that neck of the woods fairly often.

LikestoEatout wrote:Yesterday (7/22/07) we noticed a sign for the Spice House opening soon in Geneva, Il. This a location with a lot of foot traffic, across from the train station and a few doors down from Caribou Coffee. Parking will be a problem on this already busy part of Third Street but a new parking deck is being built almost directly behind the building.

We just made our 4th trip to the Spice House since it opened just before Thanksgiving. The new parking deck is open now and there is a back door direct access into The Spice House's space. Third Street Geneva was very busy both Saturday and Sunday, some I am sure came from being a small feature on the Ellen show Tuesday where Geneva was shown as one of two towns in America best representing Christmas.

Thank you for the update!