Back from my trip the Galena, Illinois/Dubuque, Iowa tri-state area and more refreshed and stoked than ever to start writing again and, hopefully, bring in some new and exciting adventures along the way. I may never feel back to my old self again but I can try and work with what I have molded into lately. I managed to take lots of photos on a very old Kodak digital camera (Unfortunately, my much more updated Olympus is enjoying Eastern Europe with my parents) and once I get those loaded I will be sharing them here and talking about the history of Galena. Don't get me started on how disappointed I was with the antiquing, though I did manage to get some great postcards on the cheap.Last Friday I linked an article by Blair Kamin about the revamping of Park Forest Plaza in Park Forest, Illinois. Today we have the last picture of Goldblatt's from Richard Longstreth's very well done article "Bringing Downtown to the Neighborhoods...." Ahead of its time, Park Forest Plaza was built in 1949 and once boasted an anchor list of Marshall Field's, Sears and, of course, Goldblatt's. Would Park Forest Plaza be overshadowed by bigger and brighter developments once time marched on? Unfortunately, yes. At the time, Goldblatt's was seeking to reach past their core ethnic and mostly inner city audience and stamp themselves into the newly developed post World War Two landscape. It was no longer about bringing downtown to core Chicago neighborhoods such as Belmont-Cragin, Englewood, Uptown, etc so much as it was about changing with the times and jumping on the newest bandwagon, urban/suburban sprawl, better known as creating a landscape for the suburbs.
The Park Forest Goldblatt's location was a much different place to experience your Goldblatt's shopping than the ones within the realm of the city. You didn't have the outdated 1930s look of the Uptown location charm. You had a flat surface with no upper level or basement to peruse through surrounded by a sea of ample parking. It was 62,000 square feet of suburban heaven. Not much of a super feat by today's standards considering how huge most standard Walmart Supercenters are, but the fact that it utilized open shelves used mostly in supermarkets at the time, it was quite a bold venture. This location made its sparkling debut in 1953 and was looked at by others in the retail trade as the go to model.
However, what happens next requires a bit of head scratches. Instead of continuing to open themselves up in major suburban developments or malls, Goldblatt's continued development in the 'burbs and concentrated on lower tiered plazas of small proportions while they were at it. Places that would be obsolete almost as quickly as they were built. Sales were beginning to slope a bit and as time marched on, other discounters began to beat them at their own game, most notably Kmart (Yes, THAT store. Though these days, Kmart's own woes often translate into many head scratches as in asking a recent employee where the lawnmowers were kept which resulted in the dire question of "What's a lawnmower?").
Soon the days of Goldblatt's would be numbered, though like the Saturday night Fox staple of Cops and America's Most Wanted and cockroaches, they refused to die.
6 comments:
In reference to your post of June 26, I remember going to Randhurst once and suppose that it became very dated and am not too surprised to hear that it's gone. We mostly shopped at Old Orchard. I am still sad that Macy's took over Marshall Fields.
Love,
Susan and Bentley
xxoo
Glad to see you're back. I always enjoy your informative articles and photos.
Beautiful rendering. If only modern discount stores looked this good!
Susan and Bentley, I actually did go to Randhurst once a few years ago. I thought it was an interesting design but can see how it fell by the wayside to places such as Old Orchard or Woodfield. I took some photos of the interior. One of these days I will post them.
Debbie, thank you. Glad to be back.
Steven, I sooooooooo agree. You know me too well. If only they could look this good.
I came over here from Pleasant Family Shopping, where someone posted the fact that Goldblatt's was the first department store at Park Forest.
I read THE ORGANIZATION MAN in college--the author tells the social history and structure of the suburb, and he told of how the residents kicked up a fuss over having a Goldblatt's (not mentioned by name but referred to as "a people's department store) and didn't stop until the Marshall Field's was added.
Paul, thanks for making your way over. Gotta love Dave's site. It isn't shocking to hear that Goldblatt's was referred to in that way at all. I work in a library so I actually flipped through The Organization Man once, interesting stuff to say the least.
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