Chicago residents who belong to Amazon Prime can now take advantage of a new service
in the Windy City, one-hour grocery delivery.
Also included in the service, which will cost Prime members an additional $7.99 per delivery are Plum Market, Sprinkles Cupcakes and My Fit Foods. If customers can wait 2 hours for their food-stuffs, then delivery is free.
Orders can be placed through the Prime Now app. Chicago joins more than 20 cities all over the country which offers Prime Now.
After 40 years of serving the Chicago counter culture, Alley Chicago will be closing its Lakeview shop as the New Year enters.
First opened in 1974, Alley was originally a “head” shop, selling paraphernalia to enhance the enjoyment of rock and roll music, getting high, and other such popular recreational activities high school and college kids were involved in. Owner Mark Thomas, who got involved in the business at the age of 19, introduced punk rock clothing to the store, in a combination which transformed the store into a “one-stop-shop” for all alternative lifestyles.
“Whether it was punk or motorcycles, rock ‘n’ roll or goth … that was the metamorphosis of The Alley into a lifestyle store,” Thomas said. “People who come in come 30 or 20 years later, bringing their child, and they say, ‘One thing about The Alley is it was always a good time.'”
The store is filled with a huge variety of goods, including leather jackets, spiked belt buckles, and rock ‘n’ roll memorabilia. Sales were adversely affected by several long construction projects nearby and the debilitating rise in real estate taxes.
“We said, ‘We can’t sustain these losses,'” Thomas said. “So we decided it was time to go out and reinvent ourselves.”
What Thomas has in mind is a new store on Chicago’s Northwest Side. “The Alley 1776” will put together a few different business concepts all housed in one location. He is hoping the space will include a coffeehouse, bar, performance stage, body piercing studio, and of course a store with classic Alley products.
The store on State Street in Chicago has been a symbol of business for over 100 years. Until nine years ago the building in the Loop housed a Marshall Field’s sign before switching to its new owner, Cincinnati-based giant retail chain, Macy’s. Now this grandfather of retail, and the inventor of the department store, says it is considering different ways to redevelop four of its flagship locations, including the one that takes up an entire block at 111 North State Street.
“We are just beginning an exploration to see what else we can do with the underutilized space in the building beyond the store,” Macy’s spokeswoman Andrea Schwartz said. “We have no pre-determinations at this point, except for the fact that this is a successful Macy’s store that will remain at this location.”
The announcement was made simultaneously with posting their disappointing third quarter data. The company would like to explore more creative ways to generate more income, with the possibility of monetizing its real estate.
Macy’s spokesman said that the redevelopment of the four flagship stores would be done in a way that “maintains a robust Macy’s retail store presence while also bringing alternative use into those buildings.” This could include joint venture projects “or other deal structures with third parties.”
Just a few weeks after acquiring Portland-based Stumptown Coffee Roasters, Peet’s Coffee and Tea announced last Friday it had purchased a majority stake in Chicago’s Intelligentsia Coffee.
Doug Zell, founder of Intelligentsia, said he sees the move as “interesting and rewarding.”
Zell launched Intelligentsia in October 1995. Its reputation grew as a small and independent coffee company, and now has branches in Los Angeles, New York and Chicago. Peet’s says none of this will change with the acquisition, stating that Intelligentsia will “continue to operate independently.”
“Peet’s recognizes that we are special and wants to provide a canvas that will allow more of the world to see the picture we are painting,” Zell wrote in a letter Friday. “Perhaps a good analogy is we’ve been showing our artwork at a local gallery and now have an opportunity for a spot at the Louvre.”
Everything special about Intelligentsia will remain the same says Peet’s, from the farmers that they get their beans from to the unique way they get their coffee. What will change is that now Intelligentsia will have full access to Peet’s resources and scale.”
The location where Fox and Obel used to occupy is now filled with a Target, but with a difference. The store is much smaller than typical Targets seen across the US; it offers home-made products from manufacturers in the Chicago area; and most exciting of all, alcohol will be served right in the store.
See the video to get a taste of things to come:
Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner offered tax incentives to the giant food company ConAgra earlier this year to entice them away from Omaha, Nebraska and set up shop in Chicago.
According to the Chicago Tribune these tax incentives corresponds with other reports that the owner of popular food brands such as Swiss Miss, Chef Boyardee and Slim Jim is getting closer to making the move to Chicago. The Tribune reports that ConAgra is considering renting a space in downtown Chicago’s Merchandise Mart which can hold upwards of 1,000 employees.
It is not known what Rauner’s incentives to ConAgra exactly were, and his offered was complicated by the fact that he later gave the order to halt similar tax incentives. The Tribune’s source said that the Governor still plans to honor his original offer.
Meanwhile, back in Omaha, where ConAgra has been located for almost 100 years, since 1922, Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts is quilting together his own proposal with incentives to keep ConAgra at home despite the fact that his proposal is said to go beyond what the government can legally do.
According to the Omaha-World Herald the governor said:
“We are not restricting this to what is on the books. We are willing to work with them in whatever way necessary to help them be competitive in their industry.”
However the report was not enough to keep ConAgra employees from worrying. In another story from the World Herald it was reported that ConAgra CEO Sean Connolly warned that job cuts are coming, and that some ConAgra employees have even listed their homes for sale.
After 50 years in Schaumburg, Motorola Solutions Inc will be moving its global headquarters to Chicago. Schaumburg, which is about a 40 minute drive outside of Chicago, has been an example of how a company can create a sprawling corporate campus in the ‘burbs.
Along with its headquarter operations the giant maker of communications equipment for government and first-responders will be taking about 800 jobs to Chicago.
There will remain behind in Schaumburg a cadre of mostly software and hardware engineers numbering about 1,600. They will be grouped into two buildings, the twelve-story corporate tower, and the 2-floor IT building.
The entire campus, all 277 acres, will be sold and redeveloped. Then Motorola will lease back the two buildings back from the new owners, said spokeswoman Tama McWhinney.
“People come, people go,” Schaumburg Mayor Al Larson said. “Motorola has been going for quite some time.”
Wine, beer, sangria, and a variety of frozen mixed drinks will be introduced for the first time at a US Taco Bell fast food restaurant starting on September 22 in Chicago. This location will also be the first to introduce tapas-style appetizers, have a mural painted by a local artist, and display an open kitchen.
“You will literally be able to see the food,” said Meredith Sandland, Taco Bell’s chief development officer. “(Customers will be) able to see all the beautiful ingredients,” she added.
The opening of this branch was first announced at the beginning of the summer, but without details such as opening date or exact location. Another Taco Bell with a similar theme is planned to open in San Francisco later in September. Taco Bell says that the basic menu and food preparation at the new locations will be the same as at the more traditional stores under the brand, aside from the innovations named above.
The new Taco Bell will open in the Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago. They will be charging $4 ofr wine and beer, and $4.50 for sangria. The frozen drinks, called “Twisted Freezes” will contain rum, tequila, or vodka. These mixed drinks will be priced between $6.19 and $7.19.
Near the end of October Uniqlo, a Japanese retail chain, will be opening its flagship store in Chicago. The store will be Uniqlo’s second largest, with 60,000 square feet of floor space located at 830 North Michigan Avenue on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile. Uniqlo’s largest store is on Fifth Avenue in New York City.
Uniqlo deals in casual clothing such as jeans, scarves and sweaters. They also sell sportswear for men, women and children.
“Chicago is a global city that’s home to some of the finest cultural and sports institutions in the world, and we are thrilled to join the city’s rich landscape,” said Larry Meyer, CEO of Uniqlo USA.
It is expected that the new outlet will create 400 new jobs. Uniqlo is a global company with over 1,600 stores and 40 in the United States. The Chicago branch will be the first in the Midwest.
Matt Garrison, managing principle of R2, a Chicago-based developer, announced that his company is planning to convert a 300,000 square-foot warehouse into office space. He said when the space in Pilsen is done it will be one of the largest office projects completed outside the Chicago central business district.
As of today R2 has the potential for a deal with a group of investors headed by Raymond Chin who own the five-floor vacant structure located at 465 West Cermak Road, along the river.
R2 has been rapidly looking for projects to develop non-traditional office locales, and its venture into Pilsen is just the latest on the Near South Side of Chicago.
Garrison explained that R2 is constantly looking for new areas for innovative offices as a response to the high cost of property in other areas of Chicago.