Chicago Weekend Fun!

I just read that the very popular American Girl Store near Michigan Avenue in Chicago is closing and moving! The Chicago American Girl Place Store at 111 East Chicago Avenue will close its doors it will re-open at Water Tower Place further down Michigan Avenue. They also mentioned that they will be closing down their basement theater shows in June and across all locations in New York and Chicago by September 1, 2008. I thought it might be just a sign of the times and the passing of the trend of buying dolls in hordes and collecting clothes and such for them. In a digital world of Wii and Guitar Hero where girls are on even playing fields with boys, how much tea party play and role playing can they connect with? Toys that become uber popular in Chicago usually end up being passing fads and don’t usually have a long term shelf life in stores. Kids get tired of things and want variety and they are growing up at the same time.

I have heard though that there were some issues with the American Girl Place Store management and the performers on differences of opinion on working conditions and pay ala the unionizing issue for performers. Did the American Girl Place Store not know about SAG, Equity Actor’s Association and other acting unions when they opened the store? eeep. Some people are so upset about the American Girl Store not paying their actors living wages that they are boycotting all American Girl Products. Others have posted about the less than good working conditions and pay for regular retail employees as well. This isn’t surprising in Retail but it is still sad to hear that companies insist on taking advantage of employees for less money than they are worth to save a few bucks to return to greedy rich shareholders.

I am actually surprised that the American Girl Place Store tried to take the concept of dressing up dolls for tea parties so far to even include shows. I am not sure it is relevant to the core concept they are trying to sell. Maybe this is a good thing? The American Girl Stores will move into a mall where they will most likely have a smaller space, smaller rent and more foot traffic from shoppers while remaining in the “downtown michigan ave” district. They hopefully will also tighten up their store experience around one core concept (doll+clothes+accessories+furnishings) and do it really well and efficiently. Maybe then the American Girl Place Stores can survive as a fun store to buy and collect dolls for little girls (all kids really) between the ages of 4 and 10 who like tea parties. Then it may remain a birthday tradition to travel downtown to the American Girl Place Store to pick out a new doll in Chicago for kids from all over Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana and the Midwest.