By the Bootstraps

Linens ‘n’ Things.

Eddie Bauer.

Starbucks.

Steve and Barry.

These stores and numerous others are either closing low-performing locations in the city or cutting their losses and filing for bankruptcy. Stores that once revelled in the big boom of America’s economic heyday are now feeling the push of a financial crisis many have likened to the Great Depression of the 1930s.

A day after the new year, Chicago Tribune reporter Sandra M. Jones rang in the New Year with disheartening news: 2009 would be “the year of reckoning for retailers.”

A mere 5 percent of companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 went bankrupt between 1978 and 2005, compared with 27 percent of retail companies, according to Bernstein Research.

[Colin] McGranahan (an analyst at Bernstein Research in New York) predicts that this recession will wipe out 5 percent to 10 percent, and maybe more, of the stores now operating, and he foresees the reckoning to continue through 2009 and estimates the challenges could spill over into 2010.

So why focus on Chicago’s smaller businesses, when presumeably more people stand to lose from hardships felt at bigger companies?

Chicago’s a city made up of neighborhoods whose boundaries are felt by natives and visitors alike. Within those neighborhoods are micrcosms of Chicago-at-large; each has its own feel, its own culture, its own voice. The small businesses within those communities make up just as much a part of the community as the people who live there. By exploring how these independent stores are being affected by the recession, we’re really seeing how each community in Chicago is being affected, by neighborhood to race to class.

Also small businesses and entrepreneurial spirit are considered guideposts to help us get out of this recession. But what happens when commercial bankruptcy skyrockets as a recent report in USAToday reports? If banks are less willing to give out start-up loans and people are even less willing to strike out in unknown territory during a time when security is key, what happens to that part of the American dream?

We’ll find out together and hopefully make some sense of these unsecure times through the stories of independent businesses on the “Main Street” of different Chicago neighborhoods.

• Humboldt Park, No Se Vende (Humboldt Park Is Not For Sale): Gentrification and race issues
• Pilsen Alliance: Gentrification and race issues
• Central Street, Evanston: This shopping area in Evanston, IL has a Facebook and Twitter page.
• Chicagoland Chamber of  Commerce
• Chicago Stimulus: This Twitter account keeps track of how stimulus money is being spent in Chicago.
• Sweet Boutique: This is the Twitter account of an independent business in Chicago, an online clothing store. It also has multiple other social media pages.
• Chicago Public Radio: I think the type of things I’ll be discussing on this blog would be of interest to WBEZ listeners, whether they’re on Twitter or checking out their blog.
• My Facebook or Twitter friends: I would post links to my blog posts on my Facebook and Twitter accounts, urging friends to read, comment on and share if they enjoy.

We all know that big businesses are seeing a slump in sales during the recession, but what about local businesses our economy also relies on? How are they weathering the financial storm? This blog highlights the issues and the people behind the counter of independent businesses around the Chicago area.

• Crain’s Chicago Business: The online arm of Chicago’s “pre-eminent regional business newspaper,” Crain’s will be a great tool for finding articles affecting the business world at large and seeing if there are any applications to the smaller, independent businesses I’ll be covering. They also have a really cool PDF on small businesses in Chicago I plan to use as background for future posts.
• National Federation of Independent Businesses: A nonprofit association that represents the “consensus views” of small businesses in America. It also provides research on the state of small businesses across the country and resources for business owners.
• U.S. Small Business Administration: The Illinois section of the government agency will have resources and news devoted specifically to the stimulus package and how businesses in Illinois can benefit.
• Google Alerts – Independent Businesses Chicago Recession: I set up a Google Alert for my Google Reader that will pull in articles that contain the keywords “independent businesses Chicago recession” in them. While some articles may be outside of Chicago, I can always take the piece of it that has wider application and talk to business owners about that aspect.
• Chambers of Commerce: Many neighborhoods in Chicago have chambers of commerce, some of which work hard to ensure businesses stay in the neighborhood. Officials would make a good resource for questions regarding gentrification and how the recession has affected businesses in the area that business owners themselves may not be able to answer. The websites also have directories of businesses I could explore and see.
• New York Time’s Small Business section
• Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Tribune’s Business sections: So far both of these seem to be outside my blog’s interests, but maybe an article will pop up in the future that will apply to the subject matter.