The front door never stops swinging at the Ben Franklin craft and variety store in Antioch.
And a steady stream of customers shop the sales and restock their bathroom cupboards at Woolworth’s in Fox Lake.
It seems that like the Queen Mother and Mark Twain, the death of the variety store, as lamented in the press when Woolworth Corp. announced the closing of 400 general merchandise stores, has been greatly exaggerated. Some of them are just taking on a new look as they age.
In the case of the Ben Franklin retail stores, a 116-year-old variety company headquartered in Carol Stream, staying alive is a matter of moving into crafts and upgrading the variety merchandise, according to company executives.
“Don’t write the obit on us yet. We’re not a dying breed,” said Ben Franklin public relations manager Louise Palesh.
In fact, Ben Franklin, a national chain of approximately 611 variety and 270 craft franchises, has 117 new franchises in the works, according to company officials. The chain also opened 11 company-owned craft superstores last year and plans to open 20 more super craft stores in fiscal year 1994.
The key to survival is to adapt, according to John Menzer, president of Ben Franklin. His company has been encouraging its franchisees to turn at least a third of their store space over to crafts.
“Crafts are the fastest movers in the system. This is our niche market because we can’t compete with the Kmarts and Wal-Marts,” Menzer said.
Changing emphasis frequently means eliminating those departments such as apparel that don’t match big-store selection, to make space for the better movers: crafts, artificial flowers, custom framing and sometimes fabrics.
“I like to call those stores a better hybrid,” Menzer said.
Helping their franchisees adapt in order to survive is part of a strategic repositioning plan called STAR (Strategically Targeted Analysis and Review).
“We go in and help update fixtures and remerchandise to fit the demographics of that market. The growth of the stores being STARred is tremendous,” Menzer said.
An increasing number of franchisees have hitched their stores to STAR. “We gave 60 STAR plaques this past year. The company is budgeting 150 plaques in the coming year,” he said. “The stores out there are doing it.”
Donald and Jane Marski, who were already emphasizing crafts with daily classes and a team of experts at their Ben Franklin store in Antioch, climbed aboard the STAR program this year.
“We are expanding crafts and moving it up to the front of the store. That’s our market,” Don said.
He and Jane headed in the craft direction soon after they bought the franchise in 1985.
“It gave me something to do,” said Jane, who used to sew her own clothes and enjoyed doing craft projects for the home and as gifts.
That suited Don, who saw the craft potential. “I wanted her creative presence at the store. So we started expanding floral and crafts right away,” he said. And, he said, “It did well from the start.”
Converting space to reflect changing markets meant cutting out longtime but slow-moving departments. And Don, who started working at the Antioch Ben Franklin in 1963, when the store was across Lake Street, found surgery to be painful.
“The shoe department was the first to be eliminated,” he said. “I grew up with that department. It was not easy to do. I was comfortable with variety. But it was awfully tough to compete with WalMart. We had to move with the times.”
In the 1980s that included getting in on the poster boom, with a custom frame shop in 1986.
And what started as Jane’s one-woman department, with an occasional seasonal craft demonstration, grew to include two floral designers, a sewing-quilting instructor, an assistant craft manager who helps Jane with the buying, and daily craft classes.
“It really evolved,” Jane said.
A game arcade in the store basement is not so much a department as simply a fun spot for youngsters to hang out while parents shop.
“I had the space, so I thought, `Why not have something for the kids?”‘ Don said.
But fun does not mean free-for-all. Youngsters play video games under the friendly but watchful eye of Ed Turkowski, a retiree who lives just over the border in Wisconsin and supervises the game room on weekends and after school.
Turkowski is on a first-name basis with most of the regulars. But he has his rules: “No kicking. No fighting. No swearing,” he said, “or out they go.”
From introducing craft classes and a frame shop to taking stock space for a video arcade, the Marskis redefined their store.
“We’ve made a niche for ourselves in crafts. Our frames, florals, fabrics and art supplies are more than 60 percent of our inventory, with variety items making up the rest,” Don said. “The variety mix at one time was 95 percent. We’re looking for ways to make ourselves different from the Wal-Marts and Kmarts.”
The Wal-Mart name is one that comes up frequently in discussion about the fate of variety stores. The irony is that the founder of Wal-Mart, Samuel Walton, who died in 1992, started his retail career in 1945 by buying a Ben Franklin franchise in Bentonville, Ark. He soon bought more.
But he wanted to change the focus of the stores.
“Mr. Walton went to Ben Franklin with his ideas, but they said they didn’t think that was the direction for the store of the future,” said Betsy Reithemeyer, a spokeswoman at the Wal-Mart headquarters in Bentonville. The rest, of course, is history as the chain now posts about $44 billion in annual sales in 1,720 stores.
But now Ben Franklin is making the adjustment, and judging by the people who make the Marskis’ store a destination, even during the recent deep freeze, the strategy is working.
Weather didn’t stop Pat Manuel of Burlington, Wis., from making the half-hour drive to search for new craft projects.
“I came just for this, the crafts. I come here all the time,” Manuel said. “They’re so helpful. And I do a lot of framing here.”
To Don, the changes are signs of growth, not death. “I hope people see it as evolution,” he said.
The store still carries such variety staples as school supplies, home accessories, toys, candy and seasonal merchandise. But now customers have materials and classes at hand to craft some of their own gifts and decorations.
It is a do-it-yourself market that appeals to the 1990s value-minded shopper as well as the creativity-oriented customer, according to some Ben Franklin floral designers. This includes people who are trying to keep weddings within a reasonable budget.
As Marski floral designer Jean Perrin of Twin Lakes, Wis., explained: “By the time they get their dress and the place, and, of course, they want a nice restaurant, it’s already becoming very expensive. Then they look for flowers. They need a lot of flowers. When they go to the florist and find out how much, they start thinking silk flowers, which they can arrange themselves. I’ll give them ideas. Sometimes I’ll do the bridal bouquet.”
Treasured for their home decorating and recycling value, florals have become a strong variety store feature, said Wauconda Ben Franklin owner Jim Schmuck and his floral designer, Debbie Schwerdtman.
“I do lots of weddings,” Schwerdtman said. “Mainly it’s the cost. It’s not only less expensive to do silk flowers, but they can use them later as flower arrangements. And silks offer more color possibilities and variety.”
For example, Schwerdtman said, someone who would spend $1,000 on real flowers for a wedding could get away with $300 on silk flowers.
The store’s flowers bear no resemblance to the token flowers sold when Schwerdtman, 35, started working at the store after school at age 14.
“It was quite different,” she said. “It was mostly variety and not much flowers. Then florals became very popular. It just got bigger and bigger.”
But it wasn’t by chance. Schmuck, who recalled still selling plastic flowers about 12 years ago, began expanding florals a little more than a decade ago as part of his move to take advantage of what he saw as a void.
“It was the natural thing. There was nothing else around. There was a demand for crafts, even though it was small at the time,” he said.
Executives at Leewards Creative Crafts Inc. of Elgin, considered the parent of the first craft superstore when it opened its 40,000-square-foot Elgin store in the 1950s, take a more-the-merrier attitude toward Ben Franklin’s move into the craft market.
Leewards President and CEO John Popple points to Vernon Hills’ mega-retail corner at Milwaukee Road and Illinois Highway 60, where Leewards coexists with Michaels and a Wal-Mart store that carries crafts. Frank’s Nursery and Crafts is less than a mile north on Milwaukee Avenue.
“You often find craft stores in the same area,” said Popple. As to the Ben Franklin chain, he said of Menzer, “We’re peaceful competitors. We have taken tours of each other’s stores together. We share the same philosophy,” which Popple said is to “focus on the customer not the competitor.”
Expansion into crafts indicates a strong retail market, according to Popple. Leewards, a 100-store corporate-owned chain, has been adding 10 to 20 stores a year. “Crafts are expected to be a 10 billion industry this year,” he said quoting recent Hobby Industries of America figures.
For some Ben Franklin stores, the shifting emphasis has included phasing out some departments such as wearing apparel.
“We used to do a lot of clothing. We still have some accessories. But we do not have a ready-to-wear department. It was forced elimination,” Schmuck said. “The decision was almost one of demand. The big discount centers can do big markdowns. There was no profit.”
Like the Marskis, Schmuck also added a professional framing department, operated by Schwerdtman’s husband, Bob.
“Ben Franklin as a company encouraged the move toward crafts. Then all of us edged into framing. We always had some ready-made frames, but it was a small department of standard 5-by-7s and 8-by-10s. Then we got into posters and custom framing. That was a big swing,” Schmuck said.
Pointing to his equipment, which includes a dry-mount machine, Schmuck said, “With that you never have a wrinkle. And people only pay for materials. The service is free.”
According to Ben Franklin and Woolworth customers and staff, service, that stalwart of the neighborhood business, still flourishes in the variety store venue.
“We cut window shades. You do not see that service much anymore. And we cut keys,” Schmuck said. The store also offers a UPS mailing and packaging service. And the personal touch.
“In fabrics, when someone needs help, we can talk to them forever,” said Ann Bliss, a mainstay of the fabric department at Schmuck’s store. “The big discount stores, they don’t have these experts with time. They have clerks.”
“Our forte is service, friendly service,” Schmuck said.
As to the future, Schmuck, who bought the store in 1960, when it was part of the now defunct Hornsby variety chain, not only plans to stay in business, he hopes to make improvements.
“Down the road a little way, as the economy picks up, I’d like to do a little remodeling,” he said.
Ray Aske, general manager of the Ben Franklin store on Grand Avenue in Lindenhurst, also pointed to service as a survival factor, particularly in crafts.
“About half the store is devoted to crafts,” he said. “It’s something we can do and do well. We can service the customer. It’s not a self-serve thing. We have a craft coordinator, several crafters on staff and run classes several times a week in everything from producing a fabric photo album to oil painting.”
But the specialty Aske really cherishes is more down memory lane than the trendy creative road.
“Penny candy-it’s been a staple for umpteen years,” he said. “It’s the 3- to 5-cent candy that no one else carries. It’s for the kids who have emptied the piggy bank and have 10 pennies. When I was a kid, that was important to me. That’s something the big stores don’t offer.”
And for those stores still devoting space to greeting cards, school supplies and accessories, there is a matter of convenience.
“The neighborhood stores have become convenient stores for everyday needs. People can come in, get it and get out,” Aske said.
That’s the case with Woolworth’s Fox Lake store at Rollins Road and Grand Avenue.
Duane Akers, manager of the Fox Lake Woolworth store, said it’s popular for its variety.
“We’ve had lots of customers saying, `We’re glad you are staying open,”‘ Akers said.
Devin Barrett, 16, a Lake Forest High School junior, is glad the Lake Forest Woolworth was not on the closure list. It seems that price and convenience are factors even in the upscale suburb.
Scanning the cosmetics and hair accessories with former Lake Forester Maria Rich, 20, of Libertyville, Barrett said, “My mom shops here all the time. And my little sister in 2nd grade comes here for school supplies.”
Rich, who used to work at the Lake Forest store, was not surprised that it would remain open.
“Too many people shop here. Lake Forest couldn’t live without this store,” she said.
Barrett explained: “It’s got lower prices but good brands.”
And Rich said, “There’s more of a selection. And the people are very nice. They help out a lot. If they don’t have what you asked for, they’ll give other options or suggest where to go.”
Two Lake Bluff youngsters Kara Hartnett, 10, and Bridget Von Huben, 11, shop for school supplies and craft items like beads and string on the weekends at the Lake Forest Woolworth.
“I’m really happy they’re staying open. It’s close to us,” Kara said.
“And cheap,” Bridget said. “Some people who live near here don’t have other places to shop. They buy their things here.”
Those comments have been repeated often in the past couple of months, according to Lake Forest native Lucy Olsen, 44, who works at the checkout desk.
“First they wanted to know if we were going to close. When we told them we’re staying open, they said, `We’re really glad you’re not closing. We need you.”‘
