The sweet smell of caramel popcorn will no longer be wafting along the Magnificent Mile.
Garrett Popcorn Shops is closing its flagship store at 670 N. Michigan Ave. on May 31. It has operated there for 25 years.
The store is shutting down to make way for the Ritz-Carlton Residences, a condominium tower slated to open next year.
“The flagship store will be missed, but you can’t take Garrett out of Chicago — the two just go together,” said Scott Schroeder, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Garrett Popcorn Shops.
Garrett Popcorn, which has four other shops in downtown Chicago, is looking for another location on North Michigan Avenue, said Schroeder, who hopes to have a new store open before the holiday season. He said he is trying to get a spot on street level.
About 5,000 people a week are drawn to the little shop, and in summer the line frequently extends out the door. The family-run business, founded in 1949, was sold in 2005 to CarmelCrisp, a Chicago partnership established by real estate developer Lance Chody. The new owners opened two stores last year in New York and beefed up its Web business.
This summer Garrett Popcorn plans to open shops at O’Hare International Airport and at Rockefeller Center’s MSNBC.com cafe. In June it will start same-day delivery to office workers in Manhattan and the Loop.
Last year the company’s sales were about $12 million, up 35 percent in the last two years, and Schroeder said sales are holding up despite the broader retreat in consumer spending.
“We made a conscious decision last November not to raise prices” in spite of the economic downturn, said Schroeder. A medium-size bag of the hallmark caramel-cheese mix — Garrett Popcorn’s most popular offering and one of Oprah’s “favorite things” — costs $4.45, the same as a year ago.
“Our commodity prices have gone up,” Schroeder said. “But we want to keep this an affordable luxury.”
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