stevez wrote:Blaming Whole Foods is a canard. It had little, if anything, to do with the demise of TI. Read the rest of the thread for details.

I've been reading the thread, along with the linked articles, and while I concede I may have missed something, I'm not seeing anything that says the problem (at root) was anything other than too few customers coming in the door. The other problems stemmed from that. No?

I'm not seeing anything that says that revenues were robust as ever.

I am not saying that Amazon did them in, but 20 years ago there was a lot less competition. There was WF and Sunset and that was it. Now you also have Fresh Market, Heinens, and Mariano's, plus all of the home cooking plans such as Plated and Blue Apron. They also changed their format from being European focused to being a clone of Mariano's. It sounds like when the Son took over the day to day operations of the store, they lost their European focus, where you could get lots of stuff that the other stores did not carry. Their prices on staples were in general crazy high too, and so for most people it was not a one stop shopping store.

A classic business problem: Do you thrive by A) trying what seems to be "working" for everyone else, or B) doing even better the one thing you do better than anyone else?

To a bystander, the answer is always B. I imagine the correct choice is not always so obvious when it's your business that's in crisis. But A didn't work. B might not have either, but we won't know.

T I's been sleeping on plastic sheets for years.

I am now guilty of . . .

Valli Produce must be doing something right. I was in there this afternoon, and the store had lots of customers. I remember when they first opened there didn't have nearly this many customers, unless they had a really good sale. Every couple of months they have a really good one day sale, and they are crazy busy then. I only spent $10 there today, but I saw lots of customers with a full cart.

Hi all -- I'm a reporter at Crain's Chicago Business writing an in-depth story about Treasure Island's demise. I'm hoping to chat today with customers who have shopped there for decades and can describe what it was like back in the '60s through '80s. I'm also interested in people's more recent impressions. Feel free to call my cell any time: 708.204.4813. My deadline is tonight.

Thanks!
Brigid Sweeney

BrigidSweeney's article in the October 29 Crain's Chicago Business What went wrong at Treasure Island. She quotes LTHer Cynthia.

It is just amazing that the chain stayed in business as long as it did. It sounds like all of the partners of the store had their hands in the till. It did mention that the meat cutters still belonged to a union. I assume that the empty stores are going to be put up for sale. It would be interesting to see who ends up buying them if anybody. The article also mentions that there are four different trusts that the stores are under, and that the creditors do not have access to the business records of the trusts.

It was amazing when the article mentioned that the wife would lay all of the checks on her desk, and decide which ones she was going to send. There was an employee there who was supposed to have child support deducted from his check every week. The money did get deducted, but then it never got sent to the state like it was supposed to. Just google the title of the article to get past the paywall. Thanks, Nancy

Trader Joe’s to Open in Former Treasure Island Building

A Trader Joe’s will open in the building that was formerly occupied by shuttered grocer Treasure Island at Lake Park Avenue and 54th Place, the University of Chicago and Trader Joe’s announced on Monday. Trader Joe’s plans to open the store this coming fall.

This will be the first Trader Joe’s on the South Side of Chicago, and the chain’s sixth location in the city. Currently, its southernmost store in Chicago is in South Loop.