Big box retailers long had a standard formula: cheap building surrounded by acres of surface parking. More than a decade ago they began to experiment with new designs as they entered urban locations where land prices & population density meant acres of surface parking wasn’t possible. I recall seeing the Home Depot on N. Halsted under construction — I just can’t recall when. I do know it was open by March 2005:
The company has eight stores in the city, including a unique two-story, storefront-style location at 2665 N. Halsted St.
Like Target, Home Depot knows the value of a flexible footprint. That gives it more options in working its way closer to the urbanite customers it craves. The Halsted store doesn’t sell much lumber; it focuses on the tools and interior design products that North Side condo owners shop for.
A lot of city neighborhoods fit Home Depot’s demographic, which is neither wealthy nor poor. The main thing: plenty of homeowners. “Home Depot is looking for bungalow city,” says Mr. Kirsch of Baum Realty. (Crain’s Chicago Business)
Though I’d been past it numerous times since it opened, I never went inside. Last month my husband and I needed something from a hardware store. He called a couple of local places near the Streeterville condo where we stay while in Chicago but they didn’t have what we needed. Looking at transit to the various locations we decided the N. Halsted location would be the easiest.
The Home Depot on N. Halsted in Lincoln Park was built more than a decade ago.The garage entry/exit is recessed from the sidewalkThe store has two interior levelsRooftop garden on 4The front of the 2-story store is mostly glass, the is on the 2nd floorThe rooftop garden on 4. Parking is on 3 and the balance of 4
The question is how do we get urban retail to take more urban form in areas where land isn’t so expensive? Can a city, like St. Louis, through zoning or incentives, create an atmosphere where retailers are willing to invest in more expensive buildings with structured parking?
Earlier this month I posted an image of the micro-park, located at Washington Ave & Tucker Blvd, to Twitter & Facebook. My caption was “Construction fencing up around pocket park Tucker & Washington Ave, plants & retaining walls removed.”
The image shared on social media on October 4thAnother image I took on October 4th
To fresh your memory, let’s go back a few months. My subject was the Arch from the 2009 All-Star game looking very shabby, thankfully it’s now gone.
July 2015Similar angle on October 5th
Some thought the building owner wanted to extend their private parking lot toward Washington Ave. A building resident said the owner wants to build a patio for a future restaurant tenant.
You’ll recall five years ago the ground floor was occupied by a nightclub:
No restaurant has been named, but this could be very good for the area. This land is privately owned, though some may say an easement was created over the years.
Big box stores with surface parking lots don’t fit in urban contexts — they’re sub-urban. For example, the Menard’s in O’Fallon IL I drove past on Saturday, a MetroBus stop is right out front but there’s no accessible pedestrian route to get to the entrance. See it on Google Street View here.
Decades ago the big boxes were the downtown department stores, but those days are long gone. However, a few big box retailers have taken over some of the vacant space left behind by shuttered department stores.
Taget in Chicago’s former Carson Pirie Scott department store designed by Louis Sullivan. February 2014. Click image to view the Wikipedia entry on the building
More often, big boxes have been trying to fit into walkable urban neighborhoods; they’ve been concealed by smaller liner storefronts, stacked, etc. The Target at Hampton & Chippewa is built over parking, but it still has surface parking facing Hampton & Bancroft, with docks & garage facing Chippewa. Inevitably someone says “it’s better than what was there” or “It’s better than the location in [insert any suburban municipality.” Sorry, but new development will be around for 20+ years, so standards should be higher than simply doing marginally better than awful suburban development or old derelict properties. Which brings me to IKEA St. Louis, located on the SW corner of Forest Park Ave & Vandeventer Ave.
IKEA’s blue & yellow big box set behind a surface parking lot at Forest Park & Vandeventer. View from the point where the two public sidewalks meet.
Opening day I ran into an acquaintance at IKEA — she also arrived via MetroBus — she hadn’t yet seen my post on the pedestrian access points. Upon arriving at the corner pictured above how would a pedestrian know where to find accessible routes to the entry? By big box standards, IKEA St. Louis did an excellent job providing pedestrian access routes from each go the three adjacent streets, but the massive setback from the sidewalks
The big question now is what will happen at development sites around IKEA St. Louis? Other buildings, old & new, within a block of the intersection are all urban — built up to the public sidewalk.
Two other corners contain urban buildings a historic firehouse and a new apartment complex built around a parking garageThe 3-story building on the NW corner was razed 4+ years ago. At right you can see the South end of the historic Gerhart Block that I posted about on Friday.
In July 2011 I posted about the building on this very same corner being razed. The Southeast corner, except for the firehouse, is to be retail.
The firehouse is supposed to remain, will help “hold” the corner. But how will everything else relate to the street & sidewalk?Behind the firehouse is largely an old industrial siteBut even the old industrial office is urban in formThe urban form continues across Spring AveAnd across Forest Park Ave more urban form. Will the new retail to the South respect the urban pattern?
One of the most critical development parcels is immediately to the West of IKEA, at 4052 Forest Park Ave.
Looking West from the IKEA property line. The other three sides are bounded by Forest Park Ave, Sarah Ave, and Duncan Ave. The former Ford plant in the background is now loftsLooking South across Forest Park. IKEA is to the left, just out of view. The development parcel straight ahead will ideally be of similar massing as the lofts on the right, with storefronts at sidewalk level.Looking East on Duncan Ave, from Sarah Ave. The CORTEX master plan wants Duncan to be a pedestrian-friendly spine through the district. The form of new building(s) on the parcel on the left will matter greatly.
This site could be developed similar to new apartments at Forest Park & Vandeventer — a parking garage concealed on all sides by habitable buildings. The difference here is it should have storefront spaces on the ground floor. A boutique hotel, like one of these chains, should occupy part of the upper floors.
Hopefully IKEA St. Louis will be the exception, not the rule.
By May 2014 the Target on Hampton had these new readers with an EMV slot
Our current credit & debit cards are different than they were decades ago. In the mid-80s, during high school & college, I worked at Toys “R” Us and Dillard’s. In those days we made an impression of the credit card to document the transaction, the credit card number was entered manually to get approval. Sometimes we had to call in to get an authorization number.
The magnetic strip on credit cards came later, greatly simplifying transactions. The technology was developed in the late 60s, but it took a long time to get ir on credit cards and for retailers to be equipped to swipe cards rather than complete an embossed charge receipt. Eventually the magnetic strip became ubiquitous. Criminals also found many ways to exploit the weaknesses.
The magnetic stripe on credit cards — which fraudsters can pull credit card numbers and expiration dates from to make counterfeit cards. (NPR)
NPR continues:
Other countries moved beyond this technology years ago. The U.K., Canada and Hong Kong are already using chip-based cards, which are considered more secure. (Magnetic stripe technology is decades old.) Cards using the chip-and-PIN system have an embedded microchip. Instead of swiping the part with a magnetic stripe, you put the card into a terminal, then enter a PIN or sign your name. It’s more expensive for criminals to forge these cards, says Brian Krebs, a security journalist who writes for Krebs on Security and broke the story on the breach at Target.
Several of our cards have the new chips, called EMV:
EMV chip technology is becoming the global standard for credit card and debit card payments. Named after its original developers (Europay, MasterCard® and Visa®), this technology features payment instruments (cards, mobile phones, etc.) with embedded microprocessor chips that store and protect cardholder data. This standard has many names worldwide and may also be referred to as: “chip and PIN” or “chip and signature.” (Chase)
In 2013 local grocery chain Schnucks was breached, leading many to stolen credit card numbers. National retailers were also hacked. October 1, 2015 — today — was set as a deadline to switch to the EMV cards. However, this wasn’t a government mandate.
After an Oct. 1, 2015, deadline created by major U.S. credit card issuers MasterCard, Visa, Discover and American Express, the liability for card-present fraud will shift to whichever party is the least EMV-compliant in a fraudulent transaction. (CreditCards.com)
So retailers have been updating their credit card terminals to prepare for today’s deadline. Yesterday, at IKEA, the restaurant cashier put my EMV-chip card in the slot rather than swipe it. Later, at FedEx Office (aka Kinko’s) the terminal had the slot but the employee didn’t know when it would be activated. Target recently sent us new EMV RedCard debit cards — but not the RedCard credit cards we currently use. We just got a new credit card within the last couple of weeks — it didn’t include an EMV chip. Yesterday the issuer said we’d have replacements by the end of October with EMV chips.
Some retailers, in updating their terminals, have added NFC/contactless capability.
NFC (near-field communication) allows two devices placed within a few centimeters of each other to exchange data. In order for this to work, both devices must be equipped with an NFC chip.
In the real world, there are a essentially two ways this works.
Two-way communication: This involves two devices that can both read and write to each other. For example, using NFC, you can touch two Android devices together to transfer data like contacts, links, or photos.
One-way communication: Here, a powered device (like a phone, credit card reader, or commuter card terminal) reads and writes to an NFC chip. So, when you tap your commuter card on the terminal, the NFC-powered terminal subtracts money from the balance written to the card. (CNET)
My husband’s iPhone has been able to utilize this technology for payment for a year, I just got a new iPhone with this ability — ApplePay. Others include Google Pay & Samsung Pay. Confused yet?
Basically you want to avoid your cards being swiped. You want to use cards with a chip by inserting them in the chip readers. Not all retailers have to meet today’s deadline. Gas pumps, for example, have until 2017 to be updated.
If you accept credit cards you need to be working on updating ASAP, and training staff to insert EMV cards rather than swipe them. If you use plastic, be aware of the differences and how to use them, If your smartphone can make contactless payments I’d suggest using that. Samsung Pay will even work with older magnetic stripe terminals.
While we have these new EMV cards, our issuers don’t yet have the PIN number portion set up, so they’re Chip & signature for now.
The new IKEA St. Louis opens tomorrow, the 8th IKEA I’ve visited. I first stepped into an IKEA store over 25 years ago. So long, in fact, that location (Woodbridge) has been physically replaced by a new building. I’ve filled several cars before, I’ve also bought a few small items to fit in carry-on luggage. I’ll have to adjust to having a location just 20 minutes away by public transit. So I have some personal advice based on my experiences.
The Post-Dispatch ran a story on how to survive IKEA, it was a good list but I disagree with one:
7. Don’t go hungry expecting you will eat something right away. You will walk through an entire floor of the showroom before you encounter the cafeteria. Then, there will be lines. You don’t want to have low-blood sugar in an Ikea.
This is incorrect. At IKEA you start at the top level and work your way down, at their locations you can easily access the restaurant upon reaching the top floor. This is especially true in St. Louis. The restaurant opens 30 minutes before the main store does so you can grab a bite to eat, review your list, and such.
Initially, expect lines. Most of the following pics are from the press/media tour last Wednesday — a few are from the family & friends day on Saturday.
Upon entering from the surface parking or parking love; below the store you’ll see stairs, escalator, and elevator on the East end. All these lead you up to the 2nd floor.At the 2nd floor you’ll go through the automatic glass doors and reach this point. Here you can leave the young ones in the nursery area or use the restroom. If you know you want to reach something on this floor, say lighting, you can skip the 3rd floor. However, newbies should start on the 3rd floor and follow the arrows.To the right of the 2nd floor restrooms are lockers if you need to store stuff while you shop. I didn’t see any keys last week, not sure exactly how these are accessed. The elevator is to the left of the restrooms.Of the IKEA locations I’ve visited this restaurant is the open and inviting. This is looking East.It is cafeteria-styke, but there is more than one line. Looks for daily specials to save money. They have rolling carts that hold 4-5 trays so you don’t have to male your kids carry their own tray and worry they’ll spill it.Long lines on Saturday thoughThe 3rd floor has areas like sofas, bed, tables, office, etc.The 3rd floor also has complete rooms like living rooms, bedrooms, and kitchensThere are three small apartments on the 3rd floor so you can see complete living spaces.Back down on the 2nd floor is where you’ll find lots of smaller products. This $4,79 food storage set is one of my favorites — we bought a 3rd set on Saturday.The lighting section has always been a favorite, like the entire store, this is all LEDs.The art & accessories area has pieces of various sizes that won’t break the bank.Then you’ll find items you saw on display on the 3rd floor available in the warehouse. Display items have the aisle & section number on the price tag so you can locate them here.On SaturdayCheck out lines are ready.On Saturday every line was going, cashiers getting lots of experience. Starting October 1st they’ll be ready for EMV/Chip credit cards. No NFC payment though.At the exit you can use the elevator, stairs, or travelator to get to the ground for. The travelator holds carts so they don’t roll down. Be prepared to push the cart at the bottom.
I’m glad we now have an IKEA, now trips to Chicago can avoid suburbia. Here’s a scene from an early episode of CBS’ ‘Big Bang Theory’ about assembling flat packed furniture.
I’ll be there tomorrow morning as official raise flags in front go the entrance around 8:30am. I’ll visit with a good friend who is 7th in line.
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