If there are better merchandisers in Oak Park and Forest Park than the two women from Two Fish, I’ve never met them. And so the news last week that Two Fish, the Madison Street art glass and home accessory emporium, won’t make it out the other end of this beastly recession came like a blow.
The store is closing next month. Tonya Hart and Cece Hardacker sent a letter to their myriad customers asking them to “shop like you mean it, for the last time.” They also asked for a consideration you’d only ask from friends and that is unlikely to occur the next time Linens ‘N’ Things shutters a store: They said the liquidation sale would put the entire inventory at half-price but that customers are welcome to pay more if they so choose. And I’ll bet some loyal fans of this great store are paying full price.
Two Fish started in Oak Park, over on Oak Park Avenue in a location that, to my memory, has not been filled productively since they left a decade and more back. It was, I’d say, the very first store that shifted from Oak Park to Forest Park with a political message: “Forest Park good. Oak Park bad.”
That story line has always been a bit overblown but not entirely. Forest Park, especially a decade ago, was less expensive. Its government was easier to work with. And there were a few visionaries in Forest Park who actively recruited retailers and built out great spaces for them at key locations along Madison Street.
Mainly, though, the great resurgence on Madison was fueled by a once-in-a-lifetime batch of remarkable, generous, clear-sighted entrepreneurs who knew there was something special to build if they hung together.
It sounds obvious. Hang together. Promote together. Create events together. Lobby the local government together. But it is harder than it looks. People open their own businesses, in part, because they don’t want to be bossed and herded. Maybe they’ll accept a little cajoling, but that’s normally it.
I’ve worked 30 years with small business owners, and for many of those years, I’ve been on the board of The Avenue Business Association. So I can say from experience that what Cece and Tonya built on Madison Street in Forest Park was magical and hard-nosed. I once took a bunch of Avenue business owners over to sit with Cece and Tonya to listen and learn.
“We don’t allow negativity,” one of the gals told The Avenue group. And literally they didn’t. You went negative at a meeting of the M2 marketing coop they had formed and you were invited to leave. Right then. Also, they said, you have to work really hard on committees and you have to work cooperatively.
I could see all the air go out of my group. “No whining? And we have to work?”
Two Fish also succeeded because it was a wonderful shop filled with ever-changing merchandise. You could always be surprised by the changing mix of goods at Two Fish and yet it always held together like it was chosen as part of a greater vision. That’s hard to pull off. Add in the warm greetings and the follow-through on service and it was the package.
Still, the store is closing. Art glass lamps may define the concept of discretionary spending. And as this recession has ground forward, discretionary spending has dampened.
I love independent retailers. That’s why they can disappoint me. The best of them inspire and connect. Most of them just drift. And that’s why losing Two Fish, both a great store and a great leader of the independents, is so hard.
