Mile Less Magnificent This Year

Retailers on Chicago's Michigan Avenue are said to be preparing for their first year without sales growth in two decades.

Crain's Chicago Business reports that sales are flat at many stores along what's called The Magnificent Mile. It's not a surprise, considering that retailers across the country had low expectations for 2002.

“We . . . will be very happy maintaining levels of the past year,” Russell Salzman, president and ceo of the Greater North Michigan Avenue Association, told Crain's.

But it is an historic anomaly. The upscale department stores, specialty shops and urban malls along the tree-lined boulevard haven't collectively had a flat or down sales year in more than 20 years. In 2001, expected to be a tough year — and then made worse by the events of September 11 — sales rose 2 percent. In each of the two previous years, the association reported 7 percent sales gains.

Avenue retailers are especially hopeful for a summer and Christmas turnaround in tourism and business travel (the district relies on out-of-town visitors for about half of retailers'sales) and Crain's said some avenue retailers were reporting recent improvements in foot traffic and sales. But at the same time a worrisome stock market and declining consumer confidence do not bode well for the rest of the year.

“People feel tentative and nervous,” a Chicago retail consultant told Crain's. “Retail continues to be a very mixed bag because of what's going on in the world and the market.”