Here’s what’s next for 40 vendors leaving the Little Village Discount Mall
After losing a bid for a legal injunction that would let them stay, some vendors bounced between packing up and making last-minute sales.
The Little Village Discount Mall’s current owner is renovating the building and ultimately reducing space allotted to vendors. That means 40 small retail businesses are scrambling to leave by Tuesday. As that news sunk in, some vendors expressed their hopes and fears surrounding the future, and their sense that — despite the fact that parts of the mall will remain open — the unique retail environment’s days are numbered.
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Here’s what’s next for 40 vendors leaving the Little Village Discount Mall
After losing a bid for a legal injunction that would let them stay, some vendors bounced between packing up and making last-minute sales.
The Little Village Discount Mall’s current owner is renovating the building and ultimately reducing space allotted to vendors. That means 40 small retail businesses are scrambling to leave by Tuesday. As that news sunk in, some vendors expressed their hopes and fears surrounding the future, and their sense that — despite the fact that parts of the mall will remain open — the unique retail environment’s days are numbered.
Mary Dixon: Dozens of vendors who sell wares at Chicago’s Little Village Discount Mall began moving out over the weekend. The exodus started Friday, after vendors lost their last-ditch bid for a legal injunction to let them stay put. Some have until tomorrow to pack up. Many vendors have been there for decades. WBEZ’s Michael Puente visited the mall to check how vendors are coping and what’s next for them.
Michael Puente: This is a busy time for Kocoy Malagon. It's a time for measuring, sewing, altering and sizing that special dress for young Latina girls.
Kocoy Malagon: Now is the season. The season for quinceaneras, for comuniones, bautizos and everything.
Michael Puente: That's going to hurt your business.
Kocoy Malagon: A lot. A lot.
Michael Puente: A native of Mexico City, Malagon has been at the mall for 14 years. She’ll need to have her things – including some 500 dresses – sent to storage by tomorrow.
Kocoy Malagon: Now, the economy of the country is really bad. I don’t know why the city don’t think about the small business? We support many things to the economy and now they say just, "Oh, I’m sorry guys, you cannot stay here."
Michael Puente: Malagon and other vendors knew a new building owner — Novak Construction — wanted them out, but they hoped a Cook County judge would rule that they could stay long enough to find other options. The judge denied vendors’ request for an injunction. It’s complicated, but this means 60% of the space can be used by vendors but the rest have to go. Exactly what Novak Construction plans to do with the property is not clear — we didn’t hear back for comment. Despite the news and uncertainty, vendors like Ceasar Miranda are multitasking. They’re packing up and selling to customers who still flock in, even from Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin and Iowa.
Ceasar Miranda: La gente le gusta venir aquí porque es un mercadito típico de México.
Michael Puente: Miranda sells instruments from trumpets to accordions. He says folks like coming here because the mall is like a typical market you find in Mexico.
Ceasar Miranda: Estamos ahorita haciéndolo paulatinamente y ahorita no queremos sacar todo porque todavía viene gente.
Michael Puente: Miranda says he didn’t want to remove everything over the weekend because customers were still coming in.
Ceasar Miranda: Estamos bien preocupados porque el mall es una parte bien importante del corredor comercial de la 26 es bien importante y el hecho de ser reducido.
Michael Puente: Miranda says he’s concerned because the mall is a very important part of the commercial corridor of 26th Street and it’s being reduced. For many vendors here – some who are undocumented – sales are their only source of income. And now with no sales, they could struggle to pay to have their items stored somewhere else. Juan Zarate’s father is one of the original vendors in the mall. He set up shop more than 30 years ago.
Juan Zarate: This pet shop, it was my father’s. He opened in ‘91. The store next to mine over here is mine. We opened that in ‘93.
Michael Puente: Zarate’s siblings also run their own stores. They sell everything from home health remedies to Mexican-made belts and boots and even pets like birds and hamsters. His parents are now old and have health issues. His father, for example, celebrated his 83rd birthday on Saturday but suffers from dementia. Zarate says what’s happening is unfair, and he sees change coming to Little Village.
Juan Zarate: So what’s the American dream? Just wait for somebody with more money to come in and take over? This is when communities start changing. Change isn’t always good, change isn’t always bad but it’s definitely going to change. Some people are going to miss how it is. Displacement gets involved and memories get lost.
Michael Puente: As for what’s next. the local alderman, Byron Sigcho-Lopez, says he and the city are still trying to help.
Byron Sigcho-Lopez: I think that it is the responsibility for the City of Chicago to ensure that these families that depend entirely on this source of income have an opportunity to reopen in a location nearby.
Michael Puente: Sigcho-Lopez says he wants Novak Construction to give vendors 10 more weeks to find new locations. He knows that’s a longshot. But let’s say the alderman does find a new location in Little Village or in nearby Pilsen or Gage Park. It’s not clear whether all the vendors could afford to move or live without sales for weeks. It’s also not clear if any new space will recreate that old market experience, an experience that attracted customers for decades. Michael Puente, WBEZ News.
WBEZ transcripts are generated by an automatic speech recognition service. We do our best to edit for misspellings and typos, but mistakes do come through.