I WONDER! What Happened? Kids Retailer Closes After Only 3 Months
You know, I kinda hate it when this happens. I go to a new store and fall in love, vow to frequent it because it’s local and then I fail to return. Next thing I know, it’s closing.
That’s what happened to the big-box styled children’s store WONDER! in suburban Chicago. Except instead of it closing a year or two after opening its doors, it was a mere three months.
I was invited to a pre-opening of WONDER! and was awed by every square inch of its 135,000 square feet. It had everything a parent could want and more. I blogged about how it was Babies R Us, but with Whole Foods class.
But something went wrong. According to media reports, lawsuits were filed against the company and its owner Shane Christensen alleging unpaid bills that were in the tens of thousands. Then came the announcement about its closing.
I got today’s statement from the company that said it couldn’t keep its doors open “due to balance sheet considerations that impacted dwindling product availability, technology systems, and planned improvements.”
I have to admit I WONDERed how such a seemingly costly store would stay afloat in this economy, but I was rooting for them. I wasn’t the only one, the village of Deerfield extended tax breaks for the company and at the time, a trustee even called it “the biggest thing to happen to the village this year.”
When it opened Christensen said the business plan called for 19 more stores to open within five years. It sounded super aggressive, but I liked the idea and enthusiasm.
I look back and WONDER why I didn’t re-visit this store. He built it, why didn’t I come? On the weekends, I’d consider going there as a fun family activity, but would always end up choosing something closer to my home, which is 30 minutes from the store. Also, I figured it was packed with people, crowds that I didn’t want to deal with.
Apparently I was wrong about the crowds.
Not sure what all happened with WONDER! but I hope it makes a comeback, because the idea felt solid, even though the financing behind it seemingly wasn’t.
Christensen said in the statement he was “dedicated to ensuring that WONDER! will indeed see another day.” Time will tell.
Meantime, I’m going to go purchase a few bottles of wine from my local wine shop. Now if that closed, it’d be a real tragedy.
Never went in WONDER, but I do know that Deerbrook Mall location is a poor one. Stores are dropping like flies in that center.
You’re right and as you know that’s not the only spot where stores have shuttered in mass. It’s sad, sometimes when driving around the burbs you see all of these empty shopping centers, for some reason it feels like they’re these hulking dinosaur carcasses. Or maybe I’m stretching it a bit…
We had a kids’ dance studio open in September with “better prices than the rest.” Almost everyone I know signed their little girl up – except for me. I stuck with the expensive dance school.
And by December the dance school was closed. She didn’t even give it a whole dance season. And many parents were left angry and little girls left sad.
And suddenly my $8 more a month were very worth it!
Maybe that guy will open another store down the road…
Maybe he will open another, but seriously, it seems there’s tons of debt he’s got to grapple with as well as a blow to his reputation and those aren’t easy hurdles to overcome.
How about the fact that most of the folks in Deerfield, Northbrook, Arlington Heights plus entire fleet of other North Shore Chicago, IL towns are plainly CHEAP? This is the cause – really! Spending money around those towns is like “pulling teeth”. I am writing here from my own experience and having to own quality kids store in the North Suburbs. We had to close it since people looked for deals all the time and when something was regural price they literally “tormented” our employees for a discount. This is why this store has failed and many new ones that will ever open will fail as well. This area needs more re-sale shops and Walmarts to satisfy this type of customer.
How about the fact that most of the folks in Deerfield, Northbrook, Arlington Heights plus entire fleet of other North Shore Chicago, IL towns are plainly CHEAP? This is the cause – really! Spending money around those towns is like “pulling teeth”. I am writing here from my own experience and having to own quality kids store in the North Suburbs. We had to close it since people looked for deals all the time and when something was regural price they literally “tormented” our employees for a discount. This is why this store has failed and many new ones that will ever open will fail as well. This area needs more re-sale shops and Walmarts to satisfy this type of customer.
Good reminder to shop local. They can’t wait out a few tough months, like the big stores do… So sad.
Wow! I can’t believe that it closed already!
This is how uninformed I am — I can’t lament that it’s now closed because I didn’t even know it was open!
That’s hilarious. Clearly you don’t read every blog post that I write, if you had you would have been in the know! Clearly, I’m kidding. Sometimes when these things happen, it’s good to never have known it was out there so that there’s nothing to “miss.”
My favorite personalized gift store closed last month. I was sad because it was local and it was a fun place for my kids to shop for unique birthday gifts for their buddies. It was just a Mom & Pop store without any big plans to expand. Ultimately, to maintain competitive pricing, the owners ended up having to work there all of the hours it was open (versus paying someone else to be there) and they were just missing too much time with their family. Such a bummer!
That’s the thing about owning a business, it’s good to have autonomy but sometimes there’s even more time sacrifices than “working for da man.”
Oh! That is TOO bad! That did sound like such a cool store when you blogged about it. I try to shop local when I can, but I am the first to admit, when shopping includes kids, I am the first one to look for “close to home” and “convinience”
Here’s to hoping that the local wine shop NEVER closes 🙂
You’re right, you try to shop local and then when you’re in a hurry or with the kiddos or both it’s like: “I will buy it wherever I can get it with the least amount of hassle.”
I’m sad about Wonder closing, but for a different reason. I’m one of the vendors that got royally ripped-off. I’ve never before dealt with such an unscrupulous group of people…from the top, down. How someone can open a store such as Wonder, with only the financing to stay open for three months is pathetic. Investors beware, Shane Christensen is a crook.
Thank you for your comment and I’m sorry that you were one of the vendors affected by this. Best of luck!
I just found out about the sudden closing of WONDER! today, which is what led me here. I’d written an entry about the store on my own site back on the 15th – and in my closing, pointed out several factors that I thought might lead to it’s premature end. I had no idea it would happen so quickly.
I’m glad that I was able to take my daughter there at least once. Wrong location, wrong time, wrong people at the helm 🙁
I’ll go check out your post, certainly there were warning signs that raised eyebrows of whether it could be pulled off. But since they were local, we were all pulling for them ya know? I too am glad we were able to go at least once and my guy got to check out the racetrack and arts area.
…..and all the $100 memberships to their “members only play area”…. ouch!
“It’s calculated risk because there’s no guarantee it will succeed,” Mr. Colaianni says. “But this is an opportunity to do something big the way I want to do it.”
excerpt “Wonder’s founder and chairman is Shane Christensen, 35, of Lake Forest. He came up with the idea for a one-stop shop because he and his wife hate dragging their two young children from store to store”…. sounds as good a reason as any I’ve heard to open a 135,000 sqft kids store! who was going to pay 4 bucks more for formula that can be bought at any other retailer down the road?
Yes, ouch indeed. I wonder (no pun intended) if those memberships were refunded or something. I had really hoped they would be wildly successful. Alas…