Is Merrillville in decline? (Gary, Hammond: for sale, to buy, high schools)

[cobra86]

Originally Posted by richb

The problem with Kroger-Mariano's is that Central is going to want a buyer that will continue to use them. It's the reason why they bought Stacks to begin with, to not lose a (major) customer. They sell Strack's to Kroger, they lose the contract to supply those stores, as Kroger does their own supply.

But Kroger may be the only buyer with deep enough pockets to buy 22 stores at once. If it turns out it is Kroger, I am guessing they will rebrand most of them as Mariano's. I don't think any of the smaller chains in the Chicago area like Pete's could pull off such a large deal.

I guess we should have seen this coming. Strack's made very little play for former Dominick's locations (over the whole Chicago area). It was the best opportunity in a generation to grow quickly.

I don't see Jewel and its parent company Albertson's making a play for Stracks either, as they don't seem very interested in NW Indiana anymore.

It wouldn't surprise me if Kroger will/did buy it out. Close in their gap from buying out Roundys/Marianos and being the leading grocer in the whole state outside of the region. They're only lagging behind Wal-Mart in terms of largest retailers and for any grocer that has exposure in the midwest probably the only ones that could afford to do so.


Just seems that Strack's fell into the stereotypical family business story of by the time the third generation is running things it ends for the family (profitably this time).

[CGab]

Originally Posted by flamadiddle

With the increasing taxes in Illinois, the first to make a break for NWI will be those that already live in close proximity, meaning Chicago south side and surrounding burbs. Not a good omen, IMO.

I'm in a new subdivision in St. John and none of my neighbors came from the Chicago South suburbs except 2! Most are from the Chicago South West Suburbs such as Downers Grove, Plainfield, Joliet and Tinley Park. There is one family from Homewood and one from Lansing (both white flight). There are several that "moved up" from smaller homes in Dyer.


As far as the grocery store is concerned I think Mariano's would be better than Stracks anyway, but that's just my opinion!

[richb]

Originally Posted by cobra86

It wouldn't surprise me if Kroger will/did buy it out. Close in their gap from buying out Roundys/Marianos and being the leading grocer in the whole state outside of the region. They're only lagging behind Wal-Mart in terms of largest retailers and for any grocer that has exposure in the midwest probably the only ones that could afford to do so.


Just seems that Strack's fell into the stereotypical family business story of by the time the third generation is running things it ends for the family (profitably this time).

The profit margin on grocery stores is tiny, less then 1% in a lot of cases. That's why there isn't any new startups in more then generation, with the investment necessary, you can make far more money,,,,,,doing something else. So it has turned into a volume business, something very hard when you don't have hundreds of locations. 38 locations sounds big, and maybe in other businesses it would be, but not in the grocery business. You have to sell a-lot of stuff to make any money at 1%.

My family was in the grocery business up until the 1960's. That was also a time when small operators were being squeezed out. My dad's generation had little interest in a declining business, so it was sold off. It's a tough business, there is far easier ways to make a living.

I worked in a grocery when I was in high school. There would be days the profit on the store I was working at was under $300. Not much money for having millions of dollars invested.

[flamadiddle]

Originally Posted by CGab

I'm in a new subdivision in St. John and none of my neighbors came from the Chicago South suburbs except 2! Most are from the Chicago South West Suburbs such as Downers Grove, Plainfield, Joliet and Tinley Park. There is one family from Homewood and one from Lansing (both white flight). There are several that "moved up" from smaller homes in Dyer.

Hope that remains the case. I looked but couldn't find any school demographic trends for that area. I can find current demographics, but not how they have changed over the last 10 years or so. Looking at Elementary and Middle School demographics over the years is a pretty good indication of what's happening under the hood. (no pun intended!)

If I were to ever move to NWI, I'd probably have to go all the way out to Valpo, but that would be a painful commute to civilization.

[knighthood82]

I'm surprised by the amount of people that I hear saying they won't shop at Stracks anymore due to the high prices but would like Mariano's to take its place. I know Mariano's is a high quality grocer but I don't think most people in NWI are fully aware of the prices they charge.

[Chicagoland60426]

Originally Posted by Northwest Indiana

The word "North Shore" has racial undertones to me: No Blacks are welcome even if you can afford it/are a celebrity (and yes, I realize that there was a "significant" Black community in Glencoe in the past that comprised about 3% of that towns population and less than 0.5% of the North Shore population in totality).

By far the largest black community in the north shore exist in the city of Evanston with 16-20% of its population is Black out of 75,000.

[Northwest Indiana]

Originally Posted by CGab

I'm in a new subdivision in St. John and none of my neighbors came from the Chicago South suburbs except 2! Most are from the Chicago South West Suburbs such as Downers Grove, Plainfield, Joliet and Tinley Park. There is one family from Homewood and one from Lansing (both white flight). There are several that "moved up" from smaller homes in Dyer.


As far as the grocery store is concerned I think Mariano's would be better than Stracks anyway, but that's just my opinion!

Originally Posted by flamadiddle

Hope that remains the case. I looked but couldn't find any school demographic trends for that area. I can find current demographics, but not how they have changed over the last 10 years or so. Looking at Elementary and Middle School demographics over the years is a pretty good indication of what's happening under the hood. (no pun intended!)

If I were to ever move to NWI, I'd probably have to go all the way out to Valpo, but that would be a painful commute to civilization.

White flight from the south suburbs seems to be largely done. Most Whites who remain in the south suburbs at this point A) want to be there or B) cannot afford to move. As far as non-Whites who live in the south suburbs, many of them have no intentions of moving away because A) the safety and schools are far better than many of the city neighborhoods they left and B) with reduced housing prices in many cases, the higher taxes don't really bother them.

While I do like living in NWI and have seen many of the positive, I do also think that we tend to overestimate the amount of people now that have a desire to move from the south suburbs to NWI. Aside from flight, most people who want to leave Illinois also want to leave the midwest all together. CGab, as far as St. John, where people came from really depends on the type of neighborhood. For example, in Lake Hills, while a good amount of residents came from various suburbs in Illinois, a lot of the buyers were move-up buyers from nearby areas. In some of the other more middle-class newer neighborhoods, many of those buyers did come from some south suburban areas like Chicago Heights. There are some cases where many people from the same neighborhood in the south suburbs all moved to the same neighborhood St. John within a year or two of one another. Yes, a lot more people are coming from southwest and west suburbs lately but that is definitely not where the majority of growth in St. John, Dyer, and Schererville has occurred. It is a newer phenomenon of people in the southwest and west suburbs really looking seriously at NWI in larger numbers.

Flamadiddle, as far as "having to go all the way out to Valpo", why do you feel you would have to go that far out? If it is related to demographic trends, then you should know that Valpo (while still predominantly White) is also getting more diverse. Also, Valpo does have quite a bit of the "vinyl village" homes that you expressed discontent with while driving on 65 through Crown Point. While Lake Central schools are more diverse than Valpo schools, Valpo is definitely much more diverse than St. John when you compare town to town. No, it won't become majority-minority anytime soon but neither will a lot of other places closer to Chicago (like Munster, Dyer, Schererville, Highland, even Griffith). Not trying to criticize you or anything, but I have known quite a few people that have chosen to move "further out" to get away from certain things and certain types of people only to have to deal with those same things (often times in greater numbers than the place they left). I knew people that moved from Munster to Valpo because they were concerned about their future kids getting into drugs and Valpo felt more "down to earth" to them. Their neighbor across the street overdosed about 4 months after they moved in. They've considered moving back but they have had difficulty selling their house. They do otherwise still like Valpo but they also both work in the city and the commute is killing them. You are right that demographic trends in elementary school can be a good indicator overall of the future demographics of an area; however, it depends on the area especially if multiple towns feed into one school system (like tri-town area) or if one town is divided into multiple districts (like Crown Point).

[EricPost]

I thought Southlake was in Hobart?

[Northwest Indiana]

Originally Posted by EricPost

I thought Southlake was in Hobart?

When Southlake was built, it was in "unincorporated Ross Township" and is served by the Merrillville post office which is why it has a Merrillville address. Hobart beat Merrillville to annex the area and with the annexation it meant that Hobart provided municipal services to that area (like fire, police). They allowed businesses to continue using Merrillville addresses because 46410 still covers that area. However also because most of Hobart is further northeast than Merrillville is, the mall is more associated with Merrillville. Also, I have noticed that sometimes when things in the mall area are going great, then "Hobart" is used. When things are bad, "Merrillville" is used lol.

[valpofan11]

Originally Posted by Northwest Indiana

When Southlake was built, it was in "unincorporated Ross Township" and is served by the Merrillville post office which is why it has a Merrillville address. Hobart beat Merrillville to annex the area and with the annexation it meant that Hobart provided municipal services to that area (like fire, police). They allowed businesses to continue using Merrillville addresses because 46410 still covers that area. However also because most of Hobart is further northeast than Merrillville is, the mall is more associated with Merrillville. Also, I have noticed that sometimes when things in the mall area are going great, then "Hobart" is used. When things are bad, "Merrillville" is used lol.

People say Merrillville when referring to the mall because 95% of people don't care about boundaries unless you live right there. It's in Ross Township, thus Merrillville schools, so thus associated with Merrillville. When people think of communities they associate them with what is directly around it like the school district.