In early 1991, the Center for Urban Economic Development of the University of Illinois at Chicago surveyed the shopping habits of 350 households of the Ford-Heights area of Southern Cook County in Illinois. The survey was a part of a preliminary determination of the feasibility of constructing a commercial shopping facility to be located at the corner of Woodlawn and Lincoln Highway in Ford Heights. More specifically, the survey targeted Ford-Heights purchases of fast foods, drug-store items, food at sit-down restaurants, hardware-store items, and dry-cleaning/landromat services.
It was determined that all of these goods and services were consumed by Ford-Heights residents. One hundred percent of survey respondents purchased drug-store items at an average monthly expenditure of $47; 95% purchased hardware-store items at an average of $21 per month; 85% said they purchased fast foods at an average of $44 per month; 79% purchased food at sit-down restaurants at an average of $34 per month; dry-cleaning services were consumed by 65% of respondents at the average monthly expenditure rate of $13; and 24% utilized local laundromats, where they spent an average of $3 per month. In order to obtain a more representative indication of average monthly expenditures on the foregoing consumer items, we eliminated the top 5% of responses to our survey for the purpose of calculating each of these aforementioned monthly dollar amounts.
Respondents indicated that they purchased most of their fast-food items from McDonalds, Burger King and Kentucky Fried Chicken; most of their drug-store items from Walgreens, Osco and Pharmor; and most of their hardware-store items from Ace Builders Square, and Handy-Andy. Ponderosa and Red Lobster were the most frequently mentioned sit-down restaurants patronized, while various unspecified dry-cleaning and laundromat establishments in Chicago Heights were also most frequently mentioned by respondents.
Approximately one-half of the adjusted total of respondents said that they would switch their current purchases of fast foods, drug-store items and hardware-store goods to the new facilities constructed at Woodlawn and Lincoln Highway. Forty-four percent said they would do so for food at sit-down restaurants. Approximately one-third said they would do so for dry-cleaning and 25% said the same for laundromat services.
When we estimated the amount of revenues that might be generated by such patronage of a new commercial shopping facility at Woodlawn and Lincoln Highway, we compared each of the six resulting revenue streams with conventional revenues per square feet (as reported by "Dollars & Cents of Shopping Centers/Convenience Centers") for each type of commercial operation pin-pointed in this study (i.e., drug stores, hardware stores, etc.). The results of these calculations were that five of the six types of commercial facilities fell within conventional standards -- as measured by revenues per square feet and typical store size in square feet. The exception was the laundromat category. It appears that the dollars to be spent by local residents on laundromat services would be insufficient to support an operation large enough to be conventionally viable.
Thus, this report recommends that the Ford Heights project team proceed with a second-stage consideration of the feasibility of a commercial facility -- ex laundromat -- for Ford Heights. Future consideration should focus on issues related to finances and requisite operating levels; an extended analysis of the competition; tenant selection criteria; demand forecasts that take into account reported recent local population declines; the relative merits of leasing vs. selling the individual commercial facilities; legal considerations; and site planning, architectural work, and zoning questions.