Southport Small Business: 'Will We be Shuttered Out?'

It started with Athleta and Southport Fitness, followed by construction for the Gap.

But for one Southport Avenue small business owner, the recent news about a pending Starbucks expansion was the last straw.

Born and raised in Zimbabwe, Dave McLaughlin rolled the entrepreneurial dice in 2009 when opening Safari Cup Coffee, a café directly next to the Southport Brown Line CTA train station. Four years later, he looks at the popular Lake View business corridor in a different way.

“These corporate things — I didn’t grow up in these corporatized environments, and it’s awful,” McLaughlin said. “We need a place where there’s uniqueness. We need a place where there’s something different. I just think it’s sad, in the Southport Corridor, why would you come here if there’s a Gap and Starbucks? You can get that anywhere else.”

News of the Starbucks expansion came in December. The coffee house plans grow to three storefronts across the street from its current location, which will be right next to Safari Cup.

McLaughlin admits, with the cost of rent on Southport, he just doesn’t have the marketing budget to compete.

But according to real estate investor Frank Campise, CEO of JAB Real Estate Opportunity Funds and owner of multiple Southport properties, this is the direction the business corridor has been headed for decades.

Campise says he’s been living in the neighborhood for 45 years. These types of plans for the street began in the 70s, he notes.

“What’s happening is an unintended consequence of a free market society. It’s really hard for small businesses to compete against national retailers..." 

And Heather Way, the executive director of the Lakeview Chamber of Commerce, says doing business on Southport is getting increasingly costly.

During Tuesday’s West Lake View Neighbors meeting, Way was asked about the growing number of national retailers on the street. She gave an honest answer.

“What’s happening is an unintended consequence of a free market society,” Way said. “It’s really hard for small businesses to compete against national retailers and landlords who are really interested in keeping their investment … If you want local businesses to survive, you have to put your money where your mouth is. If you want Safari Cup to serve coffee next year, you have to buy coffee from Safari Cup. It’s that simple.”

Supporting small businesses in Lake View is the reason Way started programs like Shop Lakeview, a holiday shopping initiative that rewards residents for spending money right here in the neighborhood. Now in its sixth year, the program reportedly hit $120,000 in sales in 2012.

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But for McLaughlin, it’s still going to be a struggle. Starbucks—or as he calls it, "the green cancer"—is still moving in directly next-door. He’s hoping that, combined with his full menu of breakfast and lunch items, he can spread the word about what shopping locally does for the community.

“We’ve been trying to explain to people if you spend a dollar here, we live in the community, so that dollar is going toward local rent, my kid goes to a local school, we buy from local grocery stores, we get insurance from Lakeview Insurance. When you spend money at a local shop, it stays in the community, not off to New York investors.”

And Starbucks representatives say their position is the same as in December when news leaked about this expansion project. Customers have been asking for a bigger space and more seating, so that’s what they’re going to provide.

McLaughlin admits one of the positives of the Starbucks move is connecting with locals who are also fighting the street’s corporate momentum, but in reality, he says the next few years will be interesting. 

“It’s sad, and the question is, how much support do people in the Southport Corridor have for the independents?” McLaughlin asked. “Will we be shuttered out in the next couple years, or will they start to support us?”

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