Friday, March 13, 2009

CricKet Grand Opening

The CricKet cell phone store in Weiss Plaza (Lawrence & Sheridan) is ready for customers. Check out their Grand Opening. Apparently CricKet has taken over two empty adjoining storefronts. Welcome, CricKet!

31 comments:

  1. Its not a grand opening without a WACKY WILD INFLATABLE ARM FLAILING TUBE MAN!!!!!

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  2. When I drove past last night around 8, I was deflated to see that WWIAFTM was nowhere in sight.

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  3. I love it Beacon.

    I wonder if they got it from Al Harrington's.

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  4. Ah, yes...the new Crickety Cleaners. I was wondering when they'd open.

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  5. Maybe it's a subsidiary called bcricKety.

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  6. Exactly how many cell phone stores do we need?

    Uptown's retail in the 46 ward is representative of retail in economically depressed communities (even before the gobal economy dropped)...lots of empty store fronts, mixed with currency exchanges, dollar stores, and fast food chains.

    Look around the entire 46 ward, ask yourself why is there is no vibrant thriving retail streets anywhere in this ward?

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  7. Hey, homeless are entitled to cell phones too...:) I had a guy in the San Diego area a few weeks ago come up and ask me if I could spare a few bucks for him to get something to eat. He was wearing Bose headphones and had just finished a cell phone call. I told him he had nicer headphones than I could afford. About an hour later, I saw him outside a Seven Eleven bumming a cigarette from a guy. I doubt think he was homeless, just a mooch.

    On topic, it's estimated that the average American spends $3.00/minute for each cell phone call. By the minute, classes at Truman are much cheaper and worth a lot more in the long run. Don't utilities have programs in place for low income people to get a land line for almost nothing? Sure beats blowing money on a cell phone.

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  8. Katharine said...
    Look around the entire 46 ward, ask yourself why is there is no vibrant thriving retail streets anywhere in this ward?

    Ummmmm, because the $300,000 condo you bought is smack dab in the middle of a neighborhood that has been "economically depressed" for 40 years? Shame on those realtors and developers for fooling you, shame on them, I say!

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  9. To allenpg...actually there ARE charities that provide inexpensive cell phones to homeless people so that they can provide a phone number to potential employers, etc.

    I learned this while reading a story about the First Lady doing volunteer work at a D.C. shelter, and got her picture taken by a "client" with a cell phone.

    BTW those "Flailing Tube Guys" have given me nightmares ever since I saw "Mad TV" do a skit about a lady who fell in love with one of them...one of the creepiest "comedy" moments in the history of commerical television.

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  10. Hey Kenny from Helen's office!

    "Ummmmm, because the $300,000 condo you bought is smack dab in the middle of a neighborhood that has been "economically depressed" for 40 years?"

    Nice Kenny, so then by definition you would have to say that Helen Shiller has failed miserably since the country as a whole has not been "economically depressed" for 40 years? While the rest of the country has seen business fluctuate, Uptown's has remained crap. Long after this newest national recession is over Uptown's nightmare will still be going on. Well that is if Helen and Kenny from Helen's office are still here.

    But I know you and your crew and you paint with a large brush. I also know Katherine and know she has been in Uptown long before condos were going for 300,000.

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  11. Ummmmm, because the $300,000 condo you bought is smack dab in the middle of a neighborhood that has been "economically depressed" for 40 years? Shame on those realtors and developers for fooling you, shame on them, I say! - Kenny

    Translation:
    The retail is suppose to be crappy because poor people have been living here and they deserve crappy retail.

    Oops. I meant keep your standards low because poor people have low standards.

    Oops, I mean retail is suppose to be awful because it's been awful for 40 years. Yeah, that's the ticket. it's been awful for 40 years and why should anyone expect any different with our alderman in charge.

    Oops, I mean it's nobody's fault. It's just the way it is. Yeah, that's what I meant.

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  12. Katherine, what would you have preferred to go over there? Surely you're not suggesting that non-low income people aren't looking for competitive cell phone and wireless providers?

    If you check out the Cricket website, it seems to be a competitive phone/wireless company and this neighborhood actually does not have a lot of outlets where you--meaning all income levels in Uptown--can do a lot of competitive cell phone and wireless shopping. That mall has had several small (99 cent and a local beauty supply store) and a couple of bigger businesses (Erol's and Blockbuster) come in and out over the years, and that spot has been vacant for over a year. I'm glad to see a new business offering a service that people of all income levels in Uptown can find value in. A lot of folks don't like to be locked into contracts. I don't see how Cricket is an indicator of a depressed community. Katherine, what's the basis of your conclusions about Cricket, because it does not fit with what I found on the website about what the company offers. No, it's not a boutique or another restaurant, but it's a solid business with a broader market than I think you acknowledge Katherine.

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  13. What's wrong with another cell phone store? Oh, I don't know. Maybe it's the lack of VARIETY of different types of stores that's the real problem! Is there any particular reason why anyone in Uptown would want an overabundance of any one type of store in this area? NL, if you like diversity so much, how about diversity in retail?

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  14. HM, if you read my comment, one of my points is that there are NOT a lot of competitive retailers for phone and wireless service in Uptown. I am all for diversity in retail. If you actually read what I say, my point was that this particular kind of store (1) meets a need that IMO is underserved in this community and (2) actually has the potential to reach a variety of income levels in the community, which I thought was a good thing.

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  15. NL, it appears you missed my point and Katharine's point. We don't need to apologize for wanting more diverse shopping opportunities in this neighborhood and by diverse, I don't think we meant having an overabundance of cell phone stores to make extra extra sure the right plan is being offered.

    I moved here when retail was more than crappy but that doesn't mean I would ever want retail to stay substandard. Looking around other neighborhoods, it goes beyond the economy that it's remained so inadequate. I recall IHM stating that it's the lack of safety that keeps other retailers away. I couldn't agree more.

    I know us evil condo owners would just love to see the neighborlady's, Ron's, Kenny's, Marc's, jp's, and Helen's of this ward work with us to make Uptown safer. I think the poor would appreciate it as well. I'm guessing that besides also wanting more diverse shopping opportunities in their neighborhood, they also want it safer. They really aren't that different from us condo owners. Really.

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  16. I know other wards are doing studies to assess where residents are spending their money for goods and services, and afterwards, take the needed steps to attract those businesses into the area. I recall meeting one retailer who told me he wouldn't come into Uptown because it appeared to unsafe. I've heard business owners in Uptown with the same complaint.

    Cricket sounds like a great phone company and it does fill a niche for those who don't want to make a long-term commitment for a phone plan. I still want more diverse retail but I don't think it will happen until the area is perceived to be safer.

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  17. I recall meeting one retailer who told me he wouldn't come into Uptown because it appeared too unsafe.

    That's all part of the master plan! Then, you blame those same people for being racists, gentrifiers, or "against the poor".

    It's all very simple.

    Making things "Better" or "Safer" only raises property values, thus pushing the poor out of the neighborhood.

    So the answer is to keep everything shitty. The shittier, the better.

    That should be Helen's campaign slogan...

    VOTE HELEN SHILLER
    Keeping Uptown Shitty for over 20 years!

    If you need some catchy campaign slogans for your own use, please just let me know. My services are gratis.

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  18. James wrote:
    I know other wards are doing studies to assess where residents are spending their money for goods and services, and afterwards, take the needed steps to attract those businesses into the area.

    We are just finishing one of those studies up here in Andersonville as part of our Retail Attraction effort, through the Andersonville Development Corporation (disclosure: I'm a board member of ADC).

    The results so far are very enlightening regarding the breakdown of spending in the area, identification of types of businesses that are likely to succeed, etc.

    We're in a wierd situation as the Clark Business District is in the intersection of four different wards (mainly 40th & 48th, but some of 46th and 47th), so it wouldn't make sense for it to have been a ward initiative, but for areas like Broadway...

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  19. HM, who's asking you and Katherine to apologize for anything? Katherine complained that with Cricket, we had too many such businesses, and I said--based on my decades-long experience living in this community as well--that I have not observed many such competitive phone and wireless retailers. Again, who is opposed to diversity in retail?

    And HM, you know nothing about what I do and have done in Uptown to make it safer--and I don't know you in RL or what you've done either. You might do better if you stop always lumping people in groups the way you keep implying I do--for example, where in what I said did I mention condo owners? Seems to me when you don't like what is being said, you pull out that "poor condo owner as true victim" card pretty frequently.

    How you lept from my opinion that Cricket could be a nice solid "bridge" business addition to Uptown that could serve a diverse market(including condo owners), to my not doing "my part" to make Uptown more safe, I'll never know. But that appears to be your tactic. Most reasonable and fair-minded people would take this for the positive statement it was intended to be, but not you. Instead, you apparently respond to what you want to think I'm saying as opposed to what is actually being said. My comment was meant to be challenging but still positive and not knee-jerk reactive, while your response to me was (typically) divisive and filled with assumptions.

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  20. NL, you and I both know about people who portray themselves as advocates for the poor who also attend CAPS meetings and do everything possible to block any attempts to address gangs, drug activity, public drinking, etc. Don't start playing victim and pretending that's not the case. The big clue with you was your insistence on another thread that there was nothing wrong with having another currency exchange put in across the street of another one already in place at Irving Park/Broadway so that poor people wouldn't have to cross the street to cash their checks; a business by the way that Alderman Ed Smith takes advantage of the poor with their steep prices they charge for cashing checks.

    I have nothing against this cell phone store. I have something against the lack of diversity of retail in this area. Just a guess here, but if some type of a retail survey appeared in Uptown (and no such luck with Shiller in office), I doubt they would suggest that Uptown is in desperate need of more cell phone stores. I'm betting ditto with currency exchanges too.

    You remind me of Helen when she speaks of mixed income housing. With WY, mix income is a mix of all low income. When you speak of diversity, you mean of diversity of cell phone stores. Give me a break.

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  21. "And HM, you know nothing about what I do and have done in Uptown to make it safer." NL

    That's right. I wonder what NL has ever stated on UU that would indicate she is supportive of residents' efforts to get better CHA management and address the drug dealing and prostitution in the area?

    Hooray for Crickets. I love my current cell phone plan but I can't wait for the day when I can spend more of my money in Uptown.

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  22. Ok HM, I am probably putting too much energy into bothering to respond to you, but I don't like when people distort what I say to try to make some point. So here in part is what I said regarding Currency Exchanges on that post you reference in your off-topic response to me:

    "Many people who posted in horrific response to the CE seem to have had very little experience with CEs and their ignorance shows in the way they over-simplify what people can do in a CE and who uses them(which is not just a payday loan or check cashing center or a tool to keep poor people poor).
    *****
    I was not poor--I would probably have been called working class. I've used currency exchanges as a younger person, so I know many of these people know not quite of what they speak. Pointing out those gaps in actual experience--which, yes, may be a result of class-- I think helps bring greater clarity to a debate so we can really understand the real assets and deficits any given business establishment may bring to a community.
    *****
    …[D]iscussing the need for more CEs in the community--it just seems pretty pathetic when people discuss it in such a way that displays total ignorance about what functions a CE may actually serve to a wide array of people in the community, or imply that we don't need CEs because they attract low-lifes. When so much ignorance goes unchecked, it takes on a truth to some people--especially those less informed about the particular issue being discussed. So if being accused of being a "class divider" is the risk taken for just trying to inject into the discussion a little reality and actual experience--and maybe the POV of the "we" who is not so heavily represented on this board--then so be it."


    First, HM, I stand completely by what I said. I was responding to what I felt were some very ignorant statements regarding who might use a CE and what transactions might be carried in one, using my own personal experience, in part, as a reference. Again, I did not oppose diverse retail. I just don't agree with using bigoted statements to support an argument against this type of establishment. And in fact, I thought Cricket would be the sort of business more welcome in Uptown because (a) we don't have multiples of those in Uptown and (b) it has the potential to reach across economic lines.

    Second, you HM are proof that people will hear only what they want to hear, and your sort of approach to dealing with these types of community issues--and people who dare offer up a different POV on these issues-- is no better than how you characterize Kaplan and Shiller and their "followers."

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  23. Just Wondering, I have said before and asked before on this site that if management was the issue, that would be a better way to state the problem. In other words, much of what I hear seems to be about low-income people and housing, when really the concern is about poorly managed properties. Things used to be much "seedier" around here when I was younger. For example, there used be a bar--a real dive-- near where I lived, and many shoddy buildings that were torn down years ago, but there was even then not the presence of shooting like there has been in the last approximately three years. Yes, Uptown has always had crime--especially prostitutes--but I have literally never been concerned about gun violence in Uptown until very recently. If you stop viewing Uptown in a vacuum apart from the rest of the city (but I know, such a thing is verboten here...) Uptown is not alone in these surges of shootings. That does not make it better, and if in fact poorly managed properties is the problem then these managers should also be held accountable and called out about the failure to maintain safe properties. If you are somehow implying that I am all for crime and against residents having safe and well-managed homes (and honestly, I'm not quite sure of your tone), then you are way off base.

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  24. "and their ignorance shows in the way they over-simplify what people can do in a CE and who uses them(which is not just a payday loan or check cashing center or a tool to keep poor people poor)." NL

    They're more than just a tool to keep people poor? I'm wondering why anything that keeps people poor would be okay?

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  25. Yeah, let's blame the property owners and managers for the crime because their residents don't live in the lap of luxury.Typical.

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  26. Ok, Just Wondering, currency exchanges keep people poor like banks make people rich?? I don't see how a CE makes a poor person a poor person--or keeps them poor. I don't know if you've ever set foot inside a CE, but even non-poor people find convenient uses for them, just like non-rich people use banks. But you keep engaging in those interesting twists of logic. HM did a very good job of distracting from the main point I made way back when--Cricket is an interesting different business to appear in Uptown, taking up a spot that once stood vacant, and I hope it does well.

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  27. I don't see how a CE makes a poor person a poor person--or keeps them poor. NL

    I'm wondering if Alderman Ed Smith was really just demonstrating his contempt for the poor and working class when he mentioned that ce's were ripping off the poor?

    When a new alderman is in place, we'll start seeing more effort in getting a greater diversity of retail. God knows we have diversity of cell phone stores.

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  28. If Cricket is such a wonderful business, how come they couldn't repaint the old business logo under their fancy smancy neon logo?

    HMMMM??? Tacky.

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  29. Just Wondering wrote:

    I don't see how a CE makes a poor person a poor person--or keeps them poor. NL

    I'm wondering if Alderman Ed Smith was really just demonstrating his contempt for the poor and working class when he mentioned that ce's were ripping off the poor?


    Check cashing service fees average around $800 a year for a family, according to the study done for that Houston program I referred to earlier. That's almost a month's rent or a lot of grocery bills for a family.

    In many cases, such as this, the poor pay proportionally more for goods and services, adding even more burden to their situation.

    Other examples include the per minute rates for cell phones, grocery costs in neighborhoods where a chain is not available due to public transit, etc.

    So, yes, currency exchanges (or specifically, the rates they charge for check cashing and services) do help keep people poor. Yes, they provide services, but at a higher cost than those services cost at their sources by adding on fees (stamps, city stickers, etc).

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  30. Hal Shipman, the point I made regarding CEs was that the arguments made against them were not put in the manner in which you have put yours. I spoke largely against those who used stereotypes about the "types" of people (low lifes, criminals) who used them. CEs offer services beyond "check cashing" and they are utilized in various ways seven days a week and to that extent there is a "convenience" fee attached to their services, I agree. (In the examples you make--stamps and city stickers, for examples--these purchases are not the exclusive province of the poor.) But that's not the point some of these folks were making. If you don't like CEs because you think they "harm" the poor, I'm not going to try to steer you from your opinion--as is overwhelmingly obvious here, that would be futile. But it is far different to express contempt for CEs because you hold contempt for the people you imagine who use them.

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  31. "If you don't like CEs because you think they "harm" the poor, I'm not going to try to steer you from your opinion--as is overwhelmingly obvious here, that would be futile. But it is far different to express contempt for CEs because you hold contempt for the people you imagine who use them." NL

    Your defense of ce's just isn't working. Hal did the finishing blow. I'll agree to disagree with you.

    I will agree with you that no one should say derogatory things about the poor. It's the overuse of false blanket statements we hear on a regular basis from the Catholic Workers, COURAJ, ONE, and Helen that are more divisive than helpful.

    I'm not saying don't criticize inappropriate behavior when you observe it, but it would be helpful to come up with some very clear examples of exactly what was said and by whom. Otherwise, you may end up getting lumped into the same group as the Catholic Workers, COURAJ, ONE, and Helen. I don't think you want that given their lack of credibility. They want us to believe they're advocates for the poor but the crowds who once believed that is shrinking quickly.

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