Rose Regroups
Like the once-vaunted Kroch’s & Brentano’s, Chicago retailing legend Rose Records is undergoing a wrenching downsizing and reorganization. The 63-year-old chain is reeling from the effects of cutthroat price wars, overambitious expansion, and an inability to adapt in a rapidly changing retailing landscape. Within a few weeks all that will remain of the chain that as recently as a year ago numbered 49 outlets will be four stores: the flagship operation at 214 S. Wabash and stores in the west Loop, Hyde Park, and Lakeview. Those four will continue under the management of Jim Rose, who has long been a fixture at the Wabash store and helped develop the impressive classical music department there.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Operating three former Rose Records outlets in Evanston, Downers Grove, and Milwaukee will be Rose’s cousin, Jack Rose (their fathers founded the company), and Dave Roger, an executive with Sterling Ventures, the umbrella company the Rose cousins established before they started expanding the chain in the early 80s. Those three stores will have a new name that is expected to be in place within three weeks. Many of the now-shuttered Rose Records outlets were in malls, where the chain negotiated its way out of leases. Neither Roger nor Jack Rose returned phone calls. But Jim Rose says the decision to split up the remaining stores and rename some was in part due to his desire to emphasize classical product in ads.
Though pricing certainly contributed to Rose Records’ predicament, other factors were involved as well. Sources say some distributors were holding up shipments to Rose stores because of bill-payment problems and were demanding payments on a week-by-week basis. Many of the stores opened during the chain’s expansion were in suburban malls with high traffic flow, but rents at those locations were high, and spaces too small for the stores to maintain the wide selection Rose was known for. Says one store manager: “I’d rather have the reputation of low prices [than the location].” When Rose moved into outlying markets like Milwaukee and Madison, where it wasn’t as well-known, it had trouble capturing a significant market share. Selection in all the stores diminished as the chain’s finances deteriorated. One source claims Rose’s rapid expansion was intended to make the chain an attractive buyout candidate for major record retailers looking to enter the midwest. Jim Rose says the expansion was intended to “decrease overhead.”
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Nathan Mandell.
