Portage Park Turkish Goods Store Home Line Decoration Permanently Closing After A Year Of Low Sales
PORTAGE PARK — Colourful household goods retail store Home Line Decoration, also called Al-Bazzar, will go darkish for superior just after hoping to maintain the organization afloat for the previous yr.
The Turkish products shop, 4358 N. Cicero Ave., options to shut at the conclusion of the yr or early upcoming yr, every time its total inventory is marketed, owner Yousef Barakat mentioned.
Home Line Decoration sells handmade lamps, tapestries, rugs, stools, dishware and dwelling items from Turkey.
The operator blames minimal sales and large delivery fees for importing merchandise from Turkey as factors that led to the tricky choice to shut, he explained.
“This is the factor — the fact is because last year until eventually now, we are just shaking,” Barakat stated of the store’s business enterprise. “We are closing for fantastic.”
Credit rating: Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago
Credit: Colin Boyle/Block Club ChicagoOwners want to get rid of their total stock and are featuring steep discounts and profits to prospects. Consumers will also acquire a free of charge item as a reward picked out by the spouse-and-spouse staff, Barakat explained.
The store has new goods this yr, like handcrafted rugs in many dimensions on sale for $20-$25. The retail store also has new colorful stools for $40 as effectively as its usual myriad of colorful lamps ranging from $14-$30 depending on dimension, the owner said.
Dwelling Line Decoration was battling financially through the holidays past calendar year and also experienced a near-out sale to get rid of its inventory. Immediately after Block Club claimed on the sale and the owners’ contact for a company increase, the group stepped up, serving to the store make it as a result of the holidays, the owners reported.
Hopeful that the organization would switch around, Barakat purchased more items from Turkey, but shipping was costly and products have been delayed. He expended concerning $14,000-15,000 for delivery containers with a lot of inventory.
But he did not see product sales as he’d predicted, building this year specifically tricky, Barakat mentioned. Now the proprietors feel the organization is completed for excellent.
“I experimented with to do much better [but] shipping was extremely high-priced,” he stated.
Credit history: Colin Boyle/Block Club ChicagoBarakat and his wife, Kholoud Ghaith, opened the store in 2018.
Barakat moved to the United States from Turkey in the ’90s and settled in Chicago in advance of he and Ghaith went to Puerto Rico to open their personal retail store.
But Hurricane Maria devastated the island in 2017, and the family lost their residence and their shop. They packed up what was still left and returned to Chicago, where by they opened Property Line Decoration.
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Credit rating: Colin Boyle/Block Club ChicagoThe shop sits at the corner of Montrose and Cicero. Every of its hundreds of lamps has a unique glass mosaic style and design, and are all handmade in Turkey, the proprietor reported.
“Over the many years, and throughout wars, this has been a tradition in Turkey,” Barakat previously informed Block Club. “A prolonged time ago, they made use of to make these mosaic lamps in the course of the Ottoman Empire, very long before electricity, and lit them with candles.”
Small business was excellent when the retailer opened, Barakat earlier stated. They tried to sell items on the internet but saw more in-person sales, so they stopped featuring on the web income, he reported.
The homeowners are not certain what will arrive following. They could possibly open an additional enterprise in the similar place if the landlord approves, but that is however to be decided, Barakat explained.
Home Line Decoration is open 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Saturday.
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