Another store bites the dust in downtown Palatine

For Amber Mullins, opening a shoe store in downtown Palatine a block from where she grew up was an emotional decision.

Deciding to close, however, is strictly business.

Ms. Bossy Boots, one of a dwindling number of downtown retailers, shuttered its doors Christmas Eve due to a lack of foot traffic.

“It's not that we're losing money,” Mullins said. “We have customers who are very loyal; we just need 10 times as many of them to cover the cost of our inventory.”

To clear out its shoe and merchandise collection, the store at 43 W. Slade St. will hold a liquidation sale from Sunday, Jan. 2 to Sunday, Jan. 9.

Ms. Bossy Boots opened in summer 2006 at the height of downtown Palatine's redevelopment. Mullins, the daughter of former Mayor Rita Mullins and daughter-in-law of former Mayor Robert Guss Jr., said she was excited to be part of the area's resurgence.

But not enough fellow retailers came around, she said.

“In hindsight, it was an emotional decision to open in downtown Palatine, but probably not the best business move,” Mullins said.

In April, Mullins and husband Robert Guss III opened a second Ms. Bossy Boots in downtown Crystal Lake, near the couple's other store, Village Shoes. She said it's already doing four times as much business as the Palatine location, and attributes the discrepancy to a lack of retail options.

“There's the same number of restaurants and bars in both downtowns, but in Crystal Lake, a group of girlfriends can eat lunch, take a pottery class, shop at a fabric store and hit different specialty boutiques,” Mullins said. “It's a destination place to shop.”

Mullins also believes Palatine doesn't do a good enough job enforcing its parking regulations. Guss spoke before the village council in August about his concern over the growing number of bars in downtown Palatine, saying they encourage customers, and their cars, to linger, but don't result in increased foot traffic.

Palatine Deputy Village Manager Mike Jacobs said that while it's unfortunate to see Ms. Bossy Boots go, Bauer's Brauhaus restaurant is about to open and other businesses are looking to locate there.

He said officials have tried to increase the village's daytime downtown population with developments such as the Gateway office center. The parking situation is always under review, he said, but can't necessarily be a constant priority for police.

“The economy is taking its toll in a variety of ways, and it's a challenging location in that it's not far from Deer Park and Woodfield,” Jacobs said. “There are businesses that are successful, it's just about finding the right mix of uses that people want to go to.”

Mullins hasn't ruled out continuing to utilize the Slade Street storefront for other retail or as a clearance center for her Crystal Lake shops, depending on how next week's liquidation sale goes. She said she put $75,000 into updating the building and hopes to get as much out of it as possible.

She's also looking into relocating Ms. Bossy Boots, possibly to the Deer Park area or Randhurst Village.

“The bottom line is we just need to move to a higher traffic area,” Mullins said.