Posts Tagged ‘Economy’
Economy Shopping December 4th, 2009
This story has been done and I’m ok with that. My newspaper wrote a story about the Economy Shop in 1919. I really wanted to find someone doing their holiday shopping on the cheap, the same way people have been doing here for 90 years. I love the hunt for a story, when the door opens and you stalk each room, spark up conversations and figure how comfortable you can make them quickly.
After 30 minutes of wandering a three-story house filled with treasures I found Patricia Green picking out five cent ornaments. “I’ve been coming here for the last, oh my god, thirty years. This place has been just a blessing for me,” Green said as I fumbled to get my audio recorder rolling. She was so cute and nice. Green allowed me to follow her as she shopped for everything you can imagine. Christmas tree with ornaments, bows, shoes, towels, bundt pan, wreaths, jewelry, and a $1 winter jacket. She shops for 7 grandchildren, 3 great-grandchildren and many kids in her Austin neighborhood that are in need.
They’ve got a few more sale dates before Christmas. It’s an adventure and shopping all in one.
OAK PARK 12/3/09 Patricia Green inspects an umbrella she would eventually purchase at the Economy Shop in Oak Park, Dec. 3, 2009. The 90-year-old store is staffed by volunteers of local charities. "I've been coming here for the last, oh my god, thirty years. This place has been just a blessing for me." Green said. Green shops for her seven grandchildren, three great-grandchildren and some of the other under privileged children in her Austin neighborhood. "Every Thursday, every Saturday I'm here. I look forward to coming here and shopping. When I leave I'm always happy like a little child at Christmastime," Green said. (Rob Hart/Staff Photographer)
Tags: Economy, Economy Shop, Holiday, Oak Park, Patricia Green, Rob Hart
Posted in Oak Park, OakPark365, Rob Hart | Comments (1)
Worn Out sole March 18th, 2009
To get to Antonio Munoz’s shoe repair shop, customers have to step down a set of concrete stairs into the basement of the Oak Park Avenue retail building he’s set up in.
A little bell at the door rings as people step into Tony’s Shoe Clinic, 115 N. Oak Park Ave., a small space that smells of leather and shoe polish. There’s a whirring noise in the store: Munoz’s mechanical sander, constantly on.
Munoz can be found before the sander, grinding away at the bottom of a pair of shoes, preparing to replace their soles.
Behind Munoz is his workbench, a pile of adhesive clumped up on the table, easy access when he needs to glue on new heels or those replacement soles he’s preparing.
Two metal stands are off to one side with fittings Munoz can place the shoes on when he needs to hammer new heels into place. Next to his sander is a press to push shoe leather into place.
Munoz has plenty of work, from adjustments people want done to newly purchased shoes to major renovation of pieces of leather that are shoes only in name.
Thirty years ago, when he started in Oak Park, there were 10 shoe repairmen in town, he said. Now, he’s the last, putting in 15-hour work days.
“I come over here at 6 o’clock in the morning and I go at 9:30 in the night, every day,” Munoz said. “When you like the job … you stay here. If you don’t like the job, it’s boring in one day, boring in one hour.”
And he likes the work, repairing not just shoes, but purses, luggage, belts, jackets. As he says, Munoz can fix just about anything with leather.
Munoz has spent 43 years in the business, he said, starting in Mexico. When he was younger, he needed work.
“One guy said, go there, they’ll find you a job there,” Munoz said. He went into shoe repair and never left.
Not only does Munoz take the jobs that walk in the door, he said, but also takes overflow work from other repairmen who don’t have time.
“It’s too expensive for new (shoes) right now,” he said. “Five years ago, it was … cheaper.” – Chris LaFortune
Tags: Chris LaFortune, Economy, Oak Park, Oak Park 365, Rob Hart, Tony's Shoe Clinic
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