Patagonia opened the doors on its second Chicago retail store at 48 East Walton Street in the heart of the city's Magnificent Mile/Gold Coast area.
“We invite both new and existing customers to come and check us out in this amazing new space here in the Magnificent Mile shopping district and look forward to being just as involved in this community as we are at our Lincoln Park location,” said Vickie Achee, head of marketing with Patagonia Retail. “And, since we're opening just in time for the holidays, this event is a great way for shoppers get into the holiday spirit and wrap up their shopping with food and entertainment.”
To celebrate, the public is invited to stop in for the store's Grand Opening starting at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 15. Visitors will enjoy live music by the Parkington Sisters and locally grown food provided by City Farm, the Chicago group that turns vacant city lots into productive urban farmland. Additionally, Jared Rouben, pub brewmaster of Goose Island Brewery will be pouring the new “Bitter Cold” brew, created especially to celebrate the Patagonia grand opening.
The company is also a staunch supporter of environmental issues, with their retail stores advocating for local environmental causes in the form of cash and product donations, as well as letter writing campaigns and events. Over the last eight years, Patagonia's Lincoln Park store at 1800 North Clybourn Street has granted over $100,000 to local grassroots environmental groups working on solutions to numerous issues in the community, including a $10,000 grant for the Alliance for the Great Lakes (www.greatlakes.org) and and a hoop house for The Resource Center's City Farm (http://www.resourcecenterchicago.org/70thfarm.html).
Patagonia had sales last year of $414 million and contributed over $43 million in cash and in-kind donations to date.
