Polk Brothers, a Chicago Appliance Retail Giant

[whirlcool]

Does anyone here remember them? They were a giant appliance sales store/center where just about every model of every major name brand was available at the cheapest price available.
When I was growing up, I remember going to their main "Polk City" shopping center at 2820 N. Central Ave in Chicago. It acually was quite a few buildings adjacent to each other. One building was for major applicances, another one was for household furniture, another one was for Radio/Television. The pioneered the concept that is still used today by Circuit City, Best Buy, etc.
I am reading a book (a rather thick one, btw) titled "I bought it at Polk Bros." Which I find extremely interesting. While Polk Bros made a ton of money (they estimate that almost EVERYONE in Chicago over the age of 40 probably bought at least ONE thing at Polk Bros in their lifetime). There were newlyweds who furnished their entire house, appliances and all, at Polk Bros.
Service, Service & Service was their retailing motto. But they always gave back to the community. In 1955, they celebrated the chains 20th anniversary and they rented the Chicago Stadium ( a 20,000 seat barn) and broadcast the Ed Sullivan Show, complete with old stiff bod himself and the Ice Capades there. They GAVE away tickets to the show free of charge to anyone who could provide a Polk Bros receipt, from anything sold at anytime, even 20 years earlier!
Even though the chain was Jewish owned and operated, every Christmas they gave away a Christmas tree with the purchase of a major appliance. In the later years they had a huge warehouse store on North Avenue in Melrose Park. Every last appliance that Polk Bros. sold wasn't paid for by Polk Bros until it sold, they had such power with the appliance manufacturers everything they sold was sold on consignment!
A lot of people think that they went bankrupt and closed in 1992, but that's not exactly right. What happened was the original founding familys principals had all passed away and nobody else from the family wanted to keep the chain going, which by the way had many locations. So they closed the stores,
and converted all the assets into cash and created the "Polk Bros. Foundation" which, to this day, hands out grants to various charities all over the Chicago area.
Does anyone here remember this chain? My parents bought a sofa there, the Zenith Color TV there, and even an Amana refrigerator there.
The thing I remember most (oddly enough) besides the huge amount of appliances in the place was their computer room. It was right in the middle of the sale floor at their Melrose Park location in a room that had glass walls. They had a huge IBM mainframe. It was interesting to watch all the goings on in there.

 

[hoover1060]

I do...

They had a store in Schaumburg on Golf road(now a Best buy)

I loved going to Polk Brothers, an appliance lovers dream, and the sold damn near everything Hoover and Eureka.

My parents didn't buy much there, Polks was expensive, so we always went to ABT's for stuff.
About the only thing we had that came from Polk brothers was the batch feed GE disposall from about 1978 or so?

When Best Buy announced they were coming to Chicago, the Polks announced the closing of their stores.

 

[pumper]

...me too

I remember visiting a store with my parents when my mom's wringer washer died and she was looking for her first automatic. I think it was in Waukegan.

 

[goatfarmer]

When I first started delivering in Chicago in the early 90's,I used to go by one of their closed stores on Cicero Av.,south of Ford City Mall.
Also someone called into WGN radio in Chicago a few years ago,and was discussing Polk Bros. Santa's,that they gave away at Christmas.

kennyGF

 

[fnelson487]

The Polk Bros on Central is where my folks bought the lavender Hoover 33. I bought a Hoover Celebrity on Belmont. My partner negotiated one time with Sol Polk himself for a Zenith TV in the store on Central.

 

[deeptub]

My parents bought a pair of Lane Action recliners at the Waukegan Polk Bros. somewhere in the late 70s/early 80s. They got a free Random House encyclopedia with their purchase, which I still consult on occasion.

The Waukegan store was in the Waukegan Shopping Plaza. I think it's now a dollar store or something.

I remember we looked at Polk Bros. for a number of appliances and TVs, but usually always ended up buying things from Petropoulos Bros or Grand Appliance because they were owned locally, and if, say, the dishwasher broke, it was often a Petropoulos Brother himself who came to fix it.

T.

 

[goatfarmer]

I went to Frigidaire school in Hinsdale with one of the Petropoulos brothers,don't remember which one.

kennyGF

 

[veg-o-matic]

How odd that this comes up. I read the book about a year ago and enjoyed it.

So much that I just reserved it *again*. Hasn't come yet, which is okay, as I'm working my way through 5 collections of "Little Lulu" at the moment.

veg, obviously the intellectual

 

[maytagman806s]

My folks bought an old Bell and Howell Autoload Dual 8 movie projector from Polk Bros. in 1967 which I still have, from the store on Belmont. We lived off of Belmont and Long on Melrose, which wasn't far from Belmont and Cicero. Jeff: If I remember right, Grandpa bought his 2 Model 918 Hoover Uprights at the main store on Central, and that was about 3 years before I was born so the vacuums were pretty new then. Do you have any idea if this might have been right? I remember all the Hoovers and Eurekas and stuff a few years later, but don't remember the commercial machines there. Those two vacuums were what got the vacuum craze started for me. My folks also bought a Kodak Instamatic 126 camera kit just before we moved from Chicago, and the Old Polaroid 108 camera with the huge flash bulb outfit they got from my late Aunt and Uncle for their wedding (both of which I still have), all came from Polk Bros.

So absolutely. We have very fond memories of Polk Bros. in our family.

 

[maytagman806s]

I just got an email from my mother's middle sister (there were five girls, Grandma, Grandpa, and tenants in the flat upstairs at the house on Melrose), and Auntie says that Grandma bought one of the first Whirlpool Automatic washers with a Suds-Saver made in 1947 or 1948, at Polk Bros. but she doesn't remember what Grandpa paid for it. She did comment that it was a sizeable chunk of money for the time. That came after it just became too much for Grandma to do all the laundry in the old Maytag aluminum tub wringer washer (That came from a flea market downtown on Maxwell Street. One of the few things he bought there that Grandma didn't want to kill him for). They kept the wringer for many years after Grandpa bought the Whirlpool. He worked at Western Electric further down Belmont which as I remember, wasn't far from Foreman High School.

 

[hoover1060]

Walt,

I remember Polk's selling the red/chrome Hoover Guardsmans, but not the commercial models.
They did sell Eureka Commercials on and off, and the GE/Premier Commercial upright.
I loved the Schaumburg store, especially when they'd have the Hoover service clinic. I would beg to go just so I could see all the cleaners brought in for service.

 

[whirlcool]

As I progress thru this book, I was horrified to see that their distribution center on North Av in Melrose Park burned down in 1987! Thar was quite a few years after I left the Chicago area.
It seems the only thing they used their computer for was personnel records and payroll. All the books were still kept on paper and all the inventory was still done on index cards. All that burned up in the fire. They did save the computer tape with all the revolving charge account numbers on it that were recovered.
When they went thru the rubble, they couldn't even get an accurate account of what burned as entire refrigerators and washing machines just evaporated due to the intensity of the fire.
But they did rebuild the distribution center (is it still there?) but lots of people thought the chain was never quite the same afterwards.
The management knew that during the 60's they should have been converting over to a computerized inventory system, but the older family members thought that we've used the card system for years, if it was good for us then, it should be good for us now! By the time they realized this, the cost to do so would have been prohibitive.
Sad.

 

[wmlask]

Maytag Display at Chicago Museum of Science and Industry

Yes, I remember both the store in Waukegan and the store in Schaumburg. I bought my first Panasonic top loading cassette deck at the Waukegan store back in 1977. My friend Ray worked for the company nights and weekends as a second job and has many stories to tell. They also had a great LP record selection.

I also remember Petropoulos brothers, my grandmother got her Speed Queen wringer washer and all of its service from them. They still have a store on Grand Avenue in Waukegan that is mainly focused on Vacs but I still order my Maytag parts from them. They are very patient and will work to find parts. The older guy working there is very happy that I keep my old machines running. He also tells me, on every visit, how sorry he was that he gave in to his wife and got rid of his old GE Filter-Flo to replace it with a newer Maytag.

Since we are talking about Chicago, does anyone remember the Maytag display at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry? They had a huge clear wash basket with a turquoise blue power fin agitator that stood at least 10 feet tall and was at least 12 feet wide. It was full of water and colorful articles of clothing. The agitator actually moved very slowly and the clothing floated through the water. I have not been there in years but I doubt the display still exists.

 

[whirlcool]

Yes! I remember the BIG wash basket!

Wasn't that around the corner from GE's "Home Of The Future" display and near where the chicken eggs used to hatch?
I first saw that maybe around 1962 or so! They had a few items of clothing (I think a shirt or two) moving around as the agitator agitated the water so you could see how the currents move your clothes around in the water. They didn't have any soap added, just clear water. The bottom of the display was about 4 feet up off the floor so you were at eye level with the clothes. That wash basket must have held 800 gallons of water.
The waterline was about 3 or 4 feet above your head!
I remember many a Sunday afternoon at that museum, watching the HUGE model train set and marveling at the fighter aircraft hanging from the ceiling in that HUGE building.
My parens used to like to take us to see the examples of how Christmas trees were decorated from all over the world. Quite quaint!

 

[deeptub]

Goatfarmer--I think it was always Gus Petropoulos who came to the house. I remember someone from Petropoulos showing my dad how to clear the drain valve on our KitchenAid dw so we wouldn't have to call if it happened again.

wmlask--Petropoulos appliance parts is terrific, isn't it? They are so knowledgable and friendly and helpful. I went in for a part last summer and they didn't have the Whirlpool part I needed but they had the exact same part in a Maytag package (it was a pretty universal defrost timer). A typical clerk wouldn't have known that, and of course RepairClinic wouldn't have been able to cross-reference like that.
It's very much a vacuum showroom now, but I remember when the whole front area was towering shelves of parts and wall posters of cutaway Halo-of-Heat dryers and Whirlpool BD washers and whatnot. It was a thrilling place for a kid.

T.