You might have noticed them, if you’ve ever made the trek down south to Jewel Food Store or Blockbuster Video. You might have thought to yourself, “Why are there so many of them around here?” You might even have noticed that competition among them seems fierce — a product, perhaps, of the continuing economic slump.
I’m talking, of course, about Oriental rug stores.
A quick look at the Evanston phone book reveals there are at least 15 such dealerships in the city — two-thirds of which stand on a six-block stretch of Chicago Avenue. That’s about one rug store per 5,000 residents. Or, to look at it another way, the city of Chicago would have to have 600 rug stores to match the Evanston per capita rate.
