Holidays a Year Round Event for Equinox on Broadway (PHOTOS)

The holiday shopping season may have just started, but workers at Equinox in East Lake View have been preparing for this moment for almost an entire year.

Jim Marchand has been looking after the store at 3401 N. Broadway Ave. for the past nine years, and he says preparing for the holiday rush is no little task. And considering Christmas is the store’s biggest shopping season, they start getting ready extra early – just weeks after Christmas Day.

“We started stocking shelves in the second week of August, and it takes about until the beginning of Halloween to finish it,” Marchand began. “But they go shopping for the merchandise as early as January. The January and February months is when they really push it. Then we’ll get our first shipments in May or June, and we’ll be pricing items throughout the summer.”

The gift shop – which is only closed during Thanksgiving, Christmas and Chicago Pride – sells everything from lamps to greeting cards. However, during the holidays, Equinox is transformed into a winter wonderland.

“I’d venture to say we have one of the largest selections of Christmas ornaments out there, at least outside of a store like Macy’s,” Marchand said.

The walls of ornaments are just one aspect of the 21-year-old store at the corner of North Broadway and Roscoe Street. For a store that also booms during Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day, it carries a massive variety of local and unique gifts.

And most importantly, the future continues to look bright for the small business.

“From what I know, we’re definitely up in sales compared to last year,” Marchand said. “And from what I can remember, we had a very good Black Friday and (Small Business) Saturday.”

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