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Value Village Stores, Inc. was a Midwestern United States chain of retail stores aimed at the discount department-store market. Henry Horney, formerly of F.W. Woolworth Company founded a small, regional chain of discount stores located in the two states of Wisconsin and Illinois that opened in 1961 and operated into 1989.Obituaries: Henry J. Horney. Chicago Tribune, 31 January 2001, p. 2, Sec. 2. Horney also had a real estate company and often built small shopping malls adjoining the discount stores.Value Village Business nearly "at Par:" Manager. Portage Daily Register, 28 August 1977, p. 21. The chain had no relation to the Savers chain of thrift stores.
The first two Value Village stores opened in Illinois in Harvey and Homewood, Illinois in August and November 1961."Value Village Grand Opening: Homewood Store." Chicago Tribune, 26 November 1961, p. S-12. Both were established in Kroger grocery stores that closed in 1960. A third location in Dolton had replaced a Horney Variety Store and, because it was the first designed and constructed from the ground up, it would serve as the flagship location and blueprint for the chain.
The architectural style was self-described as Swiss influenced with thatched wood fronts."Value Village Going Up in Monroe." Wisconsin State Journal, 9 November 1970, Sec. 2, p. 1. All new-build stores created after the Dolton flagship had the same basic blueprint. The triangular design built over store entrances served as a double-meaning in the chain's 1980s marketing slogan, “Value Village: The peak of value.” Specific departments were leased out including the pharmaceutical and hardware areas. The hardware was contracted to HWI (a chain later renamed Do It Best) and the pharmacy was handled by an Indiana-based firm."Value Village Business Nearly 'at Par': Manager." Portage Daily Record, p.21.
By the late 1960s and early 1970s, the chain had expanded into small towns in Wisconsin and two more Illinois locations. Converted and new build stores were located in Portage, Monroe, Watertown, Sun Prairie, Elkhorn and Muskego in Wisconsin along with Watseka and Macomb in Illinois. Small malls were built adjoining the Monroe, Watseka, Portage, Dolton and Macomb locations.Thornton, Dennis. "Work Begins on Shopping Center." Portage Daily Register, 30 April 1976, p. 1. Leasing was handled by the Value Village Real Estate Corporation.Howlett, Michael. Certified List of Domestic and Foreign Corporations for the Year 1974. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, p. 1356. Store sizes within the malls were diminutive ranging from just 600 square feet to around 3,500 square feet.Thonton, p. 1. Horney also continued to operate the remaining variety dime stores located in Indiana and Illinois.
With the competitive landscape changing in each of the Value Village markets, closures occurred throughout the mid to late 1980s. Store liquidations reduced the Value Village chain one store at a time until the entire chain was defunct. The final two stores to close in the 11-store chain's history were the Portage location and the rebuilt Dolton flagship store late in 1989.Spelbring, Bill. "Dolton Site of Largest Expo Center." Southtown Star, 23 June 1991, p. C2. A number of the adjoining malls were repurposed, as well. The Macomb Value Village Mall became a co-location of Spoon River College. The Monroe location was altered to house a larger retail store. The Dolton Value Village Mall was the last of the Value Village branded malls to close in 1998 and the Value Village Real Estate Corporation was dissolved."Expo Center's Fate in Judge's Hands." The Times (Munster, Indiana), 13 October 1998, p. B3.
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