Women and children first store front

Women and Children First

By meganrr

  • Women & Children First Opens

    Women & Children First Opens
    Women & Children First opens in its first location on Armitage Avenue in the DePaul Neighborhood of Chicago (Borelli).

  • Women & Children First Moves to Halsted Street

    Women & Children First Moves to Halsted Street
    W&CF moves to a new, larger location at 1967 N. Halstead St.

  • Store Moves to Its Current Location

    Store Moves to Its Current Location
    Women & Children First moves to the Andersonville neighborhood after being recruited by the Edgewater Community Development Organization. W&CF moved into a building that had once been a grocery store (Chamberlin).

  • Borders and Barnes & Noble Open

    Chain stores like Borders and Barnes & Noble begin to open in Chicago (Chamberlin).

  • Store Expands

    Women & Children First expands into the vacant area left when a women's arts-and-crafts store closes. The craft store had opened around the same time as W&CF (Chamberlin).

  • Antitrust Lawsuit Filed Against Barnes & Noble Inc. and Borders Group Inc.

    Women & Children First is one of the bookstore plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed by the ABA.

  • Christophersen Announced as President of the ABA

    ABA

  • More Borders Open

    Two more Borders stores open within miles of Women & Children first. Sales drop 12% at W&CF (Chamberlin).

  • Women's Voices Fund Created

    Women & Children First created a fund to support their events when they could not longer be sustained by the operating budget of the store.

  • Financial Troubles

    Ann Christopherson, one of the founders of the store, begins to work at a bookstore computer software company when she can no longer afford to pay herself a salary for working at the store (Frangello).

  • Sapho's Salon

    An LGBTQ staff member begins Sapho's Salon as a forum for discussing issues relevant to the lesbian community (Chamberlin).

  • 30th Anniversary Benefit Event

    Benefit event raises money for the Women's Voices Fund (Frangello). Around this time Christophersen is able to return to work at the bookstore (What's killing feminist bookstores?).

  • Ebook Sales

    Women & Children First begins to sell Google ebooks. The first year, ebooks account for less than 1% of sales (What's killing feminist book stores).

  • Women & Children First for Sale

    Bubon and Christophersen put the store up for sale as they plan to retire.

  • Change in Ownership

    Ownership of Women & Children first changes hands from Bubon and Christophersen to Lynn Mooney and Sarah Hollenbeck.

  • Street Named After Women & Children First

    Street Named After Women & Children First

  • Post-Renovation Open House

    Post-Renovation Open House
    Women & Children First re-opens after renovation.