When ENJOY, An Urban General Store (ENJOY) owner and president Rebecca Wood moved to Chicago in 2002, she lived near Lincoln Square and spent lots of time exploring the small businesses on Lincoln Ave.
“The 4700 block fascinated me…and the neighborhood felt like a village inside this big city I was still getting to know,” said Wood. “I knew I wanted to open a store in a Chicago neighborhood, and I soon realized Lincoln Square was exactly what I’d been looking for.”
Small businesses have been a part of Wood’s entire life. Her parents were both public school teachers in suburban Boston and also small business owners. They told Wood the best way to get foot traffic in a gift shop is to be next door to a busy and popular restaurant, which they had done with the store they operated on Cape Cod.
Wood said on their drives to Vermont to visit her grandmother, they would stop at general stores along the way and, “Looking back, I think it’s where the early inspiration for an urban general store really started.”
Wood decided to move to Chicago following a visit to a college friend.
“After some late nights at Star Gaze which moved to early morning breakfasts at Augie’s meeting amazing people, I decided it was time to move,” Wood recalled. “I drove back to Boston, packed up my car and moved to Lincoln Square in Chicago which felt familiar to me—the same feeling I’d experienced in the seasonal community on Cape Cod. I knew this would be the neighborhood where I could build a life, open a store and put down roots.”
In July 2005 Wood was able to realize her dream of opening ENJOY, a queer-owned and operated specialty independent gift store, when the former Hansa Travel Bureau space at 4727 N. Lincoln (now 4723 N. Lincoln) in Lincoln Square became available for rent.
Wood knew the location was the right place for her shop because it was right next door to the now defunct Café Selmarie. Wood also has another location which she opened in 2019 in Andersonville at 5307 N. Clark St.
Wood said Lincoln Square has a European pedestrian-plaza feel to it which she describes as “a small town in the middle of a big city.”Andersonville meanwhile “has a different energy as one of Chicago’s strongest shop-local neighborhoods and home to one of the city’s largest LGBTQ+ communities with a strong sense of pride and commitment to equality.”
The first people to welcome Wood on Lincoln Ave. were the Café Selmarie’s co-owners, Birgit Kobayashi and the late Jeanne Uzdawanis, who opened their restaurant there in 1983. Kobayashi and Uzdawanis became her business role models and taught her about community, friendship and the ins and outs of navigating a business in Chicago.
ENJOY carries numerous LGBTQ+-themed gifts alongside the rest of its wares. Wood said, “Being a queer-owned shop is a part of who we are, and we’re proud to put it out there. It gives us an excuse to have a little extra fun with what we carry.” She also sells political activist-themed gifts which reflect the “more liberal/progressive character of the Chicago neighborhoods we’re a part of.”
Her overall goal is to sell wares which make all kinds of people think, ‘This is so me.’” She brought Stephanie Edwards onboard to build out their online presence in 2008 during the recession. Wood was concerned she would lose the lease to her Lincoln Square location (which didn’t happen) and wanted to have a safety net.
Years later, “COVID flipped everything on its head,” said Wood.
“In March 2020, we closed our doors for the first time in 15 years,” she added. Her team began working from home, focusing their energies on online sales. “Our local customers really carried us—buying gift cards, doing curbside pickup and even having us hand-deliver gifts around the neighborhood.”
“And then there were the puzzles. I’d pre-ordered a batch of jigsaw puzzles almost on a whim before the pandemic hit, and suddenly we couldn’t keep them in stock. For the first time ever, we were outselling the big online puzzle retailers. This was a pretty surreal moment for me.”
Among the products ENJOY has offered in recent years are Dolly Parton XO Mugs, which went viral after the singer died; the GurglePot which was featured in a viral video with Mandy Patinkin and picked for The New York Times’ Wirecutter’s gift life four different times; and The Beyond Bored Book, a Highlights magazine for adults.
ENJOY has a Giving Back program where the store supports grassroots fundraising for gender-affirming surgery and other systemic change endeavors. Wood said 100% of the profits from the store’s Black Lives Matter and Trans Lives Matter product lines goes to Brave Space Alliance; 20% of the profits from the pro-choice/reproductive freedom products go to Midwest Access Coalition; and 10% of the proceeds from the Chicago Flag apparel go to the Friendship Center.
Wood, her wife Kathleen Faber and their three school-age children live within walking distance of both stores. Their children help with pricing just like Wood and her brother Ben did in their parents’ store on Cape Cod. Wood has carried on the tradition of paying her children in candy like her parents did with her and her brother.
Wood said queer-owned small businesses like hers matter now more than ever during this current political moment where fascism is growing in the United States because it’s a place where “LGBTQ+ employees and customers can show up as themselves and know they are welcome.”
Despite the difficulties inherent in retail sales, Wood said the hard work is worth it.
She added, “We’ve navigated a recession, a pandemic, tariffs, economic uncertainty and somehow made it to our 21st year. I started ENJOY because it was my dream to own a little gift store. All these years later I’m still very happy I did. Now I understand the store is about a lot more than the things on the shelves.”
