Andersonville's popular Paper & Pencil shop moving to larger location in May

It was the end of 2025 when Paper & Pencil's owners realized their 400-square-foot stationery store may have caused them to miss out on sales.

That tiny footprint made the Andersonville shop cozy and intimate — but also meant customers had to line up outside its door, then jostle elbow-to-elbow once inside. Business has continued to boom for months, with every available surface used to sell stickers, notebooks, pens and washi tape.

But last week, co-owners Tyler McCall and Eric Campbell announced big news: The popular store at 1480 W. Berwyn Ave. will move to a much larger location nearby.

"We did have a realization … that there was a very high likelihood that we were losing out on sales ... because there just wasn't enough room for people to come in, or people didn't want to wait in line to get in the shop," McCall said.

The owners hope to open the new store by the end of May — ideally, by May 16, its third anniversary. The new location, 5208 N. Clark St., is less than two blocks away — and four times larger.

McCall and Campbell opened the store in 2023 and turned a profit within six months. They saw a huge rise in sales in summer 2025, up 150% year over year.

Sales have continued to increase, partially due to the analog trend that has populated social media. Influencers have deemed 2026 as a "return to analog," emphasizing the use of physical objects, like planners, journals, CDs, and crafts like knitting and collage-making.

Paper & Pencil often gets new customers through social media. Since January, the number of TikTok and Instagram followers increased by more than 22.5% to over 98,000 followers.

Paper & Pencil doesn't sell online, so people travel from around the world to visit the shop, the owners said. An Instagram reel announcing their new store received over 71,000 views in three days. Another reel, featuring McCall and Campbell, has over 800 comments with people offering congratulations and sharing plans to visit the new location.

They also started Chicago’s Stationery Fest in 2025. Tickets for this year's event sold out in 30 minutes and about 2,000 people attended, McCall said.

Since November, the couple had been speaking with real estate brokers and looking for a new space. They wanted a dedicated area for employees and inventory.

“In Andersonville, it's kind of tough because there's either tiny spots, like ours, or there's huge spaces that are expensive and kind of overwhelming. So we were looking for something that was double what we have now,” McCall said.

Their new Clark Street store is 1,600 square feet, with a basement for housing inventory.

“We view it as a space we can really grow into,” McCall said.

They still plan to keep the Berwyn Avenue location but use it as a place to host community events and workshops.

“Because we love the small space so much and it's become such a big part of kind of our lives, we're actually not getting rid of that space,” McCall said. “This summer, we'll transition that into the Paper & Pencil creative studio.”

The shop has been doing “really well financially,” he said. “We never expected our shop to become what it has become. We set out just to open a cute little shop in our cute little neighborhood. We've said that since the beginning, and it's just continued to surprise us every single day.”

The store has seven employees, including two full-time workers. When it recently listed a part-time job opening, they received more than 250 applications.

Responses from customers and social media followers have been overwhelmingly positive, McCall said.

"We expect a lot of folks to kind of make their way in over the next few weeks to say their goodbyes to the tiny storefront, which we're looking forward to seeing,” he said. “We're hopeful that the new space will just allow more people the opportunity to get in the door and experience the magic of stationery and the analog lifestyle.”

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times