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I’ve thought that about olive oils stores and one here that sells salt and various herb blends. I think the main store is doing ok, but the satellite store is closing. They remind me of the old SNL skit about “The Scotch Boutique” which only sold scotch tape.
Many malls have gone this uber-boutique route and the stores change out monthly. I think many of them are fast-buck entrepreneurs who simply switch names and products as the fads warrant.
The faux village/main street malls seem to be composed of nothing but these. You could shop end to end and buy one product in each store. OTOH, such places are usually sprinkled with very trendy takes on standard restaurant types that come and go just as fast, so you can grab a bite in between candles and storage jars.
The worst one I ever saw was a brand new strip mall, beautiful place, with a huge key store that was a national chain department store. Beautiful build-out on that one.
They had their grand opening sale one week and the next week, the national chain declared bankruptcy and the going out of business signs were up. 90% off on everything. Within 2 weeks the store was completely empty.
I really felt sorry for the landlord who built that mall to accommodate the big department store. Also, some sympathy for the little guys who rented the small stores in that mall, thinking they had a classy anchor store.
I really felt sorry for the landlord who built that mall to accommodate the big department store. Also, some sympathy for the little guys who rented the small stores in that mall, thinking they had a classy anchor store.
A-yup. It's a perennial to try to maintain malls without anchors - there are even regular attempts to build them that way - but the concept only works in balance - an anchor for every 20-30 smaller shops. Can't do without both (all-bigstore malls have their problems, too).
Been watching this for almost fifty years - my mother was the property manager for a small conglomerate that owned three of the first five malls in our city, as well as half the theaters. Watched 'em grow, watched 'em thrive, watched 'em decline, watched 'em renew. Crazy world that may be fading for good, now.
i hate how coffee shops close so early, crazy really
Yeah I totally agree. As a night owl, it makes no sense to me. I'm up until 4 a.m. every day, sometimes later, so if you're going to close at 8 p.m. that doesn't really do me much good. Granted, I usually make my own coffee at home, but I love the few 24 hour coffee shops that you see around. That's my kind of place!
There's one in Bristol like that. No idea how it survives.
It's a front for money laundering, is how it survives. Doesn't need to make money or break even in real dollars. In fact, the less it makes, the more you can launder. You can plausibly fix the financial statements to show anything.
I knew a decades-old family-owned barbecue place move from its established downtown location out in the exurbs. They blew a lot of money on building the new place, only to watch it die on the vine inside of six months. I mean, this place had been an institution. Dumbest move ever.
A bottle shop here in town closed abruptly this week. They were previously in a dated strip mall in the center of town, but moved to a nicer spot at the edge of town with a farm to table restaurant. The restaurant closed last week, and the bottle shop closed a few days later. They weren't owned by the same people.
How quickly have you seen a business fold?
A new business ? If they are a ghost town after 6 months then usually they are gone by 1 year.
A small fried chicken place near WFUBMC went under after three or four months. Someone is now turning it into an Italian ice shop. I'm sure that won't last, either.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Here in our small city of 65,000 we had only two small strip malls anchored by supermarkets. Recently a 3rd small mixed-use shopping/medical opened. The Safeway center has had a Petco for years, and across the street there has been a Mud Bay. The new center opened a Petsmart, but it closed up after less than a year.
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