Pearl River Mart is closing SoHo store because its rent is increasing from $100,000 a month to over $500,000 per month (New York: sales, 2015)

[UAE50]

Pearl River Mart, the Chinese department store that has become a New York City shopping institution, is shuttering and may go digital. The retailer, which has sold its inexpensive braided straw slippers, oilcloth lunchbags, paper lanterns and other products from China downtown for more than four decades, plans to close its doors at 477 Broadway, its home since 2003, by the end of the year, said Ching Yeh Chen, the company's president.

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article...vel-soho-store

[SPAteacherNYC]

I know nothing about business practices and/or what is acceptable/customary in regards to commercial rents in NYC, but damn!! That number is scary!! Half a million dollars a month in rent???? I mean, even a 100k monthly rent sounds incredibly high!!!!

[antinimby]

Let's see, we're going to lose interesting retail for another bank branch, the only people that can afford these rents.

F.ucking greedy landlords.

[captne76]

That's beyond ridiculous. Those rental fees have to come from somewhere and you know all the retailer or bank or whatever locates their depends on customers for income. I would close everything down if I had to come up with that on a monthly basis.

[Harlem resident]

Originally Posted by antinimby

Let's see, we're going to lose interesting retail for another bank branch, the only people that can afford these rents.

F.ucking greedy landlords.

It will be another mall-type store. Perhaps another Victoria's Secret.

Pearl River is a great store.

[bumblebyz]

Originally Posted by SPAteacherNYC

I know nothing about business practices and/or what is acceptable/customary in regards to commercial rents in NYC, but damn!! That number is scary!! Half a million dollars a month in rent???? I mean, even a 100k monthly rent sounds incredibly high!!!!

For a tourist giftshop that's five hundred thousand too many. Generally the cost of goods for those stores are extremely low. 500k per month means that they need about 17k a day in gross profit just to make rent. I assume that since they sell cheap tourist trap goods they probably have > 80% gross margin. Add in cheap labor that they employ means that they need to ring up about 25k a day in sales just to make rent and pay workers. If the average tourist drops $25 they would need to have a thousand customers per day. Since many people merely browse instead of buying, to obtain a thousand paying customers they may need 4-5 thousand people walking through their doors per day. Meaning about 400 people need to walk through the entrance per hour assuming they open for 12 hours. That's an incredible number of people they need to attract just to pay the rent. Realistically they need to start selling flying carpets to afford the rent.

[Harlem resident]

Originally Posted by bumblebyz

For a tourist giftshop that's five hundred thousand too many.

Pearl River is quite a bit more than a tourist gift shop.

[NJ Brazen_3133]

How big is the store exactly? It has to be pretty big to justify $100K/month.

I guess the landlord will have to move in a Lowes, if it is big enough. Who else can they get that can take up that much room and pay those rents? How about a Trader Joes?

[GoHuskies]

Originally Posted by antinimby

Let's see, we're going to lose interesting retail for another bank branch, the only people that can afford these rents.

F.ucking greedy landlords.

If you were a landlord would you turn down an extra couple hundred thousand a month

[Bronxguyanese]

I suggest another bank branch, a Duane Reade, a gym or even another home Depot.