Retail coming to Philadelphia (Media, Gap: high school, fencing, yard)

[southbound_295]

Originally Posted by MarketStEl

Does Dillard's do business in the Southeast at all?

I thought the Little Rock-based chain pretty much stuck to the Mid-South and Central Plains.

The chain does strike me as fairly upscale, though. It took over Stix, Baer & Fuller in St. Louis when Associated Dry Goods (Lord & Taylor's original parent) pretty much dissolved itself, then Macy's in Kansas City and the surrounding territory when the company shuttered its Midwest Division.

Dillards is in the Charlotte area. They bought a local chain to get there.

[southbound_295]

Originally Posted by MarketStEl

I love off-price shopping and have ever since Mom took me to a store called Tradex in Kansas City in the 1970s. It had the ambience of a garage but good prices on nice stuff. In hindsight, I think this store was more along the lines of Jo-Mar or Forman Mills than a BCF or even Ross clone, but it did introduce me to the concept. (Oh, I'd still buy clothes at Subway, Woolf Brothers' hip-young-mod-underground store on the Plaza, too, but I'd been infected. For you non-Kansas Citians, Woolf Brothers was the city's premier upscale clothier for both men and women. Women also had Harzfeld's and men Jack Henry, a Brooks Brothers-type store sort of like Jacob Reed's here.)

A friend of one of my Boston roommates - the first person who I came out to after coming out to myself; he later returned to his native New York, where I met the friend on a visit to him - took pride in saying he never paid retail prices for anything other than shoes. I even found good bargains on those at Daffy's and BCF as we now know it.

The original Burlington Coat Factory was just coats in an absolutely atrocious dump of a building on Rt 130. Most outlets were total dumps. When most furniture was still made in NC there were places in Center City & Cherry Hill where you could order out of catalogs.

To get a real feel for the degree that Philadelphia was not geared to fashionistas google for pictures of Thatcher Longstreth. He was the best known Republican in town for years. He was old money & best known for his argyll socks.

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by southbound_295

The original Burlington Coat Factory was just coats in an absolutely atrocious dump of a building on Rt 130. Most outlets were total dumps. When most furniture was still made in NC there were places in Center City & Cherry Hill where you could order out of catalogs.

To get a real feel for the degree that Philadelphia was not geared to fashionistas google for pictures of Thatcher Longstreth. He was the best known Republican in town for years. He was old money & best known for his argyll socks.

I've been around here long enough to have actually met Thatcher Longstreth.

And I've been known to purchase argyle socks from time to time too.

Historically speaking, you're right: this has not been known as a fashion-forward, or even fashion-conscious, city.

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by southbound_295

The original Burlington Coat Factory was just coats in an absolutely atrocious dump of a building on Rt 130. Most outlets were total dumps. When most furniture was still made in NC there were places in Center City & Cherry Hill where you could order out of catalogs.

And now, you go to The Dump to buy off-price furniture in huge barn-like warehouse stores.

[southbound_295]

Originally Posted by MarketStEl

I've been around here long enough to have actually met Thatcher Longstreth.

And I've been known to purchase argyle socks from time to time too.

Historically speaking, you're right: this has not been known as a fashion-forward, or even fashion-conscious, city.

I met quite a few prominent people because I was a broadcast tech. I never met Thatcher, but saw him galloping along on Chestnut St more than once.

Way back when Sansom Street had head shops, boutiques, & the How to do it book shop ( I think that was the name) it was a stab at being up with fashion. As baby boomers got financial responsibilities, that faded into a memory.

I remember when the mills were closing there was an interview, probably on KYW radio, with an expert from Wharton. He estimated that it would take 2 or 3 generations for the city to come back. I thought that he was crazy. It looks like he was dead on. Maybe people will have the discretionary income to keep the designer places open.

[kyb01]

Originally Posted by MarketStEl

I've been around here long enough to have actually met Thatcher Longstreth.

And I've been known to purchase argyle socks from time to time too.

Historically speaking, you're right: this has not been known as a fashion-forward, or even fashion-conscious, city.

For the love of God, can we PLEASE change that image?

Am I the only older Philadelphian who thinks more about the future(although I won't be a part of a lot of it) than the past?

[southbound_295]

Originally Posted by kyb01

For the love of God, can we PLEASE change that image?

Am I the only older Philadelphian who thinks more about the future(although I won't be a part of a lot of it) than the past?

The image will probably change in the future, but the present does relate back to the past. Thatcher was a real life example. The future does depend on factors that we don't know. Will millennials marry, have kids, & leave the city or will they stay? We don't know, yet. It took two generations to gentrify Society Hill. While some Boomers stayed, a lot left. The schools played a big part in that. Can the public school system finally get fixed? The answer to that lies partially with parents as well as with administrators.

Retail will depend on who is shopping in the city & what they want. Remember Gen X was originally called the baby bust. It's on the millennials for the answer. They were originally called the Boomlet.

[kyb01]

Originally Posted by Duderino

I really hate to keep this going, but I don't think there's any more of an ignorant expression out there about Pennsylvania than Carville's inane quote. Pennsylvania's politics are very complex and resemble nothing of Alabama's.

OT, surely, but as a gay person I see zero difference, for example, between Mike Turzai in PA and Roy Moore in AL.

And, I've been to AL a bunch of times because I have family there. So I actually know something about its people and politics.

[asiandudeyo]

2 days before the final day, Gallery merchants fight to stay

Just a small article again about the Gallery. I kinda feel bad for these folks because these are hard-working people. Somebody in the comment section has a good idea: to have these merchants to occupy temporary locations somewhere in the vacant building on the street level. Until they find places for themselves to settle down.
Do we know what the plan that PREIT has? I mean any blueprints? rendering? (for the Gallery that is)

[kyb01]

Originally Posted by asiandudeyo

2 days before the final day, Gallery merchants fight to stay

Just a small article again about the Gallery. I kinda feel bad for these folks because these are hard-working people. Somebody in the comment section has a good idea: to have these merchants to occupy temporary locations somewhere in the vacant building on the street level. Until they find places for themselves to settle down.
Do we know what the plan that PREIT has? I mean any blueprints? rendering? (for the Gallery that is)

I haven't seen anything publically. No renderings. Nothing.

I feel awful for those merchants too. One of them did get space on South St.