Retail coming to Philadelphia (York, Taylor: public school, warehouse, estimated)

[southbound_295]

Originally Posted by asiandudeyo

That is correct.
Coming from my demographics (is 29 still millennial?) per what I mentioned in my previous posts, my peer and clients lamented how they are not certain retailers available in Philly or in PA in egeneral. So the demand is here, it is just maybe the retailers still have this old-fashioned POV which basically say "why bother, since Philly is sandwiched between NYC and DC" or even "Why even open one in Center City? There is no demand for it"

Why bother is a lot of it. Also, it cycles.

Another factor has long been outlets. Outlets aren't what they used to be. There used to be great import outlets (not clothing) in Philadelphia & South Jersey. There are still outlets in York & Lancaster. I don't know what the state of outlets in Reading is anymore.

Burlington/Burlington Coat Factory started out as a dumpy little place on 130 in Burlington, in South Jersey. I once went up near Wilkes Barre to an outlet for Frye boots. I paid pennies on the dollar for a purse that lasted for years. A long-defunct woolen-wear store that was in Princeton used to have amazing semi-annual sales. it was worth the drive to get (no name) Icelandic sweaters for $25 - 35. They retailed for $200 - 250 in the department stores because they were hand made.

[Duderino]

Originally Posted by kyb01

No need to apologize. I'm a Philly native and I agree with you. PA is a blue/purple state solely because of the Phila. metro area and Pittsburgh. The rest of PA is a "red state". The state(well technically PA is a commenwealth) legislature hates Phila. We get very little "love" there.

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. Back to the topic, though:

Originally Posted by kyb01

And my main issue with that poster is that he/she ignores Phila.'s real retail problem: being only 90 miles away from NYC. It's a challenge no other major city in the country has as far as shopping goes. Even when we had great local dept. stores, like Wanamakers, it never compared to Macy's on 34th St in NYC

Miami, San Francisco, Boston, etc. all have inferior shopping compared to New York, so I think that comparison should be completely off the table.

Nevertheless, the Philadelphia region contains one of the largest concentrations of wealth in the US; it's not concentrated in the city as much as other cities, but with an increasing amount of well-heeled tourists and more "back-to-the-city" types, Philly is priming itself over time for more high-end retail offerings. I think patience is key here.

[kyb01]

Originally Posted by southbound_295

I'm one of those who never cared, well, not after the first rush from Carnaby Street.

Remember, back in the late 60s/early 70s there were local boutiques galore on Sansom Street. It was all locally run, & as we aged & the demand fizzled the boutiques fizzled. I didn't know a soul who actually bought anything with Mary Quant's name on it. However, most of us scraped together a little cash for something from a boutique. 'Tis the age. We had much more money than our parents had at that age because they came of age in the Depression/WWII era, but young people today have far more money than we could conceive of at that age, for the most part.

Yeah, I remembered those shops. Demand fizzled because a lot of those people married, had kids and went suburban. Ironically a lot of their kids want nothing to with that suburban lifestyle.

[southbound_295]

Originally Posted by kyb01

But that's changing. And it has been over the last 5 or so years. In fact I think it's picked up speed. I don't perceive younger Philadelphians being as frugal, as you or I were, years ago. Or rather as frugal in the same way we were.

LOL, Well, my niece is a great example. She got her masters in a very marketable major last May. She had to take board exams, past those & then needed a license. She's dawdled for months & doesn't see a rush to get a job. She's degreed & now licensed. My sister is about to cut off the gravy train. At that point, her spending habits will change drastically & suddenly.

[southbound_295]

Originally Posted by kyb01

Yeah, I remembered those shops. Demand fizzled because a lot of those people married, had kids and went suburban. Ironically a lot of their kids want nothing to with that suburban lifestyle.

. . .and as they marry & have kids, the cycle will begin again.

[kyb01]

Originally Posted by asiandudeyo

That is correct.
Coming from my demographics (is 29 still millennial?) per what I mentioned in my previous posts, my peer and clients lamented how they are not certain retailers available in Philly or in PA in egeneral. So the demand is here, it is just maybe the retailers still have this old-fashioned POV which basically say "why bother, since Philly is sandwiched between NYC and DC" or even "Why even open one in Center City? There is no demand for it"

1985 may be the first millennial year. Or it might be 1984.

[kyb01]

Originally Posted by southbound_295

Why bother is a lot of it. Also, it cycles.

Another factor has long been outlets. Outlets aren't what they used to be. There used to be great import outlets (not clothing) in Philadelphia & South Jersey. There are still outlets in York & Lancaster. I don't know what the state of outlets in Reading is anymore.

Burlington/Burlington Coat Factory started out as a dumpy little place on 130 in Burlington, in South Jersey. I once went up near Wilkes Barre to an outlet for Frye boots. I paid pennies on the dollar for a purse that lasted for years. A long-defunct woolen-wear store that was in Princeton used to have amazing semi-annual sales. it was worth the drive to get (no name) Icelandic sweaters for $25 - 35. They retailed for $200 - 250 in the department stores because they were hand made.

Lol, yeah, I remember the original Burlington Coat Factory. Mitch Romney's holding company, or whatever it is, bought it.

[southbound_295]

Originally Posted by kyb01

Lol, yeah, I remember the original Burlington Coat Factory. Mitch Romney's holding company, or whatever it is, bought it.

That original Burlington Coat Factory would probably be condemned by today's standards. I wasn't too keen to go in there. Young people today would report their parents for taking them in it, if it was still standing. Getting something good for a good price was like a sport for us. The designer labels were not the goal. They aren't necessarily a guarantee of quality.

Heck, I worked as a broadcast tech & some of the female reporters asked me where I got the sweaters because they knew I couldn't afford to wear $200+ sweaters to work. When I told them where I got them & how much I paid, they couldn't wait to go.

[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.

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by southbound_295

That original Burlington Coat Factory would probably be condemned by today's standards. I wasn't too keen to go in there. Young people today would report their parents for taking them in it, if it was still standing. Getting something good for a good price was like a sport for us. The designer labels were not the goal. They aren't necessarily a guarantee of quality.

Heck, I worked as a broadcast tech & some of the female reporters asked me where I got the sweaters because they knew I couldn't afford to wear $200+ sweaters to work. When I told them where I got them & how much I paid, they couldn't wait to go.

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.