Hate shopping for clothes/shoes in Roanoke (Richmond, Charlottesville: appointed, sale)

[theluckygal]

Seems like we dont have good buyers for department stores for our areas. Most of the stuff I find in stores like macys, jcpenneys, sears is so outdated & lying around for several months. I used to live in a bigger city before this & as soon as I moved here I could see a huge difference in the collections. Even now when I go to Richmond or Raleigh, I could find so much more variety & latest fashions in the same department stores. I just hate the shopping experience here. There is not much to choose from & I am very close to giving up shopping here altogether. No offense but a lot of crowd here is senior citizens so I think thats the target consumers for this area. The department stores just want their 'presence' in this city & I dont really think they pay much attention since its a small town. I read that the city is doing projects to keep young professionals in this area but this is the kind of stuff thats very important to professionals. If you have to go to a bigger city everytime to shop, why would you want to live here?
Maybe I am being too harsh but anyone who has shopped in other cities might be able to relate to this. Sorry if I hurt anyone. I just had a terrible spring shopping experience & wanted to vent out.

[MsAnnThrope]

Same here, I used to be able to go to my local stores and get some fabulous clothes, now I don't even bother to go because I haven't found anything to buy for about 3 years...it's all cheap, plain, unflattering crap. BTW I live in a big city so I don't think it's just a problem for small towns.

I go online. It's much cheaper and I get soooo many flattering comments about my clothes now.

The retail sector is Australia is always whingeing about their profit margin, well I have absolutely no sympathy as for far too long they've palmed us off with over priced rubbish.

There will ALWAYS be room for retailers who provide what their customers want to buy. Why don't you think about opening a clothing store in your town...going back to small, select sellers is the future of retail (in Australia).

[roanoker 4]

It is a sad realization that Roanoke has poor shopping choices for such a big
retail market area. I looked into the problem a few years ago and I discovered a key reason is that for the little available land available for commercial development is in Roanoke County. Guess What? Roanoke County did a comprehensive plan years ago and the citizens there DO NOT want commercial development in their backyards! Plus the Roanoke County "Economic Development" people are not aggressive in their search for retail. The City of Roanoke is all filled up with development and at least they are trying to improve
Valley View Mall with more stores, etc! Greensboro is also a great choice, less than 2 hours away, try the Friendly Center off Wendover. Richmond is awesome in its store selection! I usually shop online myself as I also find the shopping choices very sad.

[roanoker 4]

This past Christmas I went shopping for a new winter coat. I found a Timberland coat for $150, marked down from $300. After Christmas the coat was on sale for $59.00!!
The coat fell apart, the zipper broke. It is of poor quality and I was very disappointed I paid $150. Macys' is definately selling inferior coats for sure and I thought Macys was one of the "quality" dept stores in Roanoke!

[theluckygal]

Wow I am so glad I am not the only disappointed customer/citizen of roanoke. We do have some serious development issues like no sidewalks or retail stores. I think thats why a lot of young crowd is moving away from here. Its difficult for families with kids to drive to a different city frequently to buy basic stuff. Its not just about clothes, its also about shampoo & cosmetics. They get discontinued so fast. I usually stock up the ones I can luckily find around here bcoz god knows I am not going to find them the next time.

Online shopping is great & I tried it for a while but I would really like to try on the clothes before buying bcoz sizes change with brands & seasons so i never know if it would fit me well or it would look as good as the picture.
Anyways, I think I am done shopping here & will try charlottesville & other closer cities.
Thanks for your responses.

[Scott94]

I've never been much into shopping, so what is around here is more than enough for me. However, especially for those coming from other cities, I can see how the shopping here would be limited. Something like Keagy Village could have turned into an attractive and upscale shopping center for these kind of stores, but at this point, I have no idea what will happen to it. The next best bet for these stores to locate here would be in the new development planned on the opposite side of Valley View that should be completed in about 5 years.

I've never completely understood how Charlottesville can attract all the stores that Roanoker's wish for. Is it the fact that UVA is located there? Closer proximity to the DC market? More wealthy citizens?

[theluckygal]

Scott, I think charlottesville has good stores because of uva & yes, wealthy citizens too. I am sure roanoke stores can pull crowds from vtech & lots of working people around here, if they had good stuff. Most of the working people I know go out of town for shopping because just like me, they have given up. I dont even care for brand names or boutiques, but atleast give me some latest fashions in regular department stores (belk/macys/sears/jcpenneys) where most of us shop. I dont wear knits & sweaters all year round. Its almost as if these stores just dont care about roanoke or put any effort into getting latest trends. Their ads show such pretty clothes/accessories & I am thinking, its just for big towns, not for us. They might as well shut them down completely. Its a big disappointment. They all have plenty of racks of clothes just to show they have lots of choices but in reality, its just quantity, not quality. The clothes just hang from your body & have no style. Same with shoes & accessories.

[headnsouth]

Oh this does not bother me at all. Economic development is not the same thing as retail. What is here is fresh air, beauty, and countless miles of trails. I would like to see more unique little shops downtown, but the malls and big-boxes? Who cares, I can buy what I need online or on roadtrips (which are worth taking on their own, but if I can hit Ikea on the way out of Charlotte or the outlets on our way back from Busch Gardens, then that's a bonus).

Retail jobs are low-paying, and out-of-state companies only relocate here when they're given tax breaks. So a new Abercrombie or something doesn't do a whole lot for the local economy, and I am super-happy to not have the traffic and sprawl that accompany that kind of "growth."

Sorry you had a crummy shopping experience though. I think you're right about merchandising with the retired set in mind. Penney's is trying hard to rebrand itself, maybe they have some new lines?

[beene]

I agree. Roanoke does not offer good choice of clothing stores. I used to go to banana republic, tommy hilfiger, polo ralph lauren, brooks brothers and so on. Now I cannot find any of those stores here. I dont know how far do I need to go for shopping. I guess i need to drive all the way up to Leesburg.

[Scott94]

Originally Posted by roanoker 4

It is a sad realization that Roanoke has poor shopping choices for such a big
retail market area. I looked into the problem a few years ago and I discovered a key reason is that for the little available land available for commercial development is in Roanoke County. Guess What? Roanoke County did a comprehensive plan years ago and the citizens there DO NOT want commercial development in their backyards! Plus the Roanoke County "Economic Development" people are not aggressive in their search for retail. The City of Roanoke is all filled up with development and at least they are trying to improve
Valley View Mall with more stores, etc! Greensboro is also a great choice, less than 2 hours away, try the Friendly Center off Wendover. Richmond is awesome in its store selection! I usually shop online myself as I also find the shopping choices very sad.

Interesting, I didn't know that but I guess that makes sense with the status of Tanglewood Mall and Keagy Village (county property) compared to the booming Towers Mall and Valley View and Crossroads (city property). I'm pretty sure the new Kohl's is even on city property. That said, I am excited to see what kind of retail the riverfront development can bring, especially being so close to the medical college and institute. Also, the Ivy Market property is being developed for phase 2 and should include prime space for retailers, especially if a higher-end grocery store lands in the former Ukrop's building.

@asma: Have you tried Stein Mart? We shop there pretty often, and though definitely not upscale, we have found it to have clothes that a lot of other stores don't.