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I was in the East Village last night and there were open stores all over the place and lots of people in them
Next weekend, walk the WEST Village.
I’m in the West Village too. I’m in Manhattan below 96 regularly. Overall, I agree that the retail scene in the WV has seen a decline in the past few years, particularly the major avenues like 7th, which used to be very vibrant. The side streets however like Christopher and Bleeker are still very busy.
"a scourge of store closings is afflicting one section of the city after another, notably in Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn. This plague has been underway for several years, but its familiarity does not diminish the damage inflicted on the economic and the psychic well-being of neighborhoods. One by one, cherished local shops are disappearing, replaced by national chains or, worse, nothing at all."
Have you read this editorial in the NYT? New York City is losing its retailers by the hundreds; tons of city blocks with vacant storefronts. Not quite sure if this is really a NYC problem, it may be happening everywhere to a lesser extent. But I agree when the NYT says that shops and restaurants are what make New York City feel like New York City. And also, New York City residents depend on these shops!
Why are other cities like London and Paris able to keep their city blocks filled with thriving shops, and New York City is not? Paris manages to even keep bookstores and record stores mobbed with shoppers! Walking down a block in Paris, you will see a grocer, a hardware store, a chocolate shop, a bookshop, a shop that sells Spanish ham, a fishmonger, restaurants, a perfumerie, etc. Why has New York lost this????
What is New York City, and the U.S. in general, doing wrong? Are we allowing online shopping to kill our cities?
Yes and no. Where I'm at now it is extremely difficult to get electronics. Like parts, stuff for STEM projects, Instructables, etc. And the one store that is in the area; the customer service isn't there, I'll just say that much. And all of the Radio Shacks are closing, so that's that. But go in Party City or WalMart and the place is packed. Absolutely disgusting I don't even know how I reconcile this reality every time I go out and shop.
I used to go to this warehouse in Dayton, OH named Mendelsons and get whatever I want. But I'm not in Dayton anymore, and there isn't anything like that here in Hampton Roads. And the fact that it looks like an old factory, with filthy concrete floors and dirty windows makes it an experience just to walk in there. Damp air, poor air circulation inside of the place. Really brings back memories.
So I'm better off dealing with Mendelsons online or some other retailer running a shop off of eBay. Can you blame me? If I'm living someplace without any character, without anything but chain stores why would I not want to shop online. I've tried the chain stores. Nordstrom's Rack is really nice. The shopping malls are nice. But aside from thrift stores and restaurants there isn't anything local, of character, remotely interesting in this place I'd want to give my business to.
A lot of us live in these boring places because they are the best places to live. These are the places that actually have jobs. Places with the really cool stuff, locally, they are the hardest places to live in. Only for the rich, although it is primarily the upper middle class that shops at these establishments. If you're poor, you actually look forward to a chain dollar store coming to your area. No different than the 5,000 other dollar stores from the same company in America but at least you can afford it.
And every local government is creating these faux downtown "Lifestyle Centers" in suburbs and suburban like cities across the country to evoke the feel of a miniature NYC or Chicago and the only establishments in those areas are pretentious fake feel good places with post modern architecture with the same overpriced fare. They'll throw in a Brooks Brothers or Ralph Lauren Company Store or Cheesecake Factory or something ridiculous and try to convince us that this is quality living. They'll even throw in a performing arts theater and a few hotels. This is the future of American cities. Nothing like this country was in the twentieth century. Even the nineties was a lot better than this.
Yes and no. Where I'm at now it is extremely difficult to get electronics. Like parts, stuff for STEM projects, Instructables, etc. And the one store that is in the area; the customer service isn't there, I'll just say that much. And all of the Radio Shacks are closing, so that's that. But go in Party City or WalMart and the place is packed. Absolutely disgusting I don't even know how I reconcile this reality every time I go out and shop.
I used to go to this warehouse in Dayton, OH named Mendelsons and get whatever I want. But I'm not in Dayton anymore, and there isn't anything like that here in Hampton Roads. And the fact that it looks like an old factory, with filthy concrete floors and dirty windows makes it an experience just to walk in there. Damp air, poor air circulation inside of the place. Really brings back memories.
So I'm better off dealing with Mendelsons online or some other retailer running a shop off of eBay. Can you blame me? If I'm living someplace without any character, without anything but chain stores why would I not want to shop online. I've tried the chain stores. Nordstrom's Rack is really nice. The shopping malls are nice. But aside from thrift stores and restaurants there isn't anything local, of character, remotely interesting in this place I'd want to give my business to.
A lot of us live in these boring places because they are the best places to live. These are the places that actually have jobs. Places with the really cool stuff, locally, they are the hardest places to live in. Only for the rich, although it is primarily the upper middle class that shops at these establishments. If you're poor, you actually look forward to a chain dollar store coming to your area. No different than the 5,000 other dollar stores from the same company in your neighborhood but at least you can afford it.
And every city is creating these faux downtown "Lifestyle Centers" in suburbs and suburban like cities across the country to evoke the feel of a miniature NYC or Chicago and the only establishments in those areas are pretentious fake feel good places with post modern architecture with the same overpriced fare. They'll throw in a Brooks Brothers or Ralph Lauren Company Store or Cheesecake Factory or something ridiculous and try to convince us that this is quality living. They'll even throw in a performing arts theater and a few hotels. This is the future of American cities. Nothing like this country was in the twentieth century. Even the nineties is a lot better than this.
Damn. Reading that was really depressing!
So we have become a nation of Walmart addicts. People who buy everything online and when we do venture out, it's to Walmart. Because god forbid we pay a little more to keep the shops "with character" in business!
So we have become a nation of Walmart addicts. People who buy everything online and when we do venture out, it's to Walmart. Because god forbid we pay a little more to keep the shops "with character" in business!
Take away WalMart and Target in Virginia and some of these people will start throwing themselves off of the roof. West Virginia it is pretty bad as well.
I don't mind paying a little extra. It is not about price for me. It is about, does the store offer something unique I would not find somewhere else. Most small businesses here are in a strip mall somewhere, so visibility has a lot to do with it, but even there the chain stores are taking over!
Not to mention the fact that WalMart really isn't cheap anymore. They're still a discounter, but what you are getting a deal on is watered down and you're actually losing money dealing with them instead of saving money. A lot of junk in that store.
But in a lot of cases you won't find anyone else selling the same thing for several blocks.
The reality is that you can find things cheaper online. Why should I buy a book brand-new and full price when I can get it for a third of the price used on Amazon? Why should I spend retail on my skincare products when I can go on Ebay and buy them for 30-40% less? Why should I waste precious time out of my day when I can simply point and click?
Retail needs to change its concept and become more of a recreational experience than a task. Also, they need to do more price matching and offering of reward programs. People will always want to see things in person. My guess is that the traditional brick and mortar store will become more like a showroom in the future where people try things out. Then go online and customize, research, and purchase. I know especially with big purchases I always want to hear customer reviews, compare, etc. Many stores, like Sephora for example, are already turning the retail experience into a computer interactive environment with touchscreens throughout the stores.
Professional expertise also counts for something. I like having a salesperson give me advice in person. It kills me when I have someone give me really good service, where I want more than anything to give them a sale. But can't because they won't price match. I've even had experiences with stores in Manhattan where I've literally gone on the company website while in the store, realizing the exact same item was 50% off even though it was full-price there. To me, that's bad business. Since that occurrence I always check before I buy.
Last edited by EastBoundandDownChick; 11-20-2017 at 11:08 AM..
The reality is that you can find things cheaper online. Why should I buy a book brand-new and full price when I can get it for a third of the price used on Amazon? Why should I spend retail on my skincare products when I can go on Ebay and buy them for 30-40% less? Why should I waste precious time out of my day when I can simply point and click?
Retail needs to change its concept and become more of a recreational experience than a task. Also, they need to do more price matching and offering of reward programs. People will always want to see things in person. My guess is that the traditional brick and mortar store will become more like a showroom in the future where people try things out. Then go online and customize, research, and purchase. I know especially with big purchases I always want to hear customer reviews, compare, etc. Many stores, like Sephora for example, are already turning the retail experience into a computer interactive environment with touchscreens throughout the stores. Professional expertise also counts for something. I like having a salesperson give me advice in person.
Irony is that in the eighties the mall was a recreational experience for teenagers. It was a lot of fun. The stores were weird, most times whatever you had at your mall no other mall had, or if a mall did you had to go outside of your town or state to find it. It wasn't the same Macy's in every single city in America. You had your stores I had mine. They did not sell the same thing, and they adopted to the fashion tastes the city they were in. Even the same store, if it was on the other side of town, had different merchandise.
But the nerds have taken over. Now the mall is online. Not just the shopping, everything that the mall offered socially, has been replicated online. Once people that did not program for a living got hip to it and found out that the price of entry was lower and easier than dealing with shopping malls (and less intimidating because you can be anonymous) things started to change. When I first starting taking classes in college it was just us computer majors in the computer lab typing away on a text browser. MySpace wasn't even a thing back then. Now everyone is doing everything on it.
I think it is a good thing. But the downfall is that people's social skills adapt to their new reality. People end up having great social skills online, and then they suck when you meet them in real life. Nothing wrong with social platforms, I've had a lot of fun on them and continue through sites like this one but at some point people have to, well, they should, want to have quality experiences in real life. These days people go outside so that they can record something or live stream to YouTube or IG so they can have something to talk about and get views.
Any tax break is never more valuable than having income from the property.
The bigger issue is that certain tenants are considered much more valuable to buyers of retail property than others. Specifically what are considered national credit tenants (big chains with well established national credit ratings), are highly desirable. The little local single store merchants don't qualify. So if you own a property, and want to keep up the value of your property, it may pay to hold out for a national chain, than to lease to a local small business. However, I can't see chasing out an existing small business to keep the store empty waiting for a national credit tenant. I'd just do year to year leases, or even put them on month to month, just to keep income coming in from the property.
Quote:
Originally Posted by macnyc2003
There's too much of a tax break for landlords who keep their stores vacant. As mentioned in the article, they hold out for a flush chain to come along, and it doesn't matter how long that takes because the landlord in the meantime can write it off. We need to limit that somehow so that landlords after a period of time have to accept a new tenant.
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