Lynchburg needs to get the clothing stores going.... (Richmond, Roanoke: sales, real estate)

[sregorat3]

Originally Posted by Watchful

Normally YES!! (One nice thing about the SUBWAY chain - they can somehow fit in their operation anywhere!)

HOWEVER if this had meant getting a Krispy Kreme WITHOUT the ability to make doughnuts onsite, then I would say TEAR THAT SUCKER DOWN AND START OVER!

(By the way - in case you are having trouble following this thread, it quickly morphed from Lynchburg clothing stores to Roanoke doughnut stores haha!!)

Gotta eat!

[Fenway65]

My husband and I just explored the River Edge? mini-mall in Lynchburg and the shops along Wards Rd. I must say for such a large population, the variety of shops seems very narrow. And even the standard stores, Macy's Best Buy, Dicks, etc seem like mere facades. These stores were all quite small inside, and the shelves seemed barely stocked. I can't remember the last time we ate at a chain restaurant, but we have yet to find many good Mom-n-Pop alternatives either. Shoemaker's last night, mediocre at best. Honestly what we would miss most are the Italian bakery and Dunkin Donuts coffee. We have DD's back home like Lynchburg has churches, one or more every block! We are hoping Amherst has better selection.

[cam4vt]

Originally Posted by Fenway65

My husband and I just explored the River Edge? mini-mall in Lynchburg and the shops along Wards Rd. I must say for such a large population, the variety of shops seems very narrow. And even the standard stores, Macy's Best Buy, Dicks, etc seem like mere facades. These stores were all quite small inside, and the shelves seemed barely stocked. I can't remember the last time we ate at a chain restaurant, but we have yet to find many good Mom-n-Pop alternatives either. Shoemaker's last night, mediocre at best. Honestly what we would miss most are the Italian bakery and Dunkin Donuts coffee. We have DD's back home like Lynchburg has churches, one or more every block! We are hoping Amherst has better selection.

Your best bet for anything chain will be lynchburg. Otherwise you have to travel to Roanoke/Charlottesville. Maybe even Richmond for a weekend day trip. Dunkin' is in roanoke. Not sure why lynchburg doesn't have one.

[Scott94]

Originally Posted by Fenway65

My husband and I just explored the River Edge? mini-mall in Lynchburg and the shops along Wards Rd. I must say for such a large population, the variety of shops seems very narrow. And even the standard stores, Macy's Best Buy, Dicks, etc seem like mere facades. These stores were all quite small inside, and the shelves seemed barely stocked. I can't remember the last time we ate at a chain restaurant, but we have yet to find many good Mom-n-Pop alternatives either. Shoemaker's last night, mediocre at best. Honestly what we would miss most are the Italian bakery and Dunkin Donuts coffee. We have DD's back home like Lynchburg has churches, one or more every block! We are hoping Amherst has better selection.

If you're really serious about relocating to Lynchburg, nitpicking everything about the area may not be the best way to readjust. Its pretty obvious that Lynchburg (and Roanoke) does not have nearly everything you are looking for in a place to live happily, but there are adjustments you will have to make regardless of where you end up. Have you found anything positive so far during your time here? Try focusing on that question, instead of looking for faults everywhere you go. If you can't find any, then its probably best to move on, because this area is not going to readjust overnight to your lifestyle unless you make your own sacrifices as well. We may not have all the best stores, or the best nightlife, but we sure as heck have our own positives as well (natural beauty, low COL, light traffic). Just my two cents.

[Fenway65]

We have only been here for a couple days this visit scott1094. Yes the restaurants and shopping within Lynchburg have not impressed us so far. My comment was only that the area seemed underserved in both retail and dining for a city of 80,000. One can just as easily see this as a positive opportunity for investment. But on our last visit to the area, we spent a terrific day touring all the big sights, Jeffersons Poplar house, Otter Peak, Blue Ridge Pkwy and D-day park. Certainly these were positive too. Our days spent in Richmond and even Charlottesville were also fantastic. If we did not see potential here, we would not have come back for this interview.

You know guys, people criticize Massachusetts fairly often too, aggressive drivers, funny accents, corrupt politicians, whatever. But if their opinions and observations are valid, I don't find any cause to be defensive.

[sregorat3]

Originally Posted by scott1094

If you're really serious about relocating to Lynchburg, nitpicking everything about the area may not be the best way to readjust. Its pretty obvious that Lynchburg (and Roanoke) does not have nearly everything you are looking for in a place to live happily, but there are adjustments you will have to make regardless of where you end up. Have you found anything positive so far during your time here? Try focusing on that question, instead of looking for faults everywhere you go. If you can't find any, then its probably best to move on, because this area is not going to readjust overnight to your lifestyle unless you make your own sacrifices as well. We may not have all the best stores, or the best nightlife, but we sure as heck have our own positives as well (natural beauty, low COL, light traffic). Just my two cents.

Originally Posted by Fenway65

We have only been here for a couple days this visit scott1094. Yes the restaurants and shopping within Lynchburg have not impressed us so far. My comment was only that the area seemed underserved in both retail and dining for a city of 80,000. One can just as easily see this as a positive opportunity for investment. But on our last visit to the area, we spent a terrific day touring all the big sights, Jeffersons Poplar house, Otter Peak, Blue Ridge Pkwy and D-day park. Certainly these were positive too. Our days spent in Richmond and even Charlottesville were also fantastic. If we did not see potential here, we would not have come back for this interview.

You know guys, people criticize Massachusetts fairly often too, aggressive drivers, funny accents, corrupt politicians, whatever. But if their opinions and observations are valid, I don't find any cause to be defensive.

For a bit, I thought I was just being sensitive! Fenway has a point about the market being underserved, though Badger might disagree. I do think that the mall (it isn't a mini-mall or even close to it) is rather long in the tooth and is in need of some heavy investing. If this doesn't happen, I could see some other retail additions being made in other centers, preferably in the Rt 211/Old Forest Rd area. I do wonder what Fenway would consider up to snuff for a Macy's. 2 floors an 135,000 square feet, though not huge, is not a particularly small store. Also thought it is funny that Shaker's Restaurant is a chain as opposed to a single location locally owned restaurant. There are plenty of mom n' pop places if one looks- they just tend to have pretty poor food quality. These days, the best bets are the locally owned restaurants that are serving locally sourced products instead of the mom n' pops that are using Sysco and Sam's as their providers... or maybe I'm just a bit more discriminating in my tastes than Fenway is. By the way, Fenway must have missed the bakery in the farmer's market downtown. Though not Italian, my father-in-law (raised in Linz)
swears that her bread is as good as any bakery in Vienna; the owner is from Germany.

[badger74]

There are good independent restaurants throughout the area but you have to learn where they are. Millstone Tearoom out west of town is very good. I think Rivermont Pizza is very good and I have had pizza in Naples. The Thai restaurant out north in the country is considered by many to be one of the best anywhere. You can get some good Pho and other Vietnamese food out Timberlake. Jimmy's on James has very good American food and free jazz. And so on.
River Ridge does need an updating but enclosed malls are no longer as in favor as they once were so not many get those unless they are sold.
Finally it's a small city of 80,000. It is not a rich suburb of a major city like Boston. It will never have the shopping you get in Chicago or even Richmond. A day out to go shopping in Richmond or NOVA is not that hard to do and a nice change or pace. Growing up in west NJ we went to NYC to do shopping days. We never expected our small area to match NY in anything but we had better natural environment and low costs so it's a tradeoff. Plus I though most people shopped online these days anyway. You can have Nordstrom or Saks just come to you. Sometimes taxfree. But if I want to take a nice drive thru beautiful countryside--10 minutes away. I can be at major pro racing tracks within less than 2 hours. Try that in most major cities. I have my choice of several high level college sports teams within a short drive. Depends what you value more. We have several Starbucks which >>>>>crappy Dunkin.

[sregorat3]

Originally Posted by badger74

We have several Starbucks which >>>>>crappy Dunkin.

+1. Coffee is weak and donuts are bad for you!

[LynchburgLover]

River Ridge is a dump. But malls all over America are having problems as American shopping habits are changing. There's even a web site called deadmalls or something like that.

There are also more up-scale chain stores (Talbots, Joseph A. Banks, Chico's , Francesca) in Boonsboro Shopping Center

[Fenway65]

Just for the record, we do not currently live in rich Boston suburb. We live in a small rural town with a population of ~8,000 (like Forest?). The next town over is larger and more developed. But it has a population of only 59,000, 75% that of Lynchburg. They built a mall there about 25 years ago. It's not the Mall of America by any means, but adequate for the community's needs at the time. It has 183 stores and restaurants and 1.2 million sq ft of retail space. Macy's currently occupies 250,000, Sears 140,000. Once the mall reached maximum capacity, the surrounding area was also developed with both stand alone stores and plazas. I understand it now exceeds 4 million sq ft of retail. Several years ago, a modern design mini-mall was added adjacent to the old mall. It houses 50 shops and restaurants in a setting much like Short Pump. It currently offers 450,000 sq ft of retail, about the same as River's Edge. I am sorry if calling River's Edge a mini-mall offended anyone. But if you cannot concede that it is indeed tiny, especially considering the large population of Lynchburg, then the rest of us must all live in some bizarre Mega-Mall utopian society.

Compared to what other Lynchburg residents and forum members told us about area's shopping, I thought my comment was quite restrained. Even our realtor called the mall "pathetic" and told us to plan on driving to Richmond or Washington DC. (She was well dressed) But having such a large portion of retail dollars going to surrounding cities must be a substantial drain on the local economy! I would hope Lynchburg city-planners have a plan in place to correct this, even if only for their own financial benefit.