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Old Posted Jun 11, 2010, 10:09 PM
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America is Over-Retailed - Too Many Stores

Too Many Stores


27 May 2010

By Bruce Fisher



Read More: http://artvoice.com/issues/v9n21/too_many_stores

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American civilization has its perfect expression in Union Road, in the entirety of its run from Orchard Park to Williamsville. Union Road is a succession of strip malls that link the marquee suburbs of Western New York. It is what the anti-suburbanites call “Generica,” and it is a refutation of every fond hope for “smart growth,” “new urbanism,” “transit-oriented development,” and “green infrastructure,” because Union Road is all about automobiles. If gasoline spikes in price again as it did in 2008, whether because Goldman Sachs speculators bid oil futures up, or because the BP disaster in the Gulf gets worse, or because Sarah Palin and Ron Paul’s racist spawn win the mid-term elections, Union Road will be just one more suburban commercial thoroughfare clogged with angry consumers with not enough money to shop because their cars ate all their discretionary disposable income.

Union Road exists in the form that it does because since the mid-1950s, it has been the connector between consumers and retailing. At its north end, the traditional retail establishments in the Village of Williamsville predominate. Driving south toward Genesee Street brings one to the wide-setback strip plazas of the 1960s, where nowadays the somewhat downscale stores are. Further south, there is layering: regionally owned grocery chain stores are mixed with various national big-box stores in a plaza that was well established more than 40 years ago, while opposite, some locally owned stores and service centers predominate up until the entrance roads to the region’s largest shopping mall. Past the next big intersection at Walden, which is itself a mile of big-box stores intermixed with discount houses and a few relatively downscale stores that are not to be found in the premium-rental malls, there is a gap of only two miles before the 1960s strip mall pattern repeats.

The village centers have a vestigial existence as retailing zones; of the 16 villages in Erie County, only Kenmore, East Aurora, Hamburg, Williamsville, and Orchard Park look like villages, but even they have shopping plazas that have more retail space than each of their main streets does. Springville’s village center is obsolete as the area’s center for commerce, having long since been supplanted by the cluster of big boxes and Wal-Mart on Route 219. Angola village’s drugstore succumbed long ago to the big boxes on Route 5. Lancaster is a curious amalgam. Akron still looks like the New England Yankee place its Civil War veterans knew when they erected the tall pole to show support for Ulysses S. Grant’s campaign, because Akron still has a village commons of the type English settlers established before they came to the Niagara Frontier when it really was a frontier—but Akron shoppers shop like Angola, Lancaster, Sloan, Clarence, and also Buffalo shoppers shop: on big roads, at big-box stores, at gigantic grocery stores, and at the Galleria, Boulevard, Eastern Hills, and McKinley malls. That’s where the retail trade is. Change the names of the roads and the municipalities, and you could be anywhere in the contemporary United States.

But there’s increasing evidence that behavioral changes driven by the internet and by age-specific consumer preferences will change all this. At the Urban Land Institute and at many other institutes and think tanks, and in the real-estate industry’s own publications, there’s a growing consensus that there is way, way too much square footage devoted to retailing.



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  #2  
Old Posted Jun 11, 2010, 10:26 PM
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I say riddance to Big Box consumerism. So damn ugly. I have absolutely no enthusiasm when I venture out to Target or any other strip mall like shopping area. At least downtowns offer an actual community pedestrian feel that the urban engineers of the last 50 years wrote off as obsolete. Who's obsolete now?
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Old Posted Jun 11, 2010, 11:40 PM
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I say riddance to Big Box consumerism. So damn ugly. I have absolutely no enthusiasm when I venture out to Target or any other strip mall like shopping area. At least downtowns offer an actual community pedestrian feel that the urban engineers of the last 50 years wrote off as obsolete. Who's obsolete now?
They all are--downtowns and big boxers alike--because I hardly ever buy anything locally anymore. For $50 a year I can have an Amazon premier account and have it all: prices as cheap as you can get, free second day shipping and no tax (buy it at a store in CA and you pay another 9.5%).

As far as I'm concerned, only the strip mall (and it's urban equivalent--"neighborhood retail") may survive as a place to get take-out food and things you can't even wait 2 days for (sold mostly by Ace Hardware).
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Old Posted Jun 16, 2010, 3:04 PM
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They all are--downtowns and big boxers alike--because I hardly ever buy anything locally anymore. For $50 a year I can have an Amazon premier account and have it all: prices as cheap as you can get, free second day shipping and no tax (buy it at a store in CA and you pay another 9.5%).

As far as I'm concerned, only the strip mall (and it's urban equivalent--"neighborhood retail") may survive as a place to get take-out food and things you can't even wait 2 days for (sold mostly by Ace Hardware).
I will believe this when I get my paperless office and can telecommute from home.

Certain things are suitable for online retail, other things are not. For instance, anything with a tactile component or that you have to try on. I order dress shirts online because I get the same colors and sizes over and over again, but for anything else, I'll still go to the store. When I bought home theater speakers, I wanted to listen to them. When you buy a sofa, you want to sit on it.

There's also a social component, particularly when it comes to clothes. Online will never replace the ability to browse the shop, check out what others are wearing, ask a friend or a reassuring salesperson how something looks on you... and to shoppers (particularly women shoppers, the most important demographic) these things are absolutely necessary.

But yes, Circuit City went bust, and Borders, and Virgin Megastores everywhere, because there's absolutely no reason not to buy your books, music and movies online. There's a niche for a good independent bookstore with a comfy chair and volumes you don't find elsewhere, or a local independent record store, but the big mass market brick & mortar guys are screwed.
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Old Posted Jun 16, 2010, 3:09 PM
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Have we become that lazy that we can't even go out to buy a book anymore?

Shopping online does not cut it for me. It is much nicer to browse, and I still do that when I need to get something.

The only time I buy online is when I want something from a store not located in my city. And that is very very rare.

People are becoming so lazy. What are we going to do when you never have to leave your home for anything
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Old Posted Jun 17, 2010, 6:20 PM
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I will believe this when I get my paperless office and can telecommute from home.

Certain things are suitable for online retail, other things are not. For instance, anything with a tactile component or that you have to try on. I order dress shirts online because I get the same colors and sizes over and over again, but for anything else, I'll still go to the store. When I bought home theater speakers, I wanted to listen to them. When you buy a sofa, you want to sit on it.

There's also a social component, particularly when it comes to clothes. Online will never replace the ability to browse the shop, check out what others are wearing, ask a friend or a reassuring salesperson how something looks on you... and to shoppers (particularly women shoppers, the most important demographic) these things are absolutely necessary.

But yes, Circuit City went bust, and Borders, and Virgin Megastores everywhere, because there's absolutely no reason not to buy your books, music and movies online. There's a niche for a good independent bookstore with a comfy chair and volumes you don't find elsewhere, or a local independent record store, but the big mass market brick & mortar guys are screwed.
You can easily try it on, touch it or feel it at a store, then buy it online. But your experience in New York City is totally different from the experience of most of America--you have access locally not only to almost anything you might want to buy but also to places offering very low prices (not uncommonly, things I buy online come from stores in New York). San Francisco has most of the variety but not the low prices in its stores. In Tucson, I have neither.

And most of what I buy is either something I'm already familiar with (and may have tried/used in the past) or something where I'm buying a brand I have used and trust. Besides, many places offer free returns if you buy online and really hate it.
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Old Posted Jun 17, 2010, 7:32 PM
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You can easily try it on, touch it or feel it at a store, then buy it online.
Why would you want to order it online, pay shipping, and wait for it, when you've already gone to the trouble of going to the store? That makes no sense. And if you try it on in the store and buy it from a different retailer online because it's cheaper, you're just an ass. The actual store is probably slightly more expensive because they are maintaining overhead in order to provide you with a service.

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But your experience in New York City is totally different from the experience of most of America--you have access locally not only to almost anything you might want to buy but also to places offering very low prices (not uncommonly, things I buy online come from stores in New York).
Yes, we are the only people in the world that have to pay sales tax when we buy things from J&R or B&H Photo.

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And most of what I buy is either something I'm already familiar with (and may have tried/used in the past) or something where I'm buying a brand I have used and trust.
I will concede (and already have) that there are certainly products for which online retail makes perfect sense. I get all my toiletries from drugstore.com, as an example. But you still need a Walgreen's nearby for when you find yourself out of something at an inopportune time.

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Besides, many places offer free returns if you buy online and really hate it.
And packing things back up and sending them back, if you aren't at home all day for a UPS guy to come pick it up, is more of a pain than going to a store ever will be.


Sorry to be so argumentative but I'm trying to prove a point - there are enough exceptions and enough differences in personal preferences that brick and mortar retail is not going anywhere, and certainly not to the extent you claimed in your prior post.
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Old Posted Jun 19, 2010, 1:58 PM
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Discounters and Supermarkets Are Among the Most Active Expanding Retailers


Jun 16, 2010

By David Bodamer



Read More: http://retailtrafficmag.com/news/mos...iers_06162010/

Quote:
One of the overriding themes at ICSC RECon 2010 was that retailers were becoming increasingly active in looking for strategic opportunities to expand. Those observations mesh with conclusions in Colliers International’s Spring 2010 Retail Highlights report. According to the report, “Colliers has seen a huge increase in planned new retail stores in just the past three months. Though 2010 expansion will continue to be dominated by discounters and off-price retailers, in the past few months we have also seen mid-price chains up their growth plans.”

Dollar stores are the fastest growing segment, according to Colliers. For example, Dollar General has plans for 600 new stores in 2010, while Dollar Tree/Deal$ has 235 stores planned. Family Dollar is hoping to open as many as 200 units. In aggregate, we will likely see dollar store chains add as many as 1,500 new stores in 2010.

The brokerage firm compiled data on the most active retailers in 41 metropolitan areas and found that discount retailers (21 percent) and supermarkets (18 percent) were the most active in looking for new sites. The number for discount retailers was about the same as 2009 (20 percent) while supermarkets and other food stores showed a jump in activity (11 percent). In contrast, drug stores were the second most active segment in 2009 (20 percent), but had fallen to just 9 percent in 2010 to date.

Another active segment is the food service area. Restaurants accounted for 13 percent of activity, fast food chains for 11 percent and quick casual restaurants for 3 percent. Some of this activity is from national players and franchises, but there is also a core of local and regional chains that is rapidly expanding.



Retail Stats PDF: http://www.colliers.com/Country/Unit...Spring2010.pdf
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Old Posted Jun 19, 2010, 5:41 PM
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While retailers continues to expand, there are also a massive number of vacant shopping centers.

In Metro Detroit, there are an incredible number of vacant spaces. Virtually every strip mall has empty spaces, and a number of major malls and power centers are largely vacant.

So yes, retail space is added, but I think it cannibilizes older retail space in less desirable areas. So a Meijer will open, but it will close a KMart down the road.
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Old Posted Jun 12, 2010, 3:26 AM
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Originally Posted by liat91 View Post
I say riddance to Big Box consumerism. So damn ugly. I have absolutely no enthusiasm when I venture out to Target or any other strip mall like shopping area. At least downtowns offer an actual community pedestrian feel that the urban engineers of the last 50 years wrote off as obsolete. Who's obsolete now?
Wow, very biased opinion! More stores equals more jobs, maybe you need to go back to economics 101. Ugly has NOTHING to do with anything.
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Old Posted Jun 12, 2010, 3:40 AM
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There is no doubt North America is over retailed.
And to be honest, I don't know how all the stores make a profit. How you can have three gaps all within 5-10 minutes of each other, and have them all make money seems weird.

The over retailining is a reason so many chain stores are in financial problems. They just have way too many stores and they are cannibalizing their own stores.
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Old Posted Jun 12, 2010, 5:15 AM
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The over retailining is a reason so many chain stores are in financial problems. They just have way too many stores and they are cannibalizing their own stores.
Many of the retailers aren't in trouble though, they aren't being bailed out by the government. I think most large stores are doing pretty darn well, certainly Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy, Marshall Fields are. They are not in serious trouble during the recession.
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Old Posted Jun 12, 2010, 5:23 AM
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Many of the retailers aren't in trouble though, they aren't being bailed out by the government. I think most large stores are doing pretty darn well, certainly Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy, Marshall Fields are. They are not in serious trouble during the recession.
Yes, but what about all those medium sized retailers that fill out all those boutique mall and lifestyle center shops? Most of those companies are just barely skating by.

I design alot of boutique clothing stores and have been continually shocked at how razor thin the profit margins are on each location, even in the best of times.

The model is generally broken.

But I guess since Wal-Mart and Target are doing OK it's all good.
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Old Posted Jun 12, 2010, 5:05 AM
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Wow, very biased opinion! More stores equals more jobs, maybe you need to go back to economics 101. Ugly has NOTHING to do with anything.
more $8 an hour jobs, yes but nothing of substance to crawl out of this recession with.
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Old Posted Jun 12, 2010, 5:18 AM
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more $8 an hour jobs, yes but nothing of substance to crawl out of this recession with.
We already have a 14 trillion dollar economy (most of which comes from consumer spending) and one of the highest GDP per capita's in the world, what more do you want?? I don't think it gets much better than it already is.
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Old Posted Jun 12, 2010, 2:38 PM
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We already have a 14 trillion dollar economy (most of which comes from consumer spending) and one of the highest GDP per capita's in the world, what more do you want?? I don't think it gets much better than it already is.
our economy is a house of cards as we have for the past few; our economic well being depends on people buying big ticket items they may or may not be able afford.


@shiro, you living in the NL has skewed your perception of pubs and bars; over there, they rank 3rd in numbers after people and bikes. lol.
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Old Posted Jun 11, 2010, 10:28 PM
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U.S. suburbia is so over-retailed, it's amazing.

Metro Detroit has basically had a stable population for the last few decades, but it seems like the retail space has tripled during the same period.

Even today, there are WalMarts, Targets and Meijers going up everywhere in Michigan. Major malls are still being built (Partridge Creek Mall) and existing ones are expanded (Twelve Oaks Mall), and new department store chains have entered the market (Parisian, Nordstrom).

How is this possible? Isn't everyone just cannibalizing everyone else? How can you have a stable or declining population and declining incomes, and there are new retailers going up eveywhere?
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Old Posted Jun 11, 2010, 11:33 PM
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How is this possible? Isn't everyone just cannibalizing everyone else? How can you have a stable or declining population and declining incomes, and there are new retailers going up eveywhere?
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Old Posted Jun 12, 2010, 3:25 AM
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U.S. suburbia is so over-retailed, it's amazing.

Metro Detroit has basically had a stable population for the last few decades, but it seems like the retail space has tripled during the same period.

Even today, there are WalMarts, Targets and Meijers going up everywhere in Michigan. Major malls are still being built (Partridge Creek Mall) and existing ones are expanded (Twelve Oaks Mall), and new department store chains have entered the market (Parisian, Nordstrom).

How is this possible? Isn't everyone just cannibalizing everyone else? How can you have a stable or declining population and declining incomes, and there are new retailers going up eveywhere?
Ahh dude, most of the stores have been full going up. So why are you complaining? There's more than enough business. The population is really only declining in Detroit...which doesn’t have ANY big retail stores.
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Old Posted Jun 16, 2010, 11:36 AM
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Ahh dude, most of the stores have been full going up. So why are you complaining? There's more than enough business. The population is really only declining in Detroit...which doesn’t have ANY big retail stores.
Correction, the population of Michigan has dropped by a large amount.

The article below gives a number of 465,000 fewer people since 2001. That is a 4.5% population decrease over an 8 year period (article written in 2009).

http://detnews.com/article/20090402/...staggers-state
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