china
New Contributor
Remember how downtowns used to be? Before malls? Before Wal-Mart? We stopped at a little "downtown" area yesterday and I was looking at the variety of shops that exist in this particular downtown. (I have to emphasize that I live in Los Angeles and this was not downtown Los Angeles but was one of the suburb's downtowns.)
This downtown had about 4 good sized blocks on both sides of the street. I noticed:
a pet store
a sporting goods shop
many restaurants
a newstand
two cocktail lounges
tiny bowling alley with about 8 lanes
several banks
three jewelry stores
one clock shop
several ladies clothing shops
couple of men's clothing shops
two kids clothing shops
several gift shops
one candle shop
one big toy store
one furniture store
huge travel agency (I assume they are doing business on the internet)
dance studio
shoe repair
dry cleaners
one clothing alterations shop
two bookstores
two shoe stores
one huge art gallery that also did framing
one wine shop
and.... I probably forgot a few stores.
Anyway... What does it take to survive in one of these "non-Wal-Mart" downtowns? One thing I noticed was higher prices and more specialized services. I also noticed "more uniqueness" since almost none of the stores were part of a chain -- and if they were part of a chain, it was a local chain.
This area must be fairly good to retailers since I noticed there were only had a couple of spaces open and both of those spaces were really large. In fact, one of them had been vacated by a store that simply moved across the street to a smaller space.
Any thoughts on opening a B & M store in an area like this? I like the idea but I wonder how to make it work financially...
This downtown had about 4 good sized blocks on both sides of the street. I noticed:
a pet store
a sporting goods shop
many restaurants
a newstand
two cocktail lounges
tiny bowling alley with about 8 lanes
several banks
three jewelry stores
one clock shop
several ladies clothing shops
couple of men's clothing shops
two kids clothing shops
several gift shops
one candle shop
one big toy store
one furniture store
huge travel agency (I assume they are doing business on the internet)
dance studio
shoe repair
dry cleaners
one clothing alterations shop
two bookstores
two shoe stores
one huge art gallery that also did framing
one wine shop
and.... I probably forgot a few stores.
Anyway... What does it take to survive in one of these "non-Wal-Mart" downtowns? One thing I noticed was higher prices and more specialized services. I also noticed "more uniqueness" since almost none of the stores were part of a chain -- and if they were part of a chain, it was a local chain.
This area must be fairly good to retailers since I noticed there were only had a couple of spaces open and both of those spaces were really large. In fact, one of them had been vacated by a store that simply moved across the street to a smaller space.
Any thoughts on opening a B & M store in an area like this? I like the idea but I wonder how to make it work financially...
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