Slog
News & ArtsTuesday, December 23, 2008
Economy Snow: Bad for malls. Good for indie shops.
Posted by Tim Keck on Tue, Dec 23, 2008 at 2:14 PM
The Biz Journal article I posted about earlier was focused more on the chains than the indies. Here's a much more interesting article in the Seattle Times reporting that the snow has had the opposite effect on small, locally-owned businesses. People are spending more money in their neighborhoods and skipping the drive to the mall—and are probably happier because of it.
1
"Probably happier because of it"? Is there anything to support this, or just some feel-good urban hipster rhetoric?
2
@1 That's where that word "probably" comes in. Like: "I probably wouldn't want to have dinner with slogster at the Cheese Cake Factory." I don't have any data to back it up but still...
3
It's a good good point. Malls (and strip-malls) rely on anchor store rents. The anchors were usually heavily leveraged to fund their strategy of sacrificing modest immediate profit for hypergrowth and large future profit. Now that leveraging is unwinding all over the world, the rapid failure of those anchor stores brings death a little quicker to the small shops that decided to locate near them in malls and strip malls. Not to mention death to the malls themselves. (Interbay Whole Foods, anyone?)
It will still be tough for local businesses to survive, but if you're well-positioned in an actual neighborhood there's a chance that will help you get through.
It will still be tough for local businesses to survive, but if you're well-positioned in an actual neighborhood there's a chance that will help you get through.
4
So does this mean that Bailey-Coy books is not going out of business as reported by SLOG (Dan Savage?) yesterday? I hope so as I love that bookstore but can't get to the hill to shop there right now.
5
No, no, no! This is a disaster of Katrina-like proportions because some people had to sleep in an airport for a couple of nights! And because a few cars got stuck! Do you realize that many people had to WALK places??? The city must invest in heated streets that immediately melt all snow! We must not ever again be forced to stay in our own neighborhoods for several days! Greg Nickels Does Not Care About Anyone!
6
b-b-b-b-b-b-b-bbbbut Supermall's parking lot is SO BOSS for doing donuts! damn you, PCC. your lot SUCKS.
7
good article. did you notice nancy leson contributed?
"Everybody's kind of banding together" indeed.
"Everybody's kind of banding together" indeed.
8
Hey.
If the viaduct is mainly needed for things like getting West Seattlites around downtown and up to Northgate, but we've learned now that stranding West Seattlites in their neighborhood is good for West Seattle, then, you know... The viaduct is bad for West Seattle? Isn't it?
It just sort of seems like being able to jet across the city on a high speed elevated freeway sort of kind of weakens things on the neighborhood level, you know?
If the viaduct is mainly needed for things like getting West Seattlites around downtown and up to Northgate, but we've learned now that stranding West Seattlites in their neighborhood is good for West Seattle, then, you know... The viaduct is bad for West Seattle? Isn't it?
It just sort of seems like being able to jet across the city on a high speed elevated freeway sort of kind of weakens things on the neighborhood level, you know?
9
My dad's fiancee owns Camelion Design on Ballard Avenue. Things have been *tough* over the last few months, not just for her, but for every store on the Old Ballard Ave strip. Just in the last week and a half sales have picked up, and with the snowstorm she has gotten more traffic than she and her staff have been able to handle. It's been really good for her -- it means that her store will survive this month. I'm sure the same thing has happened to a lot of the other Ballard merchants (Sonic Boom, Velouria, Blackbird, etc.).
10
Bailey Coy Books has no intention of going out of business. And I am the horse's mouth.
Love, Michael K. Wells
Love, Michael K. Wells
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