The New Retail Thread

blade_bltz said:
Check out this find via universalhub:

uo.jpg


http://www.allstoncitylimits.com/welcome-to-the-neighborhood/

LOL!! Maybe they woulda been better off in townie-less Coolidge Corner.
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I checked out the link for the original post. I know the photographer--we went to high school together... in Florida. What a small world!
 
Beton Brut said:
Awesome!
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What's to hate about Urban Outfitters? Apart from the irony that it exists in suburban malls across America. Or did you just think that picture was funny (in which case, I agree).
 
What's to like about UO? I bought an army jacket at an Army-Navy store back when I was in high school for $7. A few months later I found the exact same jacket at UO for $30. It co-opts hipster culture, already a complete co-option of pop culture from the last 20 years, and sells it back to you with a 70% mark up.
 
But don't you see Van, that's what's so great about UO. Hipster's and wannabe hipsters ("fakes and fake fakes"?) spend a ton of money there on retro t-shirts and distressed denim. The joke is on them. I say buy URBN stock and laugh your way to the bank.
 
Urban Outfitters is hipster culture. Hipsters just won't admit it.

Edit: AFL beat me to the point by a good twenty minutes.
 
AmericanFolkLegend said:
But don't you see Van, that's what's so great about UO. Hipster's and wannabe hipsters ("fakes and fake fakes"?) spend a ton of money there on retro t-shirts and distressed denim. The joke is on them. I say buy URBN stock and laugh your way to the bank.
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Wise man.

It's the store for entry level hipsters (aka entry-level alts via hipsterrunoff.com)
 
The Tannery looks about ready to open on Boylston and Fairfield. It's massive. A new candy store is coming soon further up on Boylston towards Copley.
 
They are trying to put a Kelly's roast beef in the space where Marty's Liquors formally occupied right on Harvard Ave/Comm Ave.
 
Boston Globe - November 11, 2009
Last serving, to go
Brigham?s only Boston shop closing after 37 years

By David Abel, Globe Staff | November 11, 2009

The lime rickeys, malted frappes, and root beer floats remained popular through the decades. The 1970s-era orange and yellow d?cor lined the walls, and the scuffed counters showed the wear of all the elbows and hot plates. And there was the uncommon bond between the wait staff and customers, a motley family who came together across ages and races to talk to each other through marriages and births, divorces and deaths, and the mundane triumphs and slights of their lives.

After 37 years, multiple owners, and countless scoops of ice cream served, the last Brigham?s franchise store in Boston is closing this week. The local chain, once as ubiquitous as Dunkin? Donuts, had more than 100 restaurants and seemed to serve its signature sundaes on every other city corner.

?This has been our home away from home,?? said Rita Merola, 50, a junior member of the wait staff who served the same fare of hot dogs and oversized frappes for 17 years. ?It?s terrible that this is happening. It?s hard to believe. It just stinks, really.??

The end came abruptly for Merola and the rest of the staff at the downtown restaurant on High Street. The four waitresses, two cooks, two counter staff, and one dishwasher learned they would be losing their jobs last week, when the restaurant received an eviction notice.

Staffers said the chain?s new owner, Deal Metrics, a private equity firm in Baltimore, has failed to pay months of rent. The landlord, Lincoln Property, did not respond to requests for comment.

The jarring news of the closing came four months after the company cut their health insurance, even though it continued to deduct money for the insurance from their paychecks.

Many on the loyal staff wept, wondering what to do after working there for so many years.

?It?s just extremely unfortunate what has happened,?? said Chris Lund, 49, who has spent 32 years waiting tables for Brigham?s, 22 of them at the High Street shop. ?Had the new owner who bought Brigham?s taken care of the business, the business would still be here.??

In a telephone interview, Luke Cooper, managing director of Deal Metrics, declined to comment on the outstanding rent, the lack of health insurance, or what led to the restaurant?s closing.

?We?re closing in large part because of macroeconomic and financial factors affecting our sales,?? said Cooper, whose company has owned Brigham?s for 18 months and still has another 17 locations in the metropolitan area. ?We?re certainly sad that we won?t be able to serve the people in Boston anymore.??

The news spread quickly among the regulars.

By yesterday, the restaurant?s last day of official business, the tables were packed, the phone rang constantly, and the ice cream was gone well before the lunch rush died. Nearly everyone had a story to share, extra tips for the waitresses, and long hugs to hold onto.

As he finished the $5.99 hot dog special at the counter, Charlie Eddy slipped the main cook $20 and two of the waitresses $100 each, early Christmas presents.

?It?s a sad day,?? said Eddy, an investment officer at the nearby Fiduciary Trust Co. who dined at the restaurant nearly every workday for the past 30 years.

?This is a local institution, and it?s terrible to lose it,?? he said. ?Where else will I go for breakfast???

Sitting beside him, Stephen Mahoney, who met Eddy at the restaurant and has dined with him there for two years, recalled how the staff chipped in to buy him a stuffed duck after his son was born.

?It?s the people who make this place worth coming to,?? he said. ?You can?t replace that.??

When asked what could be done, Merola shrugged. ?Nothing,?? she said. ?It?s done.??

When a customer pushed back, Lund said, ?You can pay the back rent, or win the lottery and buy the place.??

Despite the glum air, the waitresses worked as if their jobs depended on it, rapidly ferrying hot bowls of chowder, quesadillas, and tuna sandwiches to their customers, nearly all of whom they knew by name.

Diane Dunleavy, the dean of the wait staff who began working at the restaurant in her junior year of high school, was too busy to dwell on her plight.

The 48-year-old waitress, who earned about $150 a day in tips, never imagined leaving.

?I love my job,?? she said between runs to the kitchen. ?But why I?m still making money for the new owner is beyond me. But that?s the way we are. We take pride in what we do.??

As the lunch hour ended and the staff began giving away what was left of the food, more tears flowed. Brigham?s began in 1914 in Post Office Square.

Some customers did not want to leave yesterday, and the staff did not want to let them go.

Cathy Frizell is one of the many regulars who have worked at the building across the street as its name changed from NYNEX to New England Telephone and Telegraph to Bell Atlantic and to Verizon.

The one constant in the neighborhood was Brigham?s.

?All I can say is good luck finding another place like this again in Boston,?? she said. ?We shared so much here. This place will be sorely missed.??

David Abel can be reached at dabel@globe.com.
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I'm pretty sure there are still two of them left in the South Shore Plaza, although it's been a while since I've been there.
 
Yeah, there are a few scattered around various cities and towns but that was the last one in Boston. :(
 
There are still two in Arlington, one in Belmont, and various others. How long they'll stay around now is anyone's guess.
 
vanshnookenraggen said:
Wise man.

It's the store for entry level hipsters (aka entry-level alts via hipsterrunoff.com)
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I'd hate to hear your opinion on Hot Topic. Actually, I'd like to...

Regardless of the hipsters that inhabit UO, or the fakesters, or whatever, it's a pretty nice store. I mean, design wise. Not usually a single level box, they usually treat the eye to a decent level of variety.

So if true hipsters find all their paraphernalia in thrift stores in Williamsburg, and fake hipsters find everything after UO cultivates it and makes a profit (which they do, I don't argue,) where does that leave the people who go into UO looking for a decent t-shirt or whatever?
 
kennedy said:
I'd hate to hear your opinion on Hot Topic. Actually, I'd like to...
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Watch the South Park episode on Vampires vs. Goths. I don't hate Hot Topic only because I don't care enough to hate it. UO is just in my face a lot (I walk by 2 different ones on my way to and from work).

where does that leave the people who go into UO looking for a decent t-shirt or whatever?
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The Internet. Plus if they just went in there to get a t-shirt they would probably get ignored by the hipster staff.
 
vanshnookenraggen said:
The Internet. Plus if they just went in there to get a t-shirt they would probably get ignored by the hipster staff.
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So true. All the hipsters are quite intimidating when they have strength in numbers (I happened to be in one earlier). And that's a great South Park.
 
The t-shirts at Urban cost $30. None of them are decent at that price.
 
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