Downtown Crossing/Financial District | Discussion

If Borders closed this, maybe Barnes & Noble could swoop in and reopen it? They closed their old DTX store because it was out of date and had no cafe, but this one is modern and always attracts crowds.

More speculatively, I wonder if any of our remaining independents (Harvard Book Store, Porter Square Books, Brookline Booksmith) would see this as an opportunity to expand into a small local chain.
 
Ron, I fear the future is going to be a very difficult place for you.
 
Harvard Book Store used to be a local chain way back in the Paleolithic period (before internet). They had a branch on Comm. Ave across from BU's Marsh Plaza and I believe one or two others locations.

Barnes & Noble recently closed a large store near Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. B&N is not likely to open any new stores.
 
Want healthy B&M retail?

Force sales tax upon online retailers.
 
Protectionism always leads to market distortions which make things worse. Although one could argue that B&M is at a disadvantage having to collect sales taxes. But the counter to that argument is that internet/mail order establishments are disadvantaged from not having the physical interaction and immediate gratification of purchase that B&M does.

What would happen to the thousands of small internet businesses and entrepreneurs if the tax scheme changed? Do we want to kill a lot of home businesses, ebay, amazon, et al?
 
Harvard Book Store used to have a 'Cafe' store at Newbury and Exeter street, which I think is now Stephanie's restaurant. It closed soon after Waterstone's opened across the street in the former Exeter Street Theatre. Sadly, Waterstone's eventually closed this and all other US stores.
 
Don't consumers already pay a "tax" for online retail in the form of shipping?
 
Lurker said:
Protectionism always leads to market distortions which make things worse.
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TomOfBoston said:
Tax the consumer! Massachusetts solution for all problems.
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I dont see how leveling the playing field is protectionism.

It's correcting a distortion.

Right now, you get a 6.25% discount by choosing Amazon.com over your local storm. When it comes to something like a $2,000 TV...that's very significant.

You're supposed to report the tax. Nobody does.

czsz said:
Don't consumers already pay a "tax" for online retail in the form of shipping?
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Amazon is free shipping on everything over $25. And free prime (2 day shipping, any amount) for college students. I hear Boston has a lot of those.


As long as online stores have zero tax, you'd be foolish to buy most things in a local store just because of the tax savings.
 
If Borders closes brick & mortar they won't have to charge tax for purchases on Borders.com. Immediately, their online store becomes more competitive.

That said, I don't think the eReader is going to best the Kindle. My guess is that Borders will file for bankruptcy and reorganize, or perhaps merging with Barnes & Noble to take on Amazon.

As Ron points out there may be some interesting fallout from the demise of Borders, including the possible return of smaller bookstores meeting some demand from those who want to browse, or those looking for niche titles. But the problem for smaller stores may be that browsers can return home to order online.

Also, Amazon could face problems if publishers begin to realize that their margins increase substantially by cutting out Amazon and just shipping direct to readers at full retail.

In any case, I think the writing is on the wall for Borders DTX and it isn't looking good. On the upside, failures at DTX could result in the arrival of small, local retailers, creating a semblance of something organic an interesting.

Next question is how the DTX BID may sour the area for smaller retailers.
 
I could see the City giving tax breaks to the developer that finishes Filenes. The one problem with that is why would all the other business's actually pay into BID.
 
Sicilian said:
If Borders closes brick & mortar they won't have to charge tax for purchases on Borders.com. Immediately, their online store becomes more competitive.
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But the cities and state lose out. Empty store fronts, AND less sales tax revenue.
 
If Borders managed to survive as an online business and continued to employ people the collected income taxes and economic activity of those employees would be better than paying unemployment to former employee, yes?
 
TheRifleman said:
The bookseller, which may be teetering toward bankruptcy, extended its lease at 10-24 School St. last summer for just two years - an unusually short time for any retailer.
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At least they have sign a two year lease, things may be a lot better by then. I think a lot of the empty store fronts on Washington St have been filled recently. Look like an Italian restuarant is moving into the Paramount site.
 
Lurker said:
If Borders managed to survive as an online business and continued to employ people the collected income taxes and economic activity of those employees would be better than paying unemployment to former employee, yes?
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An online business, by nature, employs many less people.

Store and online both need IT people, warehouse people, phone people...

But only store needs register people, sales people, managers etc.

Id guess an average borders employs 60 people.


So would online be better than NOTHING?
Of course.

But BOTH is better than just online. And the way to get both is to put both on a level playing field.
 
jass said:
But the cities and state lose out. Empty store fronts, AND less sales tax revenue.
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I don't think the predominate factor in the success of Amazon vs. Borders is in Amazon's ability to sell without sales tax. I'd guess the predominate factors are a) the rise of digital downloads, b) Amazon has lower overhead thus lower prices, c) Amazon has greater buying power thus lower prices, d) convenience to the customer of ordering from home.

Personally I don't support the idea of using sales tax as some sort of regulatory mechanism to ensure the survival of particular brick and mortar bookstores.

Beyond that, it's probably not relevant to this thread to get into a debate about whether the idea of sales tax makes sense at all.
 
from the BRA:

New Downtown Crossing Retail Businesses Opened in 2010*
TD Bank (Winter Street)
b.good (Washington St.)
Stoddards Fine Food & Ale (Temple Place)
Subway (Washington St.)
Petite Robert Central (101 Arch)
D'guru (Devonshire)
Boston Common Coffee Company (Washington St)
CVS (Winter St)
Grass Roots Cafe (Summer St)
Webster Bank (Franklin St)
Deals and Discounts (Temple Place)
Roly Poly (Devonshire St)
Barracuda Tavern (Bosworth St)
Sal's Pizza (Tremont St)
Chipotle (Summer St)
Little Q (Washington St)
Edible Arrangements (Washington St)
Thinking Cup Cafe (Tremont St.)
U burger (Tremont St)
City Convience Store (Washington St)

Coming Soon*: signed leases and/or under construction

Four Green Fields (One Washington St)
Cafe de Boston (Arch St)
Scholar's (School St)
Salvatores (Washington St)
Subway (Tremont St)
Super Cuts (Summer Street)
Back Deck Grill (West St)
Mega Mobile (Washington St)
Urban Kitchen (Washington St.)
Danvers Bank (Milk St)
 
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