The New Retail Thread

cjbski said:
PNC Bank is opening its first Boston location where Uno's used to be on Boylston street, per a permit posted on the window.
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Are you kidding me? That stretch lost Uno's (although not great, still something) and now Whiskey's? And the replacement to Uno's.... Is PNC? That's a major blow to the streetscape.

But it's Boston and a liquor license is *gulp* $500,000 a piece... So, a bank is probably more feasible to fill.
 
meddlepal said:
Joy another bank. I’m looking forward to our hollowed out city of banks post COVID-19.
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To be fair, we were on our way to becoming a hollowed out city of banks well before COVID.

Related to the thread, but not to banks: when weed was legalized back in 2016, I remember people talking about the possibility of Dutch-style coffeeshops opening in MA. Do we think that will ever happen?
 
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Blackbird said:
To be fair, we were on our way to becoming a hollowed out city of banks well before COVID.

Related to the thread, but not to banks: when weed was legalized back in 2016, I remember people talking about the possibility of Dutch-style coffeeshops opening in MA. Do we think that will ever happen?
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Considering how slow the roll out has been, I think the chances of this happening are slim to none. Just look at how restrictive this city is with alcohol.
 
kmp1284 said:
I think Boston has enough Targets. Besides, no one wants to see that kind of crap in such a prominent location.
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Why not? That or a Home Depot. Those are exactly the types of businesses needed in the Back Bay/South End. There's a huge residential catchment area for them at that location and they contribute much more to improving quality of urban life than an overpriced department store.
 
Roxxma said:
Why not? That or a Home Depot. Those are exactly the types of businesses needed in the Back Bay/South End. There's a huge residential catchment area for them at that location and they contribute much more to improving quality of urban life than an overpriced department store.
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I'm fine with urban Targets if that's what the market wants, but there's a Home Depot right in South Bay. Not sure how they would do an urban-format store. I've never heard of that.
 
George_Apley said:
I'm fine with urban Targets if that's what the market wants, but there's a Home Depot right in South Bay. Not sure how they would do an urban-format store. I've never heard of that.
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Me neither. Home Depot needs people to be able to wheel out large items and put them into a pickup or work truck. It's overwhelmingly used by professional builders or home owners DIY'ing pretty big projects. Beyond there not being sufficient space for that sort of thing in the area, any professionals doing work in Back Bay or the South End are likely coming from out of the area, and I highly doubt many people in Back Bay are DIY'ing a roof deck on their $7,500,000 townhome.
 
tmac9wr said:
Beyond there not being sufficient space for that sort of thing in the area, any professionals doing work in Back Bay or the South End are likely coming from out of the area, and I highly doubt many people in Back Bay are DIY'ing a roof deck on their $7,500,000 townhome.
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Right, hence the flanking Home Depots in South Bay, Somerville, Everett, W Rox, and Watertown.
 
cjbski said:
Lord & Taylor will be liquidating all of its stores upon reopening from COVID. What will take the place of its spot on Boylston Street? Ideally a tower with some ground floor retail. Could go tall here, right?

If not, I'd love to see a Nordstrom full-line store, but with them closing 16 of their 115 or so stores, I'd say that not as likely. Maybe a Target? Also unlikely but would be neat.
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I always wondered why Nordstrom never opened a store in central Boston years ago when they were expanding. They were in downtown Providence, Indianapolis and other less lively cities.
 
In addition to 3rd Ave and 59th (which works great), there's also a Home Depot on 23rd Street, between Broadway and Fifth. Both right in the heart of Midtown. I don't know how successful the stores are economically, but as a consumer they work very well.

Really too bad about Lord & Taylor. The store's heritage alone makes you hope it would live on. I always saw it as a nice alternative to Macy's, slightly more upmarket, but it always felt flimsier as a business, lacking in some of Macy's scale and professionalism.

Nordstrom would be the best solve for that space. I see Target as basically a TJ Maxx/JCP/Marshall's that lots of people have deluded themselves into thinking is something better. Or to put it in 1980s New England terms: I fail to see much daylight between Target and Caldor/Bradlee's/Ann&Hope/Zayre's.
 
FWIW, a few points on Lord & Taylor's history ... it actually dates back to 1826 (not 1859 as was said elsewhere), and it looks like its troubles over the last 30 years have been due at least in part to mismanagement by bigger dept. store chains (May Co. and Hudson's Bay of Canada):

The company is considered the oldest U.S. department store and was the first to install an elevator, open a branch location, and hire a woman CEO, Dorothy Shaver, who was instrumental in making it a beacon for American designers in the ‘40s and ‘50s. The chain traces its origins back to 1826 when Samuel Lord and George Washington Taylor founded a dry goods store on New York City’s Lower East Side.

Lord & Taylor’s troubles started in 1986 when its parent company was acquired by May Co. The new owner added lower-priced merchandise, ran frequent sales and kept a tight lid on investments, undercutting Lord & Taylor’s upscale image.

Hudson’s Bay sold the retailer’s flagship New York City store on Fifth Avenue for $850 million to WeWork Cos. A few years later Le Tote bought the whole company for roughly $100 million.

www.wsj.com

Lord & Taylor, Once-Grand Department Store, Files for Bankruptcy

Lord & Taylor, an industry pioneer dating back nearly 200 years, filed for bankruptcy along with its owner, the venture-backed fashion-rental subscription service Le Tote.
www.wsj.com www.wsj.com
 
Chapter 11 so basically wipe out a bunch of debt and reorg. They'll probably close some store locations though I doubt the Boston location is going out of business.
 
TomOfBoston said:
I assume they would sell items for apartment dwellers. No lawn mowers, utility sheds etc.
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It pretty much had anything I can think of from any other home depot, but, I will admit I don't remember seeing (or looking for) lawn mowers or sheds, which, would be a pretty small part of any home depot I have been in. I would assume if they didn't carry them, then you could order them for store pickup. I would guess, though, that if one were in the Back Bay, lawn mowers and/or sheds wouldn't be a big thing, either.
 
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TomOfBoston said:
I always wondered why Nordstrom never opened a store in central Boston years ago when they were expanding. They were in downtown Providence, Indianapolis and other less lively cities.
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Not sure about Indy, but Providence Place provided some serious incentives to Nordstrom (not sure the details, but the got a break on the lease and I think even some tax incentives). Buddy Cianci even flew out to Seattle to convince Nordstrom leadership to give Providence Place a shot. Nordstrom wouldn't have chosen Providence without the incentives. And while it could have made a run at Boston on its own, the city wasn't likely to bend over backwards to do attract the retailer. Providence (and Cianci in partciular) viewed a brand like Nordstrom as putting the city on the map and making it a destination. Boston never needed that perceived boost.
 
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