The New Retail Thread

mass88 said:
Ever heard of the term limousine liberal? For a prime example of this, look at a place like NYC.
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Ha, I would say Boston, and eastern Massachusetts in general, is the very paragon of limousine liberalism. Much more so than NYC.
 
BosDevelop said:
which towns are you referring to? I live in a MetroWest suburb. I voted in favor of legalization. I am not aware of any towns in my immediate area voting to ban dispensaries. Town/city administrators themselves have issued moratoriums but citizens voting to permanently ban stores? Not saying it hasn't happened, I just can't recall it. In fact, didn't Newton's citizens just vote down a ban on recreational stores last month?
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Wayland for one. Can't drive through there without seeing the hordes of reefer madness signs. I saw a list of the hypocrite towns somewhere, I'll try to find it.

And FK4, you have it completely ass-backwards. It's not the conservatives opposing, it's the liberal enclaves digging in, or at least their pound of flesh to proceed.

On another note, it is truly mind-blowing that there are only two approved and running. They are hauling in millions a week. The windfall is great for them, but something doesn't seem right with that. I'd love to follow the money there. 20 or so throughout the state should have opened up at the same time. No excuse for the state on this one.
 
FK4 said:
Ha, I would say Boston, and eastern Massachusetts in general, is the very paragon of limousine liberalism. Much more so than NYC.
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When I think limousine liberal, I think of the metro west
 
HalcyonEra said:
Wayland for one. Can't drive through there without seeing the hordes of reefer madness signs. I saw a list of the hypocrite towns somewhere, I'll try to find it.

And FK4, you have it completely ass-backwards. It's not the conservatives opposing, it's the liberal enclaves digging in, or at least their pound of flesh to proceed.
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It's both. In any of the more urban enclaves of typical-old-Boston, there are plenty of urban, white, usually older, legit conservatives. They might have historically voted Democrat but they're the folks who marched on the Common against the hippies, supported Vietnam and law & order, and don't give a flying fuck about diversity. The same provincial, urban whites of any northeastern American city. Sorry if that sounds harsh, but it's true and it's a helluva lot truer in Boston than most places... and everyone knows it.

There's also plenty of pseudo-liberal yuppies in JP and Rozzie, too, that support all the usual causes in name as long as it doesn't interfere with the unencumbered and entitled lifestyle they'd like to lead. The real NIMBY's are these people, since the first group isn't leading the charge for x-y-z change anywhere at all, while the second group supports such-and-such change anywhere but their own privileged backyard.

After that vitriol, it's also again important to come to the fact that there are plenty of reasonable and open minded people, and they showed up to the meeting as well, and they spoke. It just wasn't quite as loud as all the anti's, who loudly clapped with every comment of despair made by the old timers. Change is hard, and most resist it, and have no insight into what it is they're doing, bottom line.
 
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FK4 said:
It's both. In any of the more urban enclaves of typical-old-Boston, there are plenty of urban, white, usually older, legit conservatives. They might have historically voted Democrat but they're the folks who marched on the Common against the hippies, supported Vietnam and law & order, and don't give a flying fuck about diversity. The same provincial, urban whites of any northeastern American city. Sorry if that sounds harsh, but it's true and it's a helluva lot truer in Boston than most places... and everyone knows it.
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Yes, the proverbial Puritan Dems. Those were my parents. As conservative as can be yet never voted R in their lives. I never could quite reconcile that.
 
HalcyonEra said:
Yes, the proverbial Puritan Dems. Those were my parents. As conservative as can be yet never voted R in their lives. I never could quite reconcile that.
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One can be a "small-c conservative" and vote either Democratic or Republican. Conservatism in the sense of generally liking your community the way it is and not wanting the things you value to change is really not a partisan issue.

Even in 2018, everything need not be partisan.
 
HalcyonEra said:
Wayland for one. Can't drive through there without seeing the hordes of reefer madness signs. I saw a list of the hypocrite towns somewhere, I'll try to find it.
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Wayland has not voted to permanently ban recreational stores. The town-wide vote is not until spring 2019. Once again, is there a single example of "the rich towns banning marijuana" that anyone can point to? I don't believe it has happened. Not to say it never will but if the citizens of a town hold a valid vote and decide to ban the stores, so be it. There will end up being stores yards from their town lines (Framingham and Natick for example next to Wayland) and they will deal with all of the "negatives" without reaping any of the rewards (i.e. $).
 
BosDevelop said:
Wayland has not voted to permanently ban recreational stores. The town-wide vote is not until spring 2019. Once again, is there a single example of "the rich towns banning marijuana" that anyone can point to? I don't believe it has happened. Not to say it never will but if the citizens of a town hold a valid vote and decide to ban the stores, so be it. There will end up being stores yards from their town lines (Framingham and Natick for example next to Wayland) and they will deal with all of the "negatives" without reaping any of the rewards (i.e. $).
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My bad. I guess that explains why the signs are still up :).

There is a thread on the Mass page on city-data.com which tracks it. The forum starter, "wror", seems to be zealot who started one every time a town voted it down, which from what I can see on that site is at least Braintree, East Bridgewater and Whitman. I don't think any of those qualify under your criteria though. Anyway, he used to start a new thread for each town vote, but the mods/readers got sick of it and consolidated them here (there is like 50 pages if you want to read it):

http://www.city-data.com/forum/mass...ividual-votes-cities-towns-whether-allow.html
 
^ Always seemed to me to be a better fit for Copley... not sure if that's where it's moving. Copley is old-luxe and Pru is filling up with made-for-instagram brands. Not sure which is more insufferable.
 
I may have said this before so sorry if I did... my girlfriend and I cut thru copley mall all the time and we play a game to try and find the most hideous piece of clothing in the window. These rich people sure do have some baaaaad taste in things
 
The Gucci store moved to inside Copley place, next to Hugo Boss. Open for a couple of months now
 
Suffolk 83 said:
I may have said this before so sorry if I did... my girlfriend and I cut thru copley mall all the time and we play a game to try and find the most hideous piece of clothing in the window. These rich people sure do have some baaaaad taste in things
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Some people simply have too much money to spend.

For those that missed this, what Payless Shoes did is priceless:


https://www.cbsnews.com/news/payless-sold-discount-shoes-at-luxury-prices-and-it-worked/

Payless sold discount shoes at luxury prices — and it worked


Last Updated Nov 29, 2018 7:45 PM EST

Payless Shoesource pranked VIP shoppers into paying markups of up to 1,800 percent for the bargain retailer's shoes as part of a viral advertising campaign designed to shift consumers' perceptions of the brand. Creating a fake luxury brand — Palessi — Payless built a temporary store and filled it with fashionistas.

So-called fashion influencers – essentially trendsetters that regular consumers look to for style cues — paid up to $645 for footwear that usually retails for between $19.99 and $39.99, the company said. The fashion insiders were captured remarking on the quality of the shoes' design and fabrication – before being told who had made them.

"It's just stunning. Elegant, sophisticated," one shopper said of a stiletto heel at the fake store's launch party.

"I can tell it was made with high-quality material," said a man perusing a pair of leather sneakers.

Payless enlisted advertising agency DCX Growth Accelerator to create the fake luxury store — replete with a statue and gold mannequins — and invited 60 influencers, recruited from the street and social media, to the made-up brand's launch party last month in Los Angeles, California.

Shoppers were told they'd receive between $100 and $250 in compensation to attend a market research event at an upscale mall in Santa Monica.


DCX Chief Creative Officer Doug Cameron said he played around with the letters in Payless to produce other store name contenders, including Elypass, which he said sounded like "a hipster store you might find in Brooklyn." Ultimately the agency decided to piggyback off the cachet of Italian design.

"We said let's give the campaign a handle, something creative that will be stickier, that an upscale retailer would really do," Cameron said. "I went on Wikipedia and looked up a list of Italian family names and saw Alessi, and added a 'P' to that. We also created a website around Palessi because we figured people would Google it."

Influencers were stunned upon learning the shoes were from Payless.

"Shut up! Are you serious?!" a shopper exclaims in one of three spots that will air on cable networks through the holiday season.

The shoppers got their money back, but were allowed to keep the shoes.

Sarah Couch, Payless's chief marketing officer, said the campaign aimed to remind shoppers that Payless strikes the right balance of stylistic relevance and affordability.

Cameron said the intention was to bring the brand back to its roots of appealing to the pragmatic American consumer. He said Payless had recently gone off track in an era of "aspiration inflation."

"We interviewed all these consumers who said they loved great styles but resented the elite prices that people would pay for industry fashion brands. We had an interesting opportunity to take a cultural position and said, 'Let's have Payless gently make fun of all of that and go back to this pragmatist position in culture.' That seems to have tapped a nerve."

He said the stunt indicates how powerful branding is in today's society. "The right cultural codes can completely transform the perceived value of just about anything," he said.
 
HalcyonEra said:
For those that missed this, what Payless Shoes did is priceless:
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To be fair, one of the main factors that distinguishes cheap shoes from expensive shoes is durability and longevity, and you can't really observe that in a store. The Palessi stunt might hold up in the very short term but it would start to fall apart the minute its shoes do.
 
^ true, but the point of the stunt wasn't to convince people that some expensive shoes aren't worth it...

The point of the stunt was to show people how stylish Payless' shoes can be and to get budget-minded people - who otherwise wouldn't have given Payless a chance - to now give Payless a chance.

You are never going to get someone willing/able to pay $645 for shoes to shop at Payless no matter what...but those weren't the people they were trying to convince.

As for the longevity...are Payless shoes really that much worse than other $19-30 shoes? Plus (going from what my wife says) some women buy shoes purely for the style that they are only going to wear 2-3 times a year...so longevity is a non-issue. The value-add is purely the style, which was Payless' claim.
 
JumboBuc said:
To be fair, one of the main factors that distinguishes cheap shoes from expensive shoes is durability and longevity, and you can't really observe that in a store. The Palessi stunt might hold up in the very short term but it would start to fall apart the minute its shoes do.
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If we're talking about Fashion, which I think we are, the main thing that distinguishes cheap shoes from expensive shoes is a name.
 
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