What about Borders?

[voracious71]

Ours is an empty shell, and it's depressing. Wish they'd put something in there already.

You wouldn't have known that Borders was struggling either, because it was almost always busy.

[Kumabjorn]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

The ones I'm familiar with had premium, high-traffic locations.
Problem is rents on premium high-traffice locations are way high. Especially when most of the Border leases ran 20-plus years and were negotiated as far back as the turn of the century. A lot of them where standalone structures; others were Mall "anchors".

Those kinds of facilities don't get easily repurposed. In one case I know the Mall operator/landlord tried to buy the store to keep it open themselves under a different name. But that would be the exception; most stores simply didn't generate enough revenue from book sales to justify the premium high-traffice square footage.

Few business can. Hence, they remain empty.

I'm afraid I'm not familiar with the concept of a mall "anchor". Would that be the large retailer (Sears, Target) at the opposite ends of the mall?

If they were at premium high-traffic locations, wouldn't that imply that some new vendor would like to grab that location?

If mall owners charge exorbiant rents I would assume more reasonable malls would appear? A huge empty space, like x-Borders, is not only lost revenue for the owner, but I would imagine it having devastating psychological influence on the consumers mall experience. Vendors next to the x-Borders would loose a lot of foot traffic, the dark gaping hole doesn't exactly insipire wild shopping sprees either, does it?

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by TimW

Don't come up too quickly...you'll get the "bends."

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Floundering are you?

LOL - I should've kept my mouth shut

[plib]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

LOL - I should've kept my mouth shut

Actually you should keep your mouth open as you ascend, to allow the air pressure to equalize.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by soondai

The other one sits empty (though it was a Halloween store for a few weeks last fall).

Same here. I was visiting friends last fall and passed by a former Borders doing the same thing. Better to collect some rent than no rent.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Fbone

...Eastern Mtn Sports...

You have mountains back east? Should it be called Eastern Hill Sports?

[plib]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

You have mountains back east? Should it be called Eastern Hill Sports?

Eastern Gentle Slope With Growth Potential Sports.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

I'm afraid I'm not familiar with the concept of a mall "anchor". Would that be the large retailer (Sears, Target) at the opposite ends of the mall?

Yeah; they're usually large, well known department or specialty stores used to draw in customers. They don't necessarily have to be at the ends.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by plib

Actually you should keep your mouth open as you ascend, to allow the air pressure to equalize.

Say; now that's clever idea.

[hidari]

Never heard of Borders...what is it?

[plib]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Say; now that's clever idea.

It was actually part of scuba training. Not sure it would really do much for the bends though, you need proper decompression for that.

[plib]

Originally Posted by hidari

Never heard of Borders...what is it?

It's the little squiggly lines on the map. And don't call me Shirley.

( I think I've been affected by tubemonkey, I'm getting hypoxia giggles!)

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by plib

It was actually part of scuba training. Not sure it would really do much for the bends though, you need proper decompression for that.

Darn; and I thought you kept breathing with it open.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by hidari

Never heard of Borders...what is it?

It was a large retail chain of bookstores in the US that went bankrupt last year. It was the main competitor for Barnes & Noble. They also owned a small share of Kobo.

[Kumabjorn]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Yeah; they're usually large, well known department or specialty stores used to draw in customers. They don't necessarily have to be at the ends.

But often they are, no?
The few time I've been to malls in the US they usually had a large Sears, JC Penney or Target adjacent to a main entrance which, for some reason usually was at either end of the mall. Granted, my experience is limited to four or five malls.