Have stores near you closed and stayed vacant ever since?

[Eric J in MN]

In the northern suburbs of Minneapolis, that has happened with:

a large Office Max office-supply store
a medium-sized Barnes and Noble bookstore which was part of a mall
a small clothes cleaners


If it's happened near you, what kinds of stores/restaurants/supermarkets?

[Stephanie]

1. Tons all over Manhattan

[Libertas1776]

5. Manhattan is a veritable hotbed for

this shit. I guess all the years of greed, over-development, and gentrification have finally caught up with it.

[tabbycat31]

2. all over the place

there is a fairly new (within the last 5 years) shopping center that once had Office Depot and Linens N Things and is now sitting vacant.

[elocs]

3. I happened to notice in the downtown of my city of 50,000

there were 3 storefronts in a row that were vacant. No big places among the 5, just small ones. Doesn't look good though.

[Buzz Clik]

4. We lost a K-Mart and our Circuit City (but CC went under)

[cutlassmama]

6. Many have closed here.

It's desolate.

[ixion]

7. certain parts of Tamiami Trail in FL are blighted

block after block of buildings in an area that was thriving just a few years back. It's pretty crazy.

[ddeclue]

8. All over Orlando - we have the 7th highest commercial vacancy rate in the nation.

:cry:

[virgogal]

9. Three empty stores in my little town----so sad but I've seen it

before several times in my life so I will remain optimistic.

[Horse with no Name]

10. Our entire town is just about closed up and vacant

I can count the remaining stores on 1 hand.

[Pyrzqxgl]

11. I don't think a block in San Diego goes without empty space.

This is particularly so in center city communities.

[laughingliberal]

12. Yes, they have

A small store owner told me the other day that 47% of retail space here is currently vacant

[etherealtruth]

13. It looks like 1/3 of storefronts in strip malls are vacant in metro Detroit

at least in my slice of it.

[MissDeeds]

14. Lots of closed stores here

The main street has about fifty percent occupancy. The mom and pop shops have been hardest hit, some of which have been here for decades. It's so sad, because each closed shop has a story behind it, and a family struggling to get by. :(

[Stinky The Clown]

15. I cannot think of even one case where a recently emptied store space has been re-rented

Not one. From small Mom and Pops to huge Big Box spaces.

[jmowreader]

21. Big boxes are almost impossible to re-lease

A retail realtor I know told me this--he has quite a few vacant big boxes on his books. What it comes down to is, even though all big boxes look essentially the same, there are significant differences between them. Every retailer has a different concept for its stores--some want more stockroom space, others want a lot of ceiling height. They find it easier to build a new building than to go in and modify an old one to meet their needs.

My sister is a buyer at Garden Ridge, and they DO buy old big boxes...but they feel that having every store be different adds to their eclectic charm. They're not all THAT different; most of their stores started out life as Kmarts. Their world headquarters (which is a combination headquarters, distribution center and store) is in an old mall. They just went in, removed the fronts from the stores in the mall and put merchandise in. It works well for them.

[Stinky The Clown]

30. The Semi Big Box stores are like that

Home Goods, Ruby Tuesday, TJ Max, Marshall's, Michael's ....... they seem pretty happy in different sorts of buildings.

[tabbycat31]

40. I can think of only one

we had a craft store chain (Rag Shop) go under, and near me, Michael's moved into the space.

[grasswire]

16. other kinds of slowdown

A popular kitchen store here is only open Thurs-Sun now.

The Hilton is closing a whole building of its downtown hotel for the whole fall and winter.

And yes, my family member's coffee house went out of business after ten profitable years, this summer. Lots of misery and debt.

[cali]

17. no. I'm thriled to say that my little town in Northern Vermont

is really doing something special- the acive sustainable agriculture thing going on here is being written and talked about all over. hey, even emeril is coming here to do a special about it. this is a town that's been poor for a long time. In the past few years, this amazing thing has happened here. Form High Mowing Organic seeds to Japer Hill Farm to the Claire's Restaurant to Vermont Soy and the slow money lending circle. And the planned Community Food Venture Center just got a fedral grant for 350,000. As Senator Leahy said when he was here on Tuesday, Hardwick has become a national model for the future of agriculture.

[gmoney]

18. another tenant in "my" building is moving out

They take up half the first floor, or 1/6 of the space. About 2/3 of the 2nd floor is now empty, and a chunk of the 3rd floor. Ironically, the landlord is still collecting rent on most of the empty space (due to long-term leases), so I'm not sure if he's so worried.

[alarimer]

19. Yes but they are still building strip malls.

Albeit not at the pace they were before.

I still don't get it though. Why build more store space when there is so much vacant?

[surrealAmerican]

20. They are now putting art in the windows of closed stores.

There's no shortage of exhibit space in this town.

[Joe the Liberal]

22. Yup....

An Albertsons (grocery store) closed a few years ago near here and the building is STILL vacant. A Circuit City down the street closed a while back and it's still empty, a clothing store for big and tall people closed and remains vacant as well. Same with a Ross (another clothing store) that remains empty to this day.

[area51]

23. Yes. Restaurants, office supply, clothing. (n/t)

[Cleita]

24. Yes and this is happening in a relatively new shopping center including

a Wal-Mart that was built less than a decade ago. There is plenty of parking though.

[Eric J in MN]

34. Is the Wal-Mart open? NT

NT

[Mari333]

25. oh sooooo many

vacant all over the place...one store that had been here for 154 yrs! closed..it was the oldest apparel store in MI..did not survive..
its like a ghost town in some places.

[SmileyRose]

26. that started long before this economic mess.

For some reason the powers that be decided almost all the generationally poor they ran out of Atlanta to build all the Olympics venues belonged in my corner of the world. I have absolutely no problem living next door to people who know nothing but poverty. Personally, I think part of the answer is to get people all spread out into middle class neighborhoods. -- But when 80% of the people in certain zip codes are near or below the poverty level, the stores are going to pack up and leave.

[Eric J in MN]

33. In my area, I've just noticed it in 2009.

My area being the northern suburbs of Minneapolis.

[Historic NY]

27. Arby's just reopened in their old store which closed 2yrs ago...we have

lots of unused new strip malls spaces some whole sections only have one tenant. We used to call them plywood plazas in the late 70's & early 80's. The big malls have vacant space especially those past their prime and not being shiny & new.

[SoCalDem]

28. 108,000 sq. ft. Home Base..empty for TEN YEARS

:( it sank a whole shopping center..

[salin]

29. Many - in Indianapolis

[Manifestor_of_Light]

31. Since when exactly?

You left out a word if you meant to put in when you noticed this starting.

In the dinkoid town I live in, the last grocery store went out about 8 years ago. We have to drive 20 miles to buy groceries or just about anything else. There is a feed/garden store, a hardware store, a doctor, a pharmacy, and a couple of crappy restaurants. Out on the bypass there is a SUBWAY sandwich store and a Dollar General and a big Exxon with restaurant attached. Three car mechanics. Three beauty shops. A filthy laundromat from hell in harvest gold and avocado green.

We have 1200 people. There is not a dry cleaners, not a nail salon, not a grocery store, not a book store (I'm dreaming on!), not a florist, no stores with a fax machine.

[Eric J in MN]

32. I was expecting people would write about the past year, but answering about...

...any start time is fine.

[Iggo]

35. Yep. SoCal, just outside of Los Angeles.

Way, way too many to list.

But I have noticed that among the current crop of casualties, it's the family owned non-chain restaurants that are dropping like flies. And that's just right now. There are more and more empty streetfront and outdoor minimall type stores sitting empty with For Lease signs on 'em.

Just an observation: I ride the bus down a major street (Whittier Blvd from Whittier into L.A.) every morning to get to work. Near the end of the summer (before school started back up) that bus was getting a lot more roomy, if ya take my meaning. Last year when the gas prices skyrocketed, and we THOUGHT we were living in hard times, there were MORE people riding the bus. Now there are fewer. Inescapable conclusion is that there are fewer jobs. I know that's not earth-shattering breaking news, but there it is.

[BuelahWitch]

36. Food 4 Less closed in late 2005 when our Walmart expanded

That store is still vacant. UNO Grill down by the movie theater has been closed quite a while too.

[leftofthedial]

37. half the nearby shopping center is vacant.

[Liberal_in_LA]

38. Some of the large store sites became swapmeet/close-out places. Wickes furniture became a

furniture "all must go, 70% off" type of place. Smaller stores sit empty

[alfredo]

39. yeah, there's a lot of empty stores here. Building projects are on hold because

they can't get financing.