Do you still think Best Buy will stay in the Greendale Mall?
WRRB/Telegram District City Council Forum 10/18
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This forum is for all district council candidates; all candidates are here
today. Format: 14 total questions, 4 questions across districts (for all
candida...
6 months ago
21 comments:
Rumor has is that they will close Worcester. Although rumors were very strong on Showcase North closing after Christmas and fortunately they are still there. Let's hope they hang on.
Beth:
It makes no sense to have three stores at the Solomon Pond Mall, Greendale and Route 146 mall.
My guess is the only thing keeping them in Greendale is an existing lease?
Like you, I hope they stay but I just don't see that happening.
Bill
I've been asking folks who work there about it, and the consistent answer is that the Greendale location is staying open. But I sense some trepidation, too, like perhaps it's now going to be a competition between the two stores for the Worcester market.
Like you, Bill, I would say that leaving the Greendale location open wouldn't make much sense. In any competition, I'd expect the Greendale location to do a lot less business.
So will they put the mall school in where Marshalls was, then?
Just an aside here but we have another new shopping center under constr at Rte 9 & 20. Maybe it's even already open? They have been blasting ledge at the site for a number of years now. it is not that visible fromt eh roadway, but I think there is also new housing at or near teh same site.
26 men killed at a coal collapse in W. Virginia. I am saddend today . Truly dangerous work that gets little media attention except when men go their deaths in these subterranean abysses.
Bill - Who or what is Best Buy competing with these days? They can maintain 3 locations because they have no competition. Does not mean they will - but they certainly can since they have zero competition.
If you have no competition, why pay overhead on three stores?
Actually if they had more competition all the more reason to keep all three stores open to not lose market share to your competition.
Jeff Barnard said...
"I've been asking folks who work there about it, and the consistent answer is that the Greendale location is staying open"
The kid at Media Play swore up and down that they weren't closing, and I should buy their frequent buyer card.
A week later they announced the closing.
I don't think the kid was lying, I just don't think he had a need to know. Why would you tell employees you're closing the store? Announcements like that often cause a rash of work-related, unverifiable, back injuries.
Look at Worc's demographics. 14% low income housing is almost twice the state mandated minumim. Contrary to what someone said on the radio the other day (Levy?), Worcester is not 4% above the state mandated minumim, Worc is 40%above the state mandated minumim.
Lotsa low income housing is synonomous with people who have little discretionary disposable income and people who have a propensity for the proverbial five finger discount.
In a similar "shopping" scenario, it is looking like my next dog will come from Sterling or Hopkinton after having had four dogs over many years from the Worc. Animal Resucue League. Unfortunately, Worc. doggie demographics are such that I am being forced to shop suburban for my next canine pal. Worc's low income population has inundated the Worc Animal Rescue league with pitbulls. My guess is 70%. I do not want a pitbull.
A sarcastic shout out to Jim McGovern and his low income housing subidies that has drowned Worc with the wrong demographics, unless you're a democratic congressman running for re -election.
Should we cull the non profit low income housing builders NOW??
Bill - I would have to disagree with your comment about having more competition. Best Buy caters to "impulse" buy kinds of decisions. Consider a consumer sitting at home thinking about getting a new widget, or just plain bored on a rainy day. Having a local presence allows that consumer to head on in to check out merchandise. The 146 plaza might be just far enough that they dont feel like driving there. One lost sale.
Business like best Buy do not sell anything that a consumer NEEDS. They sell purely what people WANT. Removing a convenience like a local neighborhood store can be enough to prevent a sale, or worse give the consumer time to think about their potential purchase.
If the store is making enough money to cover overhead then there is no reason to close it.
Look at Radio Shack. The only aspect of their business that keeps them going is cell phone sales (impulse).
Bill
you could not take the photo of the sign company putting the sign up??
So if dare say they were to open a school in the mall (wasn't the comment 'since there's plenty of open space there anyway' from a sc member?), that would then eliminate a portion of their real estate taxes, right? I have some open commercial property... will they take mine?! If my math is correct, I see the mall paying close to $1.6 million a year in RE taxes right now. Would we give up a couple of hundred thousand a year to put a school in Best Buy if they close?!
Beth
I own a building that I rent to a church. Even though they are a non-profit, I pay the full property taxes.
Depending on the rent paid and if they lose Best Buy, they would get a lower assessed value.
Bill
The last Best Buy items I have purchased were not impulse buys, although I did need the items ASAP as they were replacing broken electronic items.
a. a mouse
b. 2 diff. keyboards on 2 diff occasions
c. a small TV
I would probably travel to Hillbury if & when I need something from Best buy again
YOu put a school in that Mall and IMO it could be the death knell for that place. I am not sure what kinda school is tentatively planned there, but you got Pajama people or pants on the ground types with their baseball caps on cockeyed, chilling there after scholl gets out, then it could well be a repeat similar to the demise of Worc Center/ Fashion Outlets...plus some of them will steal anything that aint nailed down.
Hell, lets put an auxiliary inter city bus terminal there, too
Jahn -
Everything you purchased was a want, not a need. You could have easily waited and found a better item online. The proximity of the store and convenience of a quick purchase brought you in.
Although some may argue that a computer is a need in a modern society, you do not need it to sustain your own life. It is a luxury item. Just like a TV and cell phone. Those "low income" people as you say spend more money on consumer items. You buy a new item only when your old one brakes, "low income" people upgrade much sooner.
Very different business model from say a supermarket. Everyone has to eat.
Anonymous, I am not a marketing kind of guy. I could toss around a few terms like captive audience, impulse purchase, product life cycle, etc; but I could not sell a coffin at Graham, Putnam, & Mahoney for $.50.
I do agree with you that low income folks tend to have a fascination with attaining the latest "thingie" or fad or high tech gadget ASAP. This phenomenon always kinda made me chuckle to myself.
I recall years ago having having tenants sitting on their car in the driveway with the latest high tech gadget at that time.....a portable, household, cordless, handheld phone. They had the "gadget" and I (the landlord) didnt. I also had no interest in running out and buying one immediately, either.
I guess the same could be said for the $5,000, shiney, chrome, spinner rims I see on their "rigs"
To each their own, I guess? Sometimes when it is available discretionary, disposable income is quickly and wastefully disposed of??
BTW, Where has my buenas amigo David Z. been of late? I do hope all is well with him.
Beth, nobody asked that question. Or rather, it was asked at subcom, but no one had asked the city. I would guess that Bill's on the right track, though.
Also, it would have gone in the arcade.
And it was sent back to admin, so it probably won't happen this year.
Jahn said,
"BTW, Where has my buenas amigo David Z. been of late? I do hope all is well with him."
I'm alive & well Jahn, thanks for asking, just incredibly busy planning the layout of CitySquare.
It doesn't make much sense if the Greendale location closed. The Millbury Shoppes are 9 miles away (I know it's not a long distance, but it's extra highway time regardless), and the Greendale Best Buy is next to the interstate, which is exactly where a mall should be. Location location location! lol
It's not all about how well it serves Worcester, but also from the towns north of the city. Because there is no Best Buy between the Fitchburg area and Worcester. So people in towns like Holden, W.Boylston, Sterling, and other northern towns will want to go to one or the other. I can see both the Greendale and Millbury location coexisting just fine because of that.
One will take care of customers to the north (Greendale), while the other will take care of customers from the south (Millbury Shoppes).
Here's the distance link on Google maps between the 2:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/ybxu3cu
And here's the Best Buy location link on Google maps:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/ydtck2a
Also to be noted, it's 13.4 miles from Greendale to Solomon Pond. To me, that's nearly the same as Greendale to Millbury, but the difference being that there is a greater population in Worcester, so it wouldn't shock me if the Greendale location stayed open, in fact it would make sense if their sales numbers support it.
My 2 cents. :)
Silver, I totally agree that people from Holden, Sterling etc will continue to use Worc location...it's still in two different towns/cities. Not like Worcester where we have 5 price choppers, 2 shaws, 3 stop & shops, 2 price rites, etc.
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