Department stores a thing of the past?

I don't shop much anymore since retirement. I bought really nice clothes when working and am just now getting rid of them. What few things I buy now I buy online. QVC has the perfect sizes for me in certain brands and they are easy to return if needed. I know what sizes I need down to the shoes so I only buy when needed.

Even though my Church has opened up for small groups, I still prefer the online pod casts of services each week and I can take part in my jammies!! Since I am handicapped the priest will come to my home for taking communion. I miss the fellowship but with the restrictions due to the virus, we could not greet each other like we used to. Its the new normal for now.
 

For years, we had a smallish "variety" store, which sold all kinds of items - not clothes or hardware, but pretty much everything else that fell through the cracks. Need a small pot, a box of crayons, some yarn for knitting, some furniture polish? They've got it. I never went there looking for anything that they didn't have.

The area was in mourning when they finally went out of business, after many years. Everybody used them! They even got an article in the paper when they closed, as they were sort of an institution. They said their rent had gotten so high that they just couldn't make it any more. They even moved to a slightly smaller store in a less pricey neighborhood, to try to keep afloat, but they didn't make it.

I guess their replacement is Amazon.
 
Rosemarie said:
Personally I prefer a street with a row of small shops, each specialising in something. However, I do miss Woolworths..the original one-stop shop.
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yes of course, if only we could bring our high streets back...only a very few places still have those.
 

I can't buy clothing without trying it on first and shoes, definitely not. I've been ripped off online because the color they SHOW you is very different from the color they SEND you sometimes and then you lose money which I can't afford to do. I love shopping and stores. Shopping and lunch was my #1 favorite free time thing to do.

I prefer the real world to technology, don't like buying stuff online and waiting for it to arrive. Just let me see what I like, try it on and give you money, you put my purchase in a bag, I leave and end of transaction.
 
For browsing, I enjoy book stores and music stores. These are typically smaller shops where you can visit with the store owner, so it is more of an experience than just going in, getting an item, and leaving. Of course, big box stores have been replacing the smaller music stores, and book stores are being replaced by Amazon and online used book retailers such as abebooks.com. So the browsing is definitely going away. I am glad to have had so many years of being able to do that before the current situation though.

I buy my outer clothes (jeans, shirts) at thrift stores such as Goodwill and Savers. I have no reason to pay $30 or more for a pair of jeans when I can get them broken in but in very good condition for $4. I buy shoes at a shoe store and when I find a pair I like, I buy two or three pairs so I don't have to shop for shoes again for many years.

Personally, I was never much of a "mall rat". I am just not interested in store after store selling cell phones or clothing.

Since Minnesota has been in the news and discussed so much here in a negative light, here is a bit of relevant trivia:

The first mall in the U.S. was built in 1956, in Edina, Minnesota, a suburb of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St.Paul. It is known as Southdale Center Mall. It is the oldest climate controlled, fully enclosed mall in the U.S.

(https://www.shoprockvale.com/when-and-where-was-the-first-mall-built/)

Tony
 
Sunny said:
For years, we had a smallish "variety" store, which sold all kinds of items - not clothes or hardware, but pretty much everything else that fell through the cracks. Need a small pot, a box of crayons, some yarn for knitting, some furniture polish? They've got it. I never went there looking for anything that they didn't have.

The area was in mourning when they finally went out of business, after many years. Everybody used them! They even got an article in the paper when they closed, as they were sort of an institution. They said their rent had gotten so high that they just couldn't make it any more. They even moved to a slightly smaller store in a less pricey neighborhood, to try to keep afloat, but they didn't make it.

I guess their replacement is Amazon.
Click to expand...
I love those kind of stores. I wonder if the one in Hollin Hall, VA is still there.
 
Sunny said:
For years, we had a smallish "variety" store, which sold all kinds of items - not clothes or hardware, but pretty much everything else that fell through the cracks. Need a small pot, a box of crayons, some yarn for knitting, some furniture polish?
Click to expand...
I wonder if 'Dollar General' is like that, my daughter keeps telling me to shop there but I have never been to one.
 
Mike said:
The writing was on the wall years ago when
Woolworths folded.

Mike.
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The writing was on the wall in the bathrooms years before that. :ROFLMAO:

How many here remember JJ Newberry's?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J.J._Newberry

Anyway, they started charging a nickel to get into a bathroom stall.

Some enterprising poet wrote on the stall wall "Here I sit broken hearted, paid a nickel and only farted".

As kids, we were small enough to crawl under the stall door and avoid the nickel charge.

Tony
 
I try to do shopping online, as shopping centers are 15~30 minutes away. I was skeptical at first about buying clothes and shoes online, but I've gotten good at it, and have better success getting a correct fit, than when shopping at department stores.
 
Jules said:
What? Why?
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....because at least half of them are freehold, some are owned by breweries .. and among many other things including high taxes on Alcohol... after a year of no income during Covid-19 they were unable to pay their rent, and have had to close for good..never to re-open, .

Currently only 40 % of all pubs re-opened last Monday..simply because only pubs with outside space for seating can open.. most city pubs don't have that space, so this is a further blow to them...

Larger pubs owned by breweries have mostly become Gastropubs, which are essentially restaurants.. so people can take their children and babies until 9pm at night.

Pubs were the one place which were really Adult only entertainment..so that put a vast majority off too, ... however the sheer price of a pint of beer for example , compared to what can be bought in the supermarket is killing the pub industry..

On Wednesday after almost a year , we returned to one of our local village pubs a regular haunt for us , and paid 4.50 for a pint of hubs usual beer ..( this is a traditional pub not gastropub).. . he can buy 4 cans of that same beer in the supermarket for exactly the same price...

The industry is not being helped financially by the governemnt, in fact in many ways it's being penalised. High rents, high taxes.. etc..low wages, they just can't cope and literally hundreds are closing every year.....
 
I remember as a kid getting on the bus with my mother and going to the nearby city to go to J.C. Penney's for clothes usually. The sales clerk would take the money and the sales slip and place them in a little box. They put the box in this tube and it got sucked up to go somewhere and came back with the change. Downstairs were sale items with good bargains. We usually then went to Kresge's for whatever they had to offer, get some ice cream at the counter, buy some goldfish and then get back on the bus for the trip home.
 
Rosemarie said:
Personally I prefer a street with a row of small shops, each specialising in something. ...
Click to expand...

That's the sort of malls that do well here. They're outdoor malls made to look like European villages with brick and cobbled tile sidewalks, hanging outdoor cafe lights, fountains in roundabouts. There are a few large department stores at the ends of streets, but the streets between the department stores are lined with small specialty shops ...some chain stores and some locally owned. There are some parking spots just off the streets in front of the stores and large parking lots to the back of the stores. Since our winters are very mild and the stores have AC in the summer, outdoor malls work well.

Large indoor malls in the area mostly died out once they became hangouts for teens with behavior issues who were not purchasing anything. It got to the point that there were so many teens in the common areas acting up that more and more security guards were hired ...not a good shopping environment. A few are still hanging on but most have been razed or converted to office complexes.

Pics of three of my favorite outdoor malls in the area:

iu


iu


iu
 
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AnnieA said:
That's the sort of newer malls that are doing well here. They're outdoor malls made to look like European villages with brick and cobbled tile sidewalks, hanging outdoor cafe lights, fountains in roundabouts. There are a few large department stores at the ends of streets, but the streets between the department stores are lined with small specialty shops. There are some parking spots just off the streets in front of the stores and large parking lots to the back of the stores. Since our winters are very mild and the stores have AC in the summer, outdoor malls work well.

Large indoor malls in the area mostly died out once they became hangouts for teens with behavior issues who were not purchasing anything. It got to the point that there were so many teens in the common areas acting up that more and more security guards were hired ...not a good shopping environment. A few are still hanging on but most have been razed or converted to office complexes.
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That is the trend here too. Indoor malls are dead. I prefer the outdoor ones. The ones in our town do not have large department stores though.
 
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Annie, I love that kind of mall. They seem to be growing in popularity all over the country. Although I imagine they work better in a mild, southern climate. You say you are "down south" but you don't say where. But I bet it's nice and warm most of the year!

Also, many restaurants have adapted the European model of outdoor seating. And this was before Covid. People just love to sit outside enjoying their drinks or food, and do people-watching.
 
HoneyNut said:
I wonder if 'Dollar General' is like that, my daughter keeps telling me to shop there but I have never been to one.
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Some Dollar Generals are ok. The one in our town is a dirty dump unfortunately. I have been to clean, nice ones though. Hollin Hall is an area in Virginia where a lot of the houses were built in the 60's. The variety store there would stock items specific to those houses. We don't live there but have friends who do.
 
AnnieA said:
That's the sort of malls that do well here. They're outdoor malls made to look like European villages with brick and cobbled tile sidewalks, hanging outdoor cafe lights, fountains in roundabouts. There are a few large department stores at the ends of streets, but the streets between the department stores are lined with small specialty shops ...some chain stores and some locally owned. There are some parking spots just off the streets in front of the stores and large parking lots to the back of the stores. Since our winters are very mild and the stores have AC in the summer, outdoor malls work well.

Large indoor malls in the area mostly died out once they became hangouts for teens with behavior issues who were not purchasing anything. It got to the point that there were so many teens in the common areas acting up that more and more security guards were hired ...not a good shopping environment. A few are still hanging on but most have been razed or converted to office complexes.

Pics of three of my favorite outdoor malls in the area:

iu


iu


iu
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The greenery makes it look very pleasant. That is obviously a case of the shopping centre being designed for the comfort of the shopper, rather than the convenience of the shop-keepers. Some shop keepers make you feel they are doing you a favour by selling you something!
 
Where I am there are two main malls and both
are like ghost towns, yet a few miles away in the
next town Bromley, the mall is thriving, just like
normal, the only covid sign, is the security man
stopping people without a mask from entering.

Mike.
 
Mike said:
Where I am there are two main malls and both
are like ghost towns, yet a few miles away in the
next town Bromley, the mall is thriving, just like
normal, the only covid sign, is the security man
stopping people without a mask from entering.

Mike.
Click to expand...
yes our malls are thriving here...we don't get any of the aforesaid youth hanging around in them because there's nothing in there to keep them entertained..

However we also still have our 'high st''.. here where I live ( which to the uninitiated means small stores side by side)...but much of the Uk have lost their high street stores , and many in fact are losing their malls...
 
Our Malls were going to be modernised by an Australian company,
Westfield, the council started to empty the buildings in readiness for
the job, the Westfield sold out to a French one that didn't want to do
the job because of Brexit!

Then the Council declared itself bankrupt.

I don't think that we will have much of anything for the foreseeable future. šŸ˜Ÿ

Mike.
 
Interestingly, our local mall is also called Westfield Mall. I wonder if it's the same company. (That's the mall I was talking about where the beloved, locally owned stores were replaced by Macy's, etc.)
 

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