Suburban Ghost Towns of 2010

We have all become numb to it by now. Eighteen months ago, when a store in a strip mall closed and left, we not only took notice, we wondered why, we asked employees in surrounding stores for the scoop. Now, it is commonplace. Strip malls have become the ghost towns of suburbia in 2010.

Strip malls are, by nature, places where stores set up shop, peddle their wares and when people are tired of buying their wares, they move on to other locations leaving an empty cube in the strip mall. A few years ago, when this happened, usually some other store would take its place within a few months. There were never gaping holes for long periods of time.

Back in fall 2008, I began to notice a trend, a trend that was both sad and disturbing. A trend that has changed our suburban landscape. It started when the local Linens 'N' Things closed its doors for good. That left a large unoccupied store front in a local strip mall. Every time I went to that strip mall I looked to see if there were any "coming soon" signs in the windows. There weren't. Granted, it was a pretty large store, so there were probably fewer merchants willing to take on a space of that size. But it felt a bit odd and scary. This was a time like no other time we had experienced in a long while. Other stores in that strip mall soon followed suit. The next to go were a fitness equipment store and a Foot Locker store. That may not sound like a lot but this strip mall only has about 10 slots so this represents 1/3 of their businesses.

This strip mall was not an anomaly. As I went about my life in our little enclave, I began to see the trend. Every strip mall I visited started to have gaps, some of them had large gaps. Gaps of empty stores. And this emptying was not isolated to strip malls. The upscale mall The Natick Collection fell victim to fleeing stores as did the Wrentham Village Premium Outlet Mall. Free standing stores were not immune either. This recession has caused a giant downsizing of retail life.

I got curious though. Why were so many stores leaving? Was it the obvious reason, not enough business to sustain them? Or was there something else driving this mass exodus? I started to ask questions and was really surprised at some of the answers.

I was in my local Bank of America branch, which is located in a strip mall, and asked my usual teller what was going on. She told me the branch was closing. When I asked her why, she told me the landlord has significantly upped their rent and BoA was not willing to pay the extra. WHAT? He upped the rent in this economy and with so many store fronts in this strip mall already empty? Is he on crack? This too was not the only example of it in this particular strip mall. An Applebees restaurant that had been located in that strip mall for as long as I have lived in town (15 years) suddenly closed up and left a couple of weeks ago. The reason? The landlord had raised their rent too high and they were not willing or able to pay the increase!! OK this landlord must be insane. Instead of looking for new tenants to fill the several empty spots, he is driving out his paying tenants!! Wow, either I have no understanding of basic business or he needs a reality slap!

I thought maybe this situation was isolated to this particular mall. I was wrong. Back in January, I was at the Wrentham Village Outlet Mall browsing around in my favorite store, Le Gourmet Chef, and the inventory looked so low, it looked like a fire sale. I had been there 2 weeks prior and all looked normal. What the heck was going on? At the register I asked the clerk why there were so few products. She told me that one of the fashion stores already located in the Outlet Mall (BCBG) wanted to take over Le Gourmet Chef's store location so the landlord increased the rent a lot on Le Gourmet Chef to force them to move. Le Gourmet's management decided not to cave to pressure to move to a less desirable location within the Outlet Mall and instead they just closed the store for good. The ironic thing is that Le Gourmet was the second highest grossing store in this outlet mall of over 120 stores!! Wow. Another landlord that must be a graduate of the Ass Backwards School of Business!

Recently a TJ MAXX at a different strip mall in my town closed it's store that had been there for many years. I have since been told that a Bob's Store that is in that same mall will close and an Ocean State Job Lot store may take it's place. That made me laugh out loud. The thing is, this strip mall is the oldest and arguably the dumpiest one in our town.The fact that an Ocean State Job Lot may open there is PERFECT!! This just may be a statement of the times we are living in. A lot of people are out of work. Not as many people are shopping at the upscale stores but instead they are looking for giant discounts; looking for ways to stretch their money further and further.

We need to face facts. A lot of stores have gone out of business or have downsized the number of locations during this recession. It is sad but true. It is possible some of these strip malls won't be fully occupied again for a long time, if ever. There are some places I will not miss. There are some that I already miss. That is water under the bridge. This recession seems to be lightening up a little bit and maybe there is a light at the end of the retail tunnel. Maybe all of this weeding out will bring us new stores, and new kinds of stores. That is something I can look forward to.

A spark of hope appeared in my retail world last week. I was in that strip mall where the Linen's N Things had gone out and I noticed a man in a crane attending to a large metal framework being built over where the Linens "N" Things sign used to be. I got curious and hopeful. I asked the cashier at the Whole Foods Market in that mall if she knew what was going on. She told me that a Michael's Crafts store was going to take over the old Linens location. I had mixed feelings on that. I am happy for one less depressing empty storefront, don't get me wrong. I do a lot of craft projects, but there is already an A.C. Moore store one strip mall away. The net result of Michael's opening may be that A.C. Moore could have to close because of the competition. If that happens, Michael's would not be a gain for our area. Time will tell. But, I do hope the trend of filling empty slots continues.

Meanwhile, I have my wish list for some of the empty store fronts and restaurants. It includes: Trader Joe's, P. F. Changs, Bertuccis, Le Gourmet Chef, Crate and Barrel, The Container Store, Guitar Center (for Tyler). I would be very happy if any of these businesses open somewhere close to me :-) Maybe I should contact some of those crazy landlords and drop a hint!

I would love to know your retail wish list...feel free to leave it in the "Comments" box below.