Manolos

NM restaurants are overpriced and nothing special....some of you seem to blindly laud it simply because its Neiman Marcus' restaurant...

After living in the northeast for so long, I forget that there are people who consider Abercrombie, GAP or American Eagle preppy.

since when was aeropostale preppy

The Michael Kors stores are all mostly accessories stores (some clothing, but mostly shoes, purses, wallets, belts, etc.) Atlanta does not have a Michael Kors.

Actually Miami area has a Prada at Bal Harbor Shops. Prada is reopening their Boston and Dallas stores, Newbury and Highland Park Village respectively, both in 2008. They are currently scouting for a location in Chevy Chase/Wisconsin Avenue. I highly doubt Prada is opening at Southpark.

What do you mean that was never meant to be? Most likely, if Barneys had been scouting Atlanta for so long (and determined to open), they would have done so. They wouldn't simply wait for a spot to open up at Phipps, even if Belk didn't buy Parisian, that space wasn't going to open up soon. Barneys looks at multiple locations in a city. Moreover, I highly doubt no one is shopping at Belk at Phipps. Even the most upscale shopping centers have their lower-end department store, and those perform fine, if not very well. I don't really understand what there is to "misunderstand" about the Atlanta market. The market isn't particularly special right now. It's not experiencing a huge influx/revival of luxury retailers in the present (like Dallas, Chicago, Boston, Phoenix, San Diego, all of which have dozens of ultra-luxury stores that have opened in 2007 and more planned to open in 2008.) Even the retailers signed at SOB aren't expected to open until the fourth quarter of 2009. I think you underestimate how well Belks can perform at Phipps. If the shoppers at Phipps were truly 100% luxury/ultra-luxury, Phipps/Lenox wouldn't have seen the flight of several of their highest-end retailers, citing the immaturity of the market and low sales. Phipps/Lenox is such a large shopping destination for the Southeast and its not just a luxury destination. There are still many affordable stores there and what makes it so popular is the sheer number of diverse stores at one location. You've never shopped at a designer store or high end dept store if you didnt know that they all have sales too. In fact, the Barneys annual warehouse sale is probably better than any Belk sale. Manolo Blahniks from 500 down to 50, Armani suits for 250.

There is no Saks in Nashville. Atlanta would be the closest.

Average store reputation probably: JC Penney/Belk/Sears Dillard's Macy's/Lord and Taylor Nordstrom Bloomingdales Neiman Marcus/Saks Fifth Avenue Barneys New York/Takashimaya Bergdorf Goodman

^^Stuart Weitzman is a good guess. I would be surprised if its a Jimmy Choo as they are already set to open 5 stores in 2008.

I'm not sure why Hugo would go uptown and segregate itself from the collection at SouthPark. Moreover, I'm sure its a retailer they are wooing. I mean even random malls in Buffalo have a Hugo Boss. It can't be that out of reach

^^Its a very trendy/chic upscale women's boutique. It originated in NYC (its competitor is Scoop.) Its become really popular among young girls and celebs and carries a buncha new styles and young/upcoming designers.

There is a big difference between being able to support a leather goods store (like LV where the most popular items are $400 bags) and a trendy casual clothing store (where the average piece is $400.) Women (and middle class women) are much more willing to splurge on leather goods, handbags, accessories compared to being able to justify $400 on a tank. Moreover, a handbag store is much easier to shop at for men (when the holidays, birthdays, come around.) Of course, this doesn't mean I don't think Charlotte can support Intermix. Intermix is definitely the first major store of its kind in the area, and imo it will thrive just because there is little other competition. Every time I go to Charlotte, there is definitely a lack of great boutique clothing stores (and department stores are the only option.) The only thing is how large is the Pure Denim space? Intermixes are generally around 5000 square feet if not larger. It just seems a little small for the store type. Congrats Charlotte!

Um, there are many large Miami stores and I'm assuming they brought this up because the major Miami stores perform better? Similarly, a few years is a lot for a company that recently went through a merger. Two more retailers are signed for Streets of Buckhead, Vilebrequin: French swimwear - has numerous locations in US, all in upscale shopping centers/districts Optical Shops of Aspen: Upscale sunglasses

I am simply stating what I heard on the news. The way CNBC seemed to put it was Atlanta's store, relative to Miami, was underperforming. This doesn't mean that Lenox's store was unprofitable. There have been several incidents in retail history (and other industries) where companies downsize large locations to cut costs (resulting from a number of factors, but a big one could be that they want to maintain presence in other locations and those locations are too small to downsize and not worth to completely depart.) I don't know the likelihood of Lenox's store downsizing, it could just be a transferral of the "flagship" status; however, it has been discussed. Other companies in the past that practiced similar actions were FAO Schwarz, Dana Buchman, Adrienne Vittadini, I. Magnin, The Broadway, Prada, etc. All have downsized larger locations (and seemingly more profitable locations) to cut costs. Usually meaning that the last couple thousand square feet had very little/decreasing marginal productivity/sales. There are economic/financial incentives to do such actions.

It was mentioned in a number of articles as a possible move. I don't know the likelihood of the situation happening. They are closing 9 stores, none in the Atlanta area, but a highly possible move is the merger of Macys South and Macys Florida, which news networks, such as on CNBC, predict that it would lead to a downsizing of the flagship store in Atlanta and movement of flagship status to the Miami store.

I understand what you're saying. From the way people on this forum praise Belk, you feel like you should be expecting something as nice as at least Nordstrom, if not Neimans and Saks. But, even the Belk at Southpark can't compare to these upscale retailers. Yes its lage, but its no has the same upscale feel/clean cut display/nice merchandise as these stores. At best, its a nice Macy's, and thats all you should be expecting. Of course, its nothing like a Mervyns or JC Penney (the SP store is definitely not the average Belk), but its no Saks or Barneys either. Other news, Macy's poor performance for the last few years has costed it 9 stores. Also, some stores that may be affected is the Macy's at Lenox (since right now the Florida is its own region). They may be combining Macy's South and Florida, thus transferring the flagship title to Miami and making the Lenox location smaller (perhaps some moving or something? its still quite vague and their actions aren't known for sure.)

That's not really true. Yes, Mac Minis start at $599. Want anything else, it goes way up. He is looking at Macbook Pros. Why are Macbook pros $2500? Because they are great personal computers. Apple stores are constantly packed. They are more than just a status symbol. Apple stores actually bring a lot of traffic to malls, they are a great asset. You never see an Apple store empty.

Mall websites often arent updated immediately.

I think most people knew that upscale retail would find its way to Charlotte eventually, if not sooner than it did. It surprised me that even as late as 2000, the 11th largest state in the country (now the 10th I believe) had very little luxury offerings and Charlotte being a financial center had pretty much nothing. Unfortunately very few people walk around on a casual day wearing Zegna and Gucci. As exciting as a DvF dress may be (and I do love them), its just not practical to wear something like that everyday, nor do many people do that.

I'm glad Atlanta is finally starting to see some big (more exclusive) names coming to town, such as Loro Piana and Etro. Hopefully there are more to come! Given this complex wont be a reality for a little while longer.

While I haven't been "in touch" with the marketing directors of Simon or the leasing agents for Diesel, I highly doubt that they have "bigger plans" for Atlanta and plan on opening a second location. Similarly, Diesel isn't mall adverse. Diesel has several locations within malls including SCP, KOP, Ala Moana, Cherry Creek, Forum Shops, Fashion Show, Aventura, Short Hills, in fact, I would say most of Diesel's stores in the US are in enclosed malls. Similarly, these types of stores aren't ones to quickly open multiple locations and have bigger plans without testing out the market. If in fact Diesel had bigger plans for Atlanta, they would not be wasting the money to create a store now and then relocate somewhere else in a year. Nor are they the ones to open a second shop a year later a couple miles away as it would only draw shoppers away from the current Diesel (of course, if the market warranted a second store, then it would open.)

Answering your question Durhamite. Atlforlife's posot doesn't make much sense so don't be confused. Just because a store is small does not indicate whether its a strong performer or a poor performer. 1979Heel answered pretty well. In the most cases, a larger store would most likely perform better because the location has caused a need for a larger location. Companies don't open a larger store if the location can't support the larger store. Also, the larger store means better stock, more variety, etc. These stores also tend to carry higher-end brand which increase the sales (a store in BH that sells 1 Louboutin for every Via Spiga sold in Denver would have much higher sales, this also correlates to luxury malls with greater number of luxury tenants having higher sales per square feet.) However, this does not mean that a small store cannot outsell or outperform a larger store. Take for example the Neiman Marcus in Scottsdale, Arizona. NM opened in the area in 1993 with a 100,000 square foot store, small for the NM brand. However, as sales took off, the location couldn't expand (as it is located in a rather dense area of town), but the company didnt believe the metropolitan area could support a second NM at the time. As a result, the store stocked the store with many more high-end brands, being one of the few NMs around the country with high stocks of Mulberry, Chloe, Bulga, Balenciaga, and one of three stocking SK-II products (just a few examples.) With the removal of many of the lower-priced items and introducing higher-end items, the sales at the store increased a lot. All in all, you can't predict the performance from the size of the store. Many factors come into play, including what is stocked, passenger traffic. While the NM at SP may have dead periods (which you shouldn't worry about unless its mid-day Saturday or something, all malls have dead periods during the week), it may have high volumes of sales on the weekends.

It might be a denim boutique. Many malls have local boutiques/locally owned stores. That could be what True Denim is. I doubt its True Religion. Jasmine Sola doesn't soudn that special. Most jean boutiques sell those brands.

^^I hadn't been to Lenox in awhile and I completely forgot that the ATL Hermes is ridiculously small. That would be nice for it to expand to the normal size.

^^interesting.... Hanna Andersson is opening at Phipps, a baby/young childrens store. No, only RL.