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CtownMikey

By CtownMikey
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CtownMikey Burg

CtownMikey

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doesnt this go back the the entire chicken and egg theory..?

Cornish with its stores and soon to come updated signage and lighting is taking a risk.. we shouldnt be surprised when the entire street becomes filled to capacity with retail with no increase in foot traffic for a little while.

it'll take time for more people with the current hotels and condos being finished and hopefully more office buildings bringing people here soon too. Until then, Cornish provides them... i guess what is basically a cheaper rent based on their profits. There is no reason the most upscale of retail stores couldnt survive on Westminster.

Look how dead Coach and Solstice are most of the time.. they still survive the mall's rent.. and on top of that, the mall isn't giving them a fixed rent based on sales

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jencoleslaw Town

jencoleslaw

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i do not believe for one instant that the mall has sucked retail out of other areas of the city. I've been here for 20+ years and Thayer street, Wickendon St, Atwells Ave and Wayland square have never been more vibrant. Especially Wickendon Street which has really become a nice little shopping walk in the last 7 years or so.

And i do think that PPM has been dumbed down. The Nordstrom there isn't nearly as nice as Nordstroms across the country, and Filenes (now Macy's) is so generic and uninteresting, and now with a JC Penney...it is not the upscale shopping location it was billed to be. But that's fine (although i'd love it if there was an Anthropologie and a Sur la Table there, but whatever) but i do not believe any store in PVD has closed because of the mall. Stores that have closed on Thayer and Atwells have done so because they were either landlorded out (the rents on Thayer are incredible) or had a poor business model. I do miss Circa Viso with their pricey dresses but nice staff (as opposed to Mel and Me at Garden City where they treat anyone who looks younger than 60 and poorer than $500K/yr like crap and i've dropped some serious cheddah there, and they still treat me like a poor relation) but circa viso had a policy of keeping their door locked so you had to be buzzed in, even when they were open. I'm sure they had a reason for feeling that was necessary, but i'm sure it kept a lot of people from wandering in and falling in love with that perfect, $600 dress...

I believe that in sensitive retail areas such as Westminster, you only get one chance to hook a client for life. If you're closed during normal business hours, you're not going to get a second chance...

your mileage may vary.

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Cotuit Megalopolis

Cotuit

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Jen, did you ever try the dress shop at Atwells and Dean between (where) Al & Betty's (used to be) and the Atwells Mini Mart, the name of the shop is escaping me at the moment? They just closed. It struck me as rather the wrong fit for Atwells skewing rather young, whereas most of the other dress shops on Atwells seem to skew a bit older (not that I'm calling you old, at least not to your face :P ). I'm just wondering if that assessment was right. My boyfriend and I called it the drag queen dress shop (in which case it probably should have been on Wickenden Street, though Miss Kitty's office is on Bradford).

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jencoleslaw Town

jencoleslaw

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Jen, did you ever try the dress shop at Atwells and Dean between (where) Al & Betty's (used to be) and the Atwells Mini Mart, the name of the shop is escaping me at the moment? They just closed. It struck me as rather the wrong fit for Atwells skewing rather young, whereas most of the other dress shops on Atwells seem to skew a bit older (not that I'm calling you old, at least not to your face :P ). I'm just wondering if that assessment was right. My boyfriend and I called it the drag queen dress shop (in which case it probably should have been on Wickenden Street, though Miss Kitty's office is on Bradford).
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Gusterfell Burg

Gusterfell

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Sure, the mall has affected the retail climate Downcity, but would we have been better off if a similar megamall had been built in Warwick, Smithfield, or Seekonk instead? I was in high school when the mall was built, and if it hadn't attracted me into the city, I don't know if I ever would have "discovered" Downcity, and come to see its potential to become a truly great urban environment. How many others like me are out there? How many of the current developments downtown would be under way if the URI extension buildings were still there?

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inProv Whistle-Stop

inProv

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And i do think that PPM has been dumbed down. The Nordstrom there isn't nearly as nice as Nordstroms across the country, and Filenes (now Macy's) is so generic and uninteresting, and now with a JC Penney...it is not the upscale shopping location it was billed to be.
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runawayjim Metropolis

runawayjim

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Dumbed down, perhaps, but run down as well. Every time I go to the mall, I can't help focusing on the nasty stained carpet coming apart at the seams and being held in place with duct tape. :sick: What is up with that? The third floor is particularly bad, where the majority of the carpet is all rumpled up and dirty.

I just wish GGP would take care of the properties it manages and replace that nastiness with new carpet or tile. Does all retail have to look like Wal-Mart?

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Gusterfell Burg

Gusterfell

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while the floors might look better with tile or something, i LOVE the carpet in the mall, regardless of the condition. the noise level would be unbearable with anything else. ever been to the cambridgeside galleria? you'd know what i mean. the echo of tile floors is awful in such a large mall.

however, i do agree that they need to take care of it better.

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Liamlunchtray Burg

Liamlunchtray

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I agree. The carpet certainly dampens the noise, and it gives the mall a more sophisticated appearance than a tile floor would. When the time comes (soon) to replace the carpet, I'd like to see them use a tiled carpet so that in the future smaller sections could be replaced as they wear out, rather than needing to replace the whole thing at once.
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brick Burg

brick

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I remember when it was going in there was a whole write up in the projo about what enormous continuous pieces of carpet they had and that it was custom made for the mall. I was baffled that they didnt go for tiled carpet then. If I'm not mistaken this carpet was supposed to have some strangely long life expectency. Obviously that is not the case.
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runawayjim Metropolis

runawayjim

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The impact of people jumping off of escalators was probably not taken into account.

Seroiusly, though, I think it has had a decent life. You have to remember the mall is 8 years old now. Which makes me feel pretty old, too. Also, given the propensity of Providence youths to do things like tag and litter, it would not surprise me if the carpet has been extremely vandalized during it's life, especially with the movie theaters open so late.

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