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Bliss Market Backing out of Hartford 21


grock

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Larry G is just going to do it himself. Amazing guy.

He says the market will be open in September. Anyone willing to bet against him?

The artilce also says H21 is close to 50% and on schedule for the predicted 2 year fill up.

Horrible, horrible, horrible.

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Larry G is just going to do it himself. Amazing guy.

He says the market will be open in September. Anyone willing to bet against him?

The artilce also says H21 is close to 50% and on schedule for the predicted 2 year fill up.

Horrible, horrible, horrible.

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Larry G is just going to do it himself. Amazing guy.

He says the market will be open in September. Anyone willing to bet against him?

The artilce also says H21 is close to 50% and on schedule for the predicted 2 year fill up.

Horrible, horrible, horrible.

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In all fairness to Northland, there are surely retailers who could do well here who are just not interested right now for one reason or another. Some blame has to be placed on short sighted national retailers and even more on our local and state officials whose marketing of Hartford and the region is anemic at best.

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A grocery store by itself would not survive in today's downtown Hartford. First, the downtown residential population is too low. Second, it's still pretty easy to travel from downtown out to the chain stores in the suburbs, especially on the weekends.

I've said this in previous posts. Bliss wasn't going to make a profit by being a downtown grocery store. It was going to make a profit by selling its gourmet foods to the weekday lunch crowds. Any grocery store that opens downtown is going to have to capture this market in order to survive.

Who knows why Bliss really backed out of the deal. If I were Northland, I'd reach out to Highland Park Market. It's similar to Bliss. It's also larger and has better name recognition in the suburbs. I was in Hartford on business Monday and I was pleasantly surprised by the foot traffic on Trumbull Street. I think a grocery store with a strong lunch business can open in H21.

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A grocery store by itself would not survive in today's downtown Hartford. First, the downtown residential population is too low. Second, it's still pretty easy to travel from downtown out to the chain stores in the suburbs, especially on the weekends.

I've said this in previous posts. Bliss wasn't going to make a profit by being a downtown grocery store. It was going to make a profit by selling its gourmet foods to the weekday lunch crowds. Any grocery store that opens downtown is going to have to capture this market in order to survive.

Who knows why Bliss really backed out of the deal. If I were Northland, I'd reach out to Highland Park Market. It's similar to Bliss. It's also larger and has better name recognition in the suburbs. I was in Hartford on business Monday and I was pleasantly surprised by the foot traffic on Trumbull Street. I think a grocery store with a strong lunch business can open in H21.

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In all fairness to Northland, there are surely retailers who could do well here who are just not interested right now for one reason or another. Some blame has to be placed on short sighted national retailers and even more on our local and state officials whose marketing of Hartford and the region is anemic at best.
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They are not interested because the chance of losing money in Hartford is greater than making money. They are not short sighted. It doesn't make any business sense to open a shop to lose money. They can easily wait until there are enough residents in downtown and then open shops.

Downtown lunch crowds don't need a grocery store. It can be argue if they need a place selling gourmet deli and sandwich that Bliss or any grocery store offers when there are plenty of lunch places already. Highland Park Market would be nuts to even consider downtown Hartford. Grocery stores run on razor thing margin, they need volume, huge one at that. Why set up a grocery store only sell lunch items?

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The urban gourmet lunch and carry out dinner/grocery store is a well proven concept. Dean and DeLuca and many others are making a tidy sum in this business. This will happen eventually happen, probably at that spot. It took Hartford along time to go from America's richest city to a ghost town, it will take a while to come back

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The urban gourmet lunch and carry out dinner/grocery store is a well proven concept. Dean and DeLuca and many others are making a tidy sum in this business. This will happen eventually happen, probably at that spot. It took Hartford along time to go from America's richest city to a ghost town, it will take a while to come back
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I think we're getting a little jaded about how large a grocery store needs to be in downtown Hartford. We're not talking about a Super Stop and Shop here. We're talking small. Heck, the current Bliss store in Wethersfield is probably no bigger than 5,000 square feet, and that includes all the retail and service space. The store has no more than three or four aisles of groceries.

I agree with beerbeer that there will be some type of grocery store/gourmet lunch store coming to downtown Hartford in the not too distant future.

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In all fairness to Northland, there are surely retailers who could do well here who are just not interested right now for one reason or another. Some blame has to be placed on short sighted national retailers and even more on our local and state officials whose marketing of Hartford and the region is anemic at best.
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I think we're getting a little jaded about how large a grocery store needs to be in downtown Hartford. We're not talking about a Super Stop and Shop here. We're talking small. Heck, the current Bliss store in Wethersfield is probably no bigger than 5,000 square feet, and that includes all the retail and service space. The store has no more than three or four aisles of groceries.

I agree with beerbeer that there will be some type of grocery store/gourmet lunch store coming to downtown Hartford in the not too distant future.

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*TRIVIA TIME!*

1.) What was the last proper grocery store in downtown Hartford?

2.) Where can you buy a gallon of milk in downtown Hartford?

3.) When was the last time you could buy kitchen appliances in downtown Hartford?

4.) Where can you buy kitchen cutlery in downtown Hartford?

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