What’s Killing The Great Shops of Carytown? — Continued (unfortunately)
Guest Post By Harry Kollatz.
If you were out and about at all during the Watermelon Festival you probably saw more signs of retail evacuation and displacement. Peyton Hall is shuffling off to Stony Point, Occasionally is going away, and Glass & Powder has the “Store Closing” paint up.
And I saw no mention on the site here of last week’s Style back page article piece by Joe Essid, who practically grew up there and experienced its boarded-up phase of the mid-1970s. The street wasn’t “dead” then, but different, and there were still two hardware stores.
http://www.styleweekly.com/article.asp?idarticle=17504
On the upside, Chop Suey has announced its moving all its operation into Carytown, and the game store opened. Ward says that Tuey is doing twice the business , so, it just made financial and practical sense.
http://www.styleweekly.com/article.asp?idarticle=17479
Glass Boat has launched its skiff just to the other end of a building and Heidi Story is skipping a few blocks. So, as usual, the Carytown beat goes on.
The Play-n-Trade is having some serious stocking issues! I spoke with the franchise owner yesterday and he wants me to encourage any of you gamers out there to come trade in ASAP, get your credit, then you can use it when the stock of new games come in.
I traded in four Wii games and got 70 bucks!! This guy is fair and really nice, help him out by not sitting on your used games!
What’s going on with the River City Cellars expansion? I’m sure I saw the sign go up in Jan or Feb, what’s taking so long?
It was actually in April, but I agree: what’s taking so long.
http://wotbn.net/river-city-cellar-looking-to-expand/
BTW, why does this site not display the date something is posted? For instance this very topic says “Posted by Sam @ 8:47 am,” but what day? Obviously this was posted today, but determining an archived topic’s post date is difficult unless you do a search.
Want to know what is killing the great shops of Carytown? Three little words: imperatively high rents.
….and maybe the fact that many places close right at 6:00 pm rather than giving folks a chance to shop that work during the day. If they stayed open a little later they might be able to take advantage of the restuarant patrons as well.
Cartwheels and Coffee just opened so that’s a positive development on the street!
Also, my understanding is that River City Cellars is dealing with the usual city inspection delays/
“imperatively high rents” – As long as I’ve lived in Richmond, I’ve heard this lament.
I’ve never owned a retail shop but it seems that future rent increases are something a business owner should factor into the business plan.
I’m sure that rents have increased in Carytown but if that can’t be the primary factor, if it were, how do you account for the longevity of shops like Mitchell’s Shoe Repair, Farouk’s, Luxor Vintage, and other seemingly low-cash-flow outlets?
With the prices being what they are on Cary Street i would think the “imperatively high rents” would have already been factored in. That being said, I do my very best to shop on Cary as well as to entertain friends and family there because i love living, working, shopping and finding recreational activities to do all in close proximity… especially with the fuel issue today.
From what I have heard, the rent increases were steep. Given the state of the economy & the allure of corporate malls, the increases helped to put some folks out of business.
Why Mitchell’s Shoe Repair, Farouk’s & Luxor Vintage stay in Carytown is simple: they own their property. I know that Luxor owns and it would be my guess that the other two do to. Otherwise they too would be gone.
Carytown closes up at 6PM because Cary Street is basically one of Richmond’s 38th parallels. The south side of Cary can be pretty sketchy. In fact, the only time I’ve witnessed a drive-by shooting (in Richmond at least) was on the corner of Parkwood and S. Sheppard. It was many moons ago, but much hasn’t changed in terms of the area being conducive for criminal behavior. The established thinking is that by closing at 6 PM, the chance for random crime is curtailed. It’s worked for decades in keeping crime rates low and many people in the Carytown Merchants Association feel that it should stay that way. I know that Can-Can, Plan 9, NY Deli and others stay open a little later, but most close their doors long before sunset.
@ bopst:
You should revisit South of Cary, or as some call it: WotBSoC. Many houses have been renovated and the ‘hood has really cleaned up. I moved in early ’07; I didn’t get to experience South of Cary as you remember it. But I’ve heard many tales of how it once was from neighbors that have been here for 40+ years.
I’m glad to hear it (& I’ve seen it first hand as well), but all memories die hard…
I agree with Daniel that the south of Cary has changed drastically as compared to days past. I live on the 2900 block of Grayland and have seen at least 8 houses on my block alone get renovated and are now selling for much more than I paid approx 2 years ago. With the new influx of people moving in and spruceing up places things can only get better. Of course I may miss the underground/ front porch barber shop that was constantly busy with its patrons lined up for a seat on the actual barber chair placed on the porch. Ummm now that I think about it, nope. We will just have to see how things continue when the 3 other renovated houses on my block finally sell. I doubt they will bring hair clippers though.
i agree with pat, that the shops close too early. if i need something from carytown i have to do it on my lunch break or a weekend, when i’d rather be sitting on my butt than back in the part of town where i work. if they stayed open until 8 or 9 they would get the restaurant goers! i used to work at stony point and a huge portion of our sales came from people waiting for tables or waiting for friends to arrive.
OR WE COULD MAKE IT A PEDESTRIAN MALL! that would be the coolest thing ever.
I leave for a few days and my hood is getting denounced as “sketchy” by Mr. Bopst!
Say it ain’t so!
I’ve lived on South Colonial for almost seven years, and while we have turn over, we also have more people moving in and looking to do so.
That shooting occurred, what? 15 years ago?
Now, true, dumb stuff happens–there are stupid hold ups on occasion, and one is too many, but, well. Other than increasing police bicycle patrols at night–rather than during the day–and even Carycourt has hired a security patrol–I’m not sure what’s to be done. It ain’t a mall, with all the benefits and deficits of such.
Then there’s the deer that on occasion run down the street, in one of those surreal moments, a couple years ago I was going into Galaxy and behind me actually heard poudning hooves–and three quite alarmed deer went–what do deer do?–gallop?–dashing past and bounding around cars and jaw-dropping pedestrians. How they didn’t get hit or hurt only Mother Nature knows.
By the way, check out our little bit of the Western Territories on Beaumont behind the 7-11. The landscaping there is rocks and cactus and why I love living where I do.
WoBSoc: I Live On The Other Side
Very simple. Stop closing at 6pm.
Most of my friends and family LOVE Carytown but think it’s an absolute JOKE that they shut up tight at 6pm. Every business there should be open until 8 or 9 and at a minimum, 7o’clock.
I’d love to shop the stores of Carytown but , like most of the world, I work until 5. That leaves me no time to shop. Therefore, I head to Stony Point where I can eat, relax and shop until 9 or later!
Sorry, no love lost here for the lazy merchants who don’t want to keep their stores open later.
Another thing…how about some diversity in the stores?
Less super high end furniture stores, and no more specialty boutiques with overpriced trinkets. More MENS clothing shops….or what about more “grab and go” foods? I’d love to be able to get a SLICE of pizza…..
pizza on south side of 2900 block by Viva Mexico sells by the slice and their stromboli are worth waiting for
They’ve been having their grand opening for over a year now!