Oh, yes! These three retail categories are killers. All of them have
fled inner-city neighborhoods and all of them place mom-and-pop
operations at a disadvantage in this decade. I sorely miss them, as I
don't like trekking out to the malls for these items.
The chief problem for University City is probably insufficient
gentrification. Despite all the recent blather by anarchists on this
subject, the average household income in West Philly as a whole is still
way too low to attract merchants in these categories. That's why they're
mostly in suburbia. Still --
In this 'hood, I can buy serviceable men's clothing at Forman Mills, a
non-mom-and-pop, non-upscale affair;
EMS addresses my particular sporting-good interests very well. I already
have all the balls I need, I don't have to buy any extra;
Monarch is one heckuva neighborhood hardware store but it doesn't have
late hours, true;
The classic Woolworth's store doesn't exist anymore as a category. That
niche has been carved up between dollar stores, on the one hand, and
drugstore chains, on the other. And we have enough of each to choke a horse.
-- Tony West
I would like to see:
a men's clothing store for adult men
a sporting goods store for real athletes
a hardware/woolworths store for regular nine-to-fivers
[aka ray]
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