Page 55 of 75

Re: Uptown Retail & Restaurant News

Posted: August 8th, 2019, 9:31 am
by MplsErik
Maybe we'll get lucky and the yet to be announced retailer at City Center is an Apple store.

Pure "wouldn't it be nice" speculation.

Re: Uptown Retail & Restaurant News

Posted: August 8th, 2019, 10:34 am
by Silophant
Wait, you're saying retailers would prefer not to locate a store in a high traffic area for loss prevention reasons?

Man, I just have no head for business at all.

Re: Uptown Retail & Restaurant News

Posted: August 8th, 2019, 11:25 am
by grant1simons2
That explains my Uff Da. How high do you think Nicollet is in crime? It's such a Minnesota view on danger and crime. A company based in the bay area of California isn't going to care that there are maybe 10-20 homeless people on or near Nicollet.

Re: Uptown Retail & Restaurant News

Posted: August 8th, 2019, 12:08 pm
by BoredAgain
Apple has too many stores in our metro already. They are not opening any new locations until they close multiple current locations. I know this from talking to current Apple store management staff.

Re: Uptown Retail & Restaurant News

Posted: August 8th, 2019, 12:34 pm
by Anondson
The Apple Store management can only guess at corporate plans. And they won’t muse about factual plans about them to the public. At best opinions.

I doubt there are too many based on the traffic and waits in the stores that are open. The Uptown store may have been a mistake but that was pretty much a Ron Johnson vanity project. It’s traffic has picked up lately but it is now an undersized footprint compared to the existing plans of new and remodels.

The Minneapolis store might be relocated and modernized to the new size, hard to call that a closing though.

I say this as having worked at an Apple Store for 11 years.

Re: Uptown Retail & Restaurant News

Posted: August 8th, 2019, 12:53 pm
by QuietBlue
That explains my Uff Da. How high do you think Nicollet is in crime? It's such a Minnesota view on danger and crime. A company based in the bay area of California isn't going to care that there are maybe 10-20 homeless people on or near Nicollet.
You realize the Bay Area is a big place that has vastly different areas within it, right? Cupertino is not exactly the Tenderloin.

But no, they're not going to worry about that kind of thing as long as the revenue that it would make would justify the location. I don't think Nicollet Mall meets that criteria. It's not Michigan Avenue, Manhattan, etc.

Re: Uptown Retail & Restaurant News

Posted: August 8th, 2019, 1:03 pm
by QuietBlue
Wait, you're saying retailers would prefer not to locate a store in a high traffic area for loss prevention reasons?

Man, I just have no head for business at all.
I'm saying loss prevention is a factor they consider, and not all high-traffic areas are the same in terms of how well a store could do in them. There are so many things that go into these siting decisions -- "location, location, location" is just the beginning. Yes, Apple has stores in downtown areas. But they tend to go for malls or shopping complexes, at least in the US.

I'd love to be wrong on this. Downtown Minneapolis could use more retail like that.

Re: Uptown Retail & Restaurant News

Posted: August 8th, 2019, 1:20 pm
by David Greene
The city really needs to advertise the parking ramps better. There's been a tremendous loss of visible surface parking in the area, which is great, but the ramps are hard to find if you're not familiar with the area and the regional transit service has not caught up to the point of making Uptown or downtown a regional transit destination.

Unfortunately the "war on cars" narrative has worked and people don't want to come into the city any more. I was just at a dinner with family and all they could talk about was the loss of parking and how dumb it is to convert traffic lanes to bike lanes. And this is coming from generally liberal-leaning people.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk


Re: Uptown Retail & Restaurant News

Posted: August 8th, 2019, 1:49 pm
by CalMcKenney
If we're having a hypothetical conversation, I could picture an Apple store put into North Loop with some accommodations to design to help it fit in to the space like they did with their location in Covent Garden, London. Granted I don't think we're cool enough to get that sort of special treatment like London.

Re: Uptown Retail & Restaurant News

Posted: August 8th, 2019, 2:01 pm
by amiller92
The city really needs to advertise the parking ramps better. There's been a tremendous loss of visible surface parking in the area, which is great, but the ramps are hard to find if you're not familiar with the area and the regional transit service has not caught up to the point of making Uptown or downtown a regional transit destination.
Rhetorical question: who drives into downtown without a plan as to where they are going to park?

Re: Uptown Retail & Restaurant News

Posted: August 8th, 2019, 2:16 pm
by Anondson
The same people who get homes without a plan to park their car?

Re: Uptown Retail & Restaurant News

Posted: August 8th, 2019, 2:49 pm
by MNdible
Rhetorical question: who drives into downtown without a plan as to where they are going to park?
At least three times this summer when I've driven downtown, I've had several parking options in mind but all were full because of events. To David's point, there probably were lots of parking spots available, but I'll be damned if I knew where they were.

Re: Uptown Retail & Restaurant News

Posted: August 8th, 2019, 2:59 pm
by QuietBlue
It doesn't help that people in this state have an aversion to parking ramps for some reason, even free ones sometimes. I don't get it.

I have seen situations where a specific ramp was full if it was right next to an event venue, but I've always been able to find something.

Re: Uptown Retail & Restaurant News

Posted: August 8th, 2019, 7:00 pm
by Tcmetro
Who's gonna pay for downtown parking to go shop at the same stores that are at MOA?

Apple stores are really about product exposure rather than sales. Tons of people walk around MOA all day and check out the new products. Maybe they buy, but really they probably think it over and buy online or through their carrier or Best Buy or something. Nicollet Mall is busy, but it's mostly busy with people with somewhere to go, not aimlessly window shopping.

Re: Uptown Retail & Restaurant News

Posted: August 8th, 2019, 7:55 pm
by Anondson
A huge proportion of Apple Store traffic is the Genius Bar, and a large amount of that have been people coming in during their lunch for their appointment.

People can place an order online or in their app and pick it up in the store (rather than risk front stoop thieves), it is even possible now to alert the back of house staff you are there to pick it up and they will bring it right to you.

Re: Uptown Retail & Restaurant News

Posted: August 9th, 2019, 9:42 am
by xandrex
The Apple Store management can only guess at corporate plans. And they won’t muse about factual plans about them to the public. At best opinions.

I doubt there are too many based on the traffic and waits in the stores that are open. The Uptown store may have been a mistake but that was pretty much a Ron Johnson vanity project. It’s traffic has picked up lately but it is now an undersized footprint compared to the existing plans of new and remodels.

The Minneapolis store might be relocated and modernized to the new size, hard to call that a closing though.

I say this as having worked at an Apple Store for 11 years.
I've heard people say the Apple store in Uptown was in trouble and mention foot traffic, but whenever I've gone inside or even walked by, it's been pretty busy! Is the consensus really that it was a mistake?

I rather like its location in Uptown (it's where I've gone to buy a laptop and pick up my phone on release day) and the way it looks squeezed in there -- didn't realize it was considered small.

Re: Uptown Retail & Restaurant News

Posted: August 9th, 2019, 10:00 am
by amiller92
Who's gonna pay for downtown parking to go shop at the same stores that are at MOA?
People who are already parking or otherwise visiting downtown.
Apple stores are really about product exposure rather than sales.
They are also largely about repair. There are tens of thousands of people who need to get their Apple stuff repaired already downtown each week day.

Re: Uptown Retail & Restaurant News

Posted: August 10th, 2019, 9:19 pm
by mnmike
Random interjection....my bf works at Sephora corporate, and apparently that new-ish uptown store is doing very badly. I’m surprised H&M is still there. I just don’t know what kind of retail works over there...urban outfitters has been there forever, wonder how they are doing. Certain chains seem to do OK, others come and fail quickly. Independents can’t make the rent ratio work it seems, even if they do well. So, only restaurants?

Re: Uptown Retail & Restaurant News

Posted: August 12th, 2019, 12:08 pm
by xandrex
I've heard from someone who works at the Urban Outfitters that it isn't a particularly successful store, but corporate keeps it around for some reason. (That might be kinda speculative, though).

Re: Uptown Retail & Restaurant News

Posted: August 12th, 2019, 1:34 pm
by luigipaladio
This is a bad time for retailers. Amazon and all of the other online sellers have revolutionized the way people shop and buy. It is not completely a one sided shift. Some exclusively online sellers have started to build stores because their market research shows that to be viable. Most retailers however, lack the light footed ability to make quick product line shifts in response to the turmoil in the marketplace and the rapid shifts of interest and taste that drive successful products for a short time and then move on to something new. Too many chains are overburdened with slow infrastructure and insufficient market sensitivity. People loose interest in what they sell and the sellers don’t know what to replace it with - or how to compete with digital shopping. I don’t envy anyone in retail these days aside from a few monsters like Amazon. No one really knows where retail will end up. That is one reason I keep wondering where all the stores are supposed to come from that everyone wants to animate the ground floor of every downtown and Uptown new property.