Downtown Minneapolis Retail News

[spearson]

I think the rest of Gaviidae II is getting closer to starting renovations. Just had lunch at Andrea's Pizza off Lasalle, and Andrea told me (after asking him how business was) that he was going to be closing his Gaviidae food court location this fall and re-opening on the main level in the spring. He said the entire food court is going to be closed. This goes along with previously known information in which it was said that 4th floor tenants were going to be moved to first or second level spots.

[nordeast homer]

I love Andrea's! He's a real throwback.
That should be interesting moving some of these food tenants down to 1st floor. I wonder what they're going to do for ventilation in the kitchens; it's a long way to ventilate through the roof.

[David Greene]

Why are you all calling Mario "Andrea?"

[Viktor Vaughn]

Jeromeo and James and Mary Laurie Booksellers have both moved from Nicollet Mall (to make way for the 9's on Nicollet development) to 250 3rd Ave N (the same building as Bev's Wine Bar).

The new Nicollet Mall development looks cool, yet it's sad to see these businesses move. The half block from The Local to the alley was the most interesting and lively of all Nicollet Mall. These eclectic stores were about the last local, small scale, street-facing retail on the mall.

http://www.journalmpls.com/news-feed/ne ... t-together

[twinkess]

It looks like they are clearing out the LEN Outlet in City Center. No signs or anything so not sure if they are changing to a different concept or closing. The other LEN store on the corner by Brooks Brothers is still open.

[Wedgeguy]

Is there not also a LEN outlet in the Gaviidae next to one of the Needless Mark up doors on the skyway level. Are they consolidating them?

[spearson]

Why are you all calling Mario "Andrea?"

Wait, his name is Mario?

[herculestrockefeller]

Does anybody know when the Saloon first opened?

[John]

Does anybody know when the Saloon first opened?

I think it opened in the mid 1970's.

[TroyGBiv]

It was called the Y'all Come Back Saloon. Was a western bar.

[FISHMANPET]

Still shows up as that on a credit card statement too.

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk 4

[David Greene]

Why are you all calling Mario "Andrea?"

Wait, his name is Mario?

Yep. His wife is Andrea.

[FISHMANPET]

We got off topic in the Block E thread talking about Best Buy, so I'll continue the discussion here.

Anyway, Best Buy still sucks. I'm guessing a lot of us here are young tech savvy people, and a lot of us probably have Amazon Prime subscriptions. Think about the last time you 1) went to a Best Buy 2) found what you needed at a Best Buy 3) didn't feel like you'd been screwed with your pants on.

Best Buy can satisfy that immediate need for something, but they often don't have those things. And when they do, they're way more expensive than you can get them online for.

[min-chi-cbus]

Supporting a company like Amazon though is second-handedly destroying America as we know it, in my not so humble opinion. So be careful what you pay for (and where you pay for it)! Save now, pay [up the wazoo] later!!

[mulad]

Channel 4 (UK)'s "Gadget Man" series really reminded me of how wacky the electronics/gadget industry can be. A lot of the fun of it seems to have dissipated over the years -- I'm getting a bit frustrated that everything seems to be an iOS accessory these days (nevermind the fact that Android is outselling Apple, but the market is more fragmented and less organized).


I'm not sure what the right direction for Best Buy would be in the future, though I've always felt a bit confused about what the store was anyway. Does a downtown Best Buy need an appliance section, for instance? Probably a few things make sense (microwaves, vacuums, and other smaller items), but is that where you'd buy a stove? They could probably do a good business gearing something toward the architects and designers in and near downtown, but I'm not sure regular consumer sales should be their main target. Maybe a greater focus on office furniture and organization. Similarly, I'm not sure a downtown store would be the right place to buy your new 52" TV, since that wouldn't fit on a bus, though they wouldn't be too hard to move through the skyways.

They probably should have a visible Geek Squad presence downtown, for all the gadgets of the office workers. Certainly a lot of hardware gets supported by IT departments, but companies seem to be transitioning toward a "bring your own device" model where employees buy their own smartphones, tablets, and laptops, and it's hard to say who should support that hardware/software. Expert assistance might be provided for the IT departments too -- I've always wished the Twin Cities could get a Fry's Electronics, where it's possible to buy much more high-end computer hardware than what I've typically found at local shops. Consumer-grade computer equipment is pretty low-margin, but an urban store might be able to succeed with the higher-margin enterprise-class hardware often found in back-office situations (I'm not sure how many server rooms exist downtown, though -- a lot of that stuff is obviously shoved out to suburbs or even distant metro areas).

Anyway, I've mostly bought CDs and TV/movie DVDs/Blu-rays from Best Buy over the years, but they seem to be killing that off as purchases shift more and more online. I think that's generally been a loss-leader for them, though. A downtown store should probably focus on stuff that truly helps with productivity and organization -- how do you make people's offices and apartments less cluttered, for instance?

One part Ikea, one part Fry's, one part traditional Best Buy, one part Office Max... Something like that mixed with a place that provides really excellent purchasing guidance and support for existing stuff.

[mister.shoes]

Something like that mixed with a place that provides really excellent purchasing guidance and support for existing stuff.

So, not a Best Buy then

[FISHMANPET]

Supporting a company like Amazon though is second-handedly destroying America as we know it, in my not so humble opinion. So be careful what you pay for (and where you pay for it)! Save now, pay [up the wazoo] later!!

The age of stores existing purely to get products in the hands of people is over. You can't compete with Amazon on price or selection. You can maybe compete on convenience, depending on what you mean by convenience.

But Amazon can't really compete on the human touch. You can't walk into an Amazon and hold a product and try it out and have someone knowledgeable tell you about it. And that's where brick & mortar can thrive. While Barnes & Noble is shutting down stores and basically is in a controlled dive, independent bookstores are doing well, partly because of what they can offer the community beyond just physically shoving product out the door.

So maybe supporting Amazon is destroying the America as we know it, but I don't think that particular part of our national ethos is all that great, so I'm OK with it going away and being replaced by something a bit more customer service focused.

[mnmike]

But Amazon can't really compete on the human touch. You can't walk into an Amazon and hold a product and try it out and have someone knowledgeable tell you about it. And that's where brick & mortar can thrive.

Yes...Problem is, people do this, and then go buy the product online from somewhere else(Amazon). If they continue to do that, they won't have these brick and mortar stores to use for their "test drives" and questions anymore.

[FISHMANPET]

Some people do, though not all. I wonder if there are any numbers about it anywhere?

[mnmike]

I wonder too...been mentioned in the news quite a bit the past couple years as a growing challenge.