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Monday, January 19, 2009
Monday, January 19, 2009
Filed Under: Barnes and Noble, Blockbuster, Borders Books, CVS, Downtown Glendale, Glendale Exchange, Glendale Fashion Center, Ice Cream, Longs Drugs, Mervyn's, News, Shopping, The Americana, Thrifty Ice Cream
The closing of all Circuit City stores across the nation, including the one on Maryland and Broadway, is the latest big news of the worsening economy. (I'm generally an optimist, but 34,000 lost jobs can't be good.) This leaves downtown Glendale looking a bit bleaker—witness the gutted space where the Mervyn's used to be, and the Exchange shopping area is becoming a dead zone. Now, Glendale Avenue is going to take a couple of hits.The Longs Drugs on the lower level of the Glendale Fashion Center across from Ralphs will be permanently closing its doors on Tuesday, January 20, 2009. CVS bought Longs last year, but decided to shut down this location rather than changing the name. This sucks for me because Longs is within walking distance of my house, and the Rite Aid up the street is not (though the siren song sung by Thrifty Ice Cream may be enough to entice me to walk the few extra blocks).
As if that weren't enough to dampen my neighborhood spirit, the Blockbuster on Glendale and California is closing on February 15, 2009. (Last day to rent is February 8; last day to return is February 19.) Which means I have to drive to the Pacific location or Colorado location for DVDs or stay home and read—I don't like any of those choices.
What will become of you, Glendale Avenue? As much as I love The Americana, I thought it was a pretty crappy move to close the Barnes & Noble in the Glendale Fashion Center and move it to The Americana, especially since there's a Borders just a block away. It's good planning for The Americana, but bad planning for the structure of a city. I live between downtown Glendale and Glendale Avenue, and things seem a bit off-balance. I don't like that feeling.
Off balance to say the least. I picked up my nieces today in Eagle Rock so I took Broadway to the American where we took in a movie. On the way I drove past the soon to be closed Circuit City and the already closed Mervyns. It was depressing!
At the Americana I couldn't help but notice the 70% off sign in the recently opened Kitson store. When I was waiting for the valet to get my car I also noticed that there was not a soul in sight at Kate Spade or Vera Bradley. Really the only stores that had "real" shoppers were the less expensive Urban Outfitters and H & M. Not to mention the still vacant residences. And don't even get me started on the book stores!!
I will say this... I totally dig this blog!
Well, at least one store went in the other direction. Cost Plus used to be on the southeast corner of Brand & California and moved to the Glendale Fashion Center when Strouds closed up shop.
Chris, I dig your blog too! Yeah, thank goodness for the H&M, I gotta say. Brings in good foot traffic in an otherwise quiet shopping complex. (Go there on a weekday afternoon, and it's like a ghost town).
HBKawachi, I'm glad more and more people are referring to it as the Glendale Fashion Center, since that's the name of it. (They didn't brand that very well, did they?) :)
I am very sad about Long's closing. They had just enough of a difference in their offerings to make it a regular stop for me. Boo hiss.
No, Prince Gomolvilas､ didn't brand it very well at all. They just used the name of the old shopping center there which featured a Robinson's Dept Store, Glendale's beloved Webb's Dept Store, Desmond's, a See's Candy and one of my favorite Glendale restaurants, "Churchill's." Those were the days.....
The unpleasant reality of free-market supply and demand on the building front is that during any economic downturn communities will suffer these results: significant vacancies and street-front blight, and disappearance of a revenue source they depend on.
The downside wasn't considered when these storefronts and shopping centers were built.
I used to live in that exact neighborhood, just a block from the "Glendale Fashion Center". Losing those businesses is kind of harsh - now there's two fewer places in such close walking distance. For a lazy person on foot, the distance to Long's and the distance to the Rite-Aid is monumental, and, unfortunately just enough to warrant many to turn it into a car ride.
I'm wondering if we can rally for a Walgreen's in that Longs space. When I used to live in the Bay Area, Walgreen's was always my favorite drug store. By the way, what are stores like Walgreen's and Longs called these days? They used to be called "drug stores," but they're so much more than that these days.
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