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Message |
    
Dan Kaslow
Citizen
Username: Dank3265
Post Number: 6
Registered: 11-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, December 11, 2004 - 1:09 am: |     |
Once again the town is losing a typical small town store, Cornercopia, and two venerable, well-liked, town-supporting shopkeepers, Warren & Elliott Schabses. They have been an institution in this town, and both they and their store will be sorely missed. I am sure many other residents join me in wishing them well.
Unfortunately, as a 20 year resident of the town, I've grown all too accustomed to what has become an ongoing trend. A store that has contributed to the truly unique character of the village leaves and another me-too store opens up, in this case a new spa cum nail salon (for the record, the 5th in town).
Without suggesting that the new shopkeepers are any less supportive of Maplewood than those they replace, and certainly hoping every village business is successful, it seems a bit depressing to watch as salons, real estate offices and food establishments now so dominate the business landscape.
It's a sad commentary on what it takes nowadays to succeed in a small town. With all the attention being foreever given to Springfield Avenue, perhaps the tow should begin to recognize that so much of our classic identity is in the village -- and it's being rapidly lost. It's gotten to be that I can hardly point to any stores that were here when I first moved to town.
I don't object to change when it's a positive constructive force, but that doesn't appear to be the case anymore. |
Morrisa da Silva
Citizen
Username: Mod
Post Number: 121
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, December 11, 2004 - 8:10 pm: | |
They are not being forced out. They are retiring. And don't they own the building. Aren't they the ones renting to the nail salon cum spa? |
Morrisa da Silva
Citizen
Username: Mod
Post Number: 122
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, December 11, 2004 - 8:13 pm: | |
I don't believe it's lack of attention that is causing businesses to close up. I believe it is the incredibly hight rents in the Village. |
gemini
Citizen
Username: Gemini
Post Number: 331
Registered: 6-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, December 12, 2004 - 7:32 am: | |
They own the building. They probably make more renting it to a salon than keeping up their business. |
galileo
Citizen
Username: Galileo
Post Number: 166
Registered: 7-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, December 12, 2004 - 11:40 am: | |
Maybe Warren and Elliot just want to retire. |
johnny
Citizen
Username: Johnny
Post Number: 1138
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, December 12, 2004 - 2:26 pm: | |
I don't think nail salons would continue to open if they didn't make money. |
SoOrLady
Citizen
Username: Soorlady
Post Number: 1583
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, December 12, 2004 - 8:43 pm: | |
Warren and Elliot were ready to give up the retail portion of their lives. They have returned to pharmacy in the private sector. I'll miss the store and their humor. They do own the building, and I understand they they sought out other retailers, but none were willing to pay the rent they sought. Only the nail salon owners felt that it was a feasibility. It remains to be seen if the town will be able to support another nail salon. |
Ukealalio
Citizen
Username: Ukealalio
Post Number: 1558
Registered: 6-2003
| | Posted on Monday, December 13, 2004 - 11:14 am: | |
Lets see thats now 3 nail salons in town. Does this mean that all Maplewood males have to become metrosexuals to support these businesses ?. I prefer the gnawed on nails look but thats just me. |
SoOrLady
Citizen
Username: Soorlady
Post Number: 1589
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - 12:35 pm: | |
uke - 3 nail salons and at least 2 salons that offer mani/pedicures - Anthony Garubo and The Chelsea Set... and those are only the Maplewood Center spots... theres many more on Springfield Ave and South Orange Village. You must be right about the metrosexual thing. |
alison
Citizen
Username: Alison
Post Number: 124
Registered: 6-2002
| | Posted on Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - 3:55 pm: | |
This is a sad legacy. I have to say that I am sorry that this is the legacy left by the original pharmacy owners who then opened Cornuopia.
It was said above: "They do own the building, and I understand they they sought out other retailers, but none were willing to pay the rent they sought. Only the nail salon owners felt that it was a feasibility."
Perhaps owners and landlords have a responsibility not to move rents so high that only a nail salon can afford to rent there. I appreciate the needs of individual landlords. It it is reasonable for them to make a serious profit. However I am disappointed at those who have been a part of the community (and have owned a building for decades) and given generously of their time and service to then seek rents that most businesses that are not cash businesses can simply not afford.
I am disappointed.
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Joan
Citizen
Username: Joancrystal
Post Number: 4467
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - 4:42 pm: | |
Perhaps if the real property assessment placed on properties in the Maplewood Avenue commercial district hadn't become among the very highest in town as a result of the last reval, commercial rents wouldn't have to be so high in that part of town. It wasn't only the home owners who suffered as a result of Reval. |
Tom Reingold
Citizen
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 4747
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - 5:27 pm: | |
alison, I'd like to agree with you, but I find it too idealistic. If you own property, you rent to the person or business who can pay the highest rent, unless there is a hugely compelling reason not to.
The seeming surplus of nail salons speaks of the economy, not morality.
I'd really like to see more useful shops in Maplewood. It's not really that useful a place for me, which is a big shame, but I can't imagine how we could establish some sort of authority to decide who can set up camp and who can't. Maybe there could be some sort of incentives, but I don't see how they'd be big enough to support a green grocer instead of a nail salon.
What a topsy turvy economy we have, where the most essential goods and services are the least profitable ones! |
alison
Citizen
Username: Alison
Post Number: 125
Registered: 6-2002
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 15, 2004 - 9:55 am: | |
I don't agree with you Tom. Is it idealistic when we talk about shopping locally to support our main streets? It may cost a little more but it keeps our community main street vital and alive.There are many things we all do that mix community responsibility and personal choice.
When there are not legislated formulas for rent, landlords set rent at "fair market value." Is fair market value in this case a rent that can only be met by one kind of business and one that is a cash business? Is $6000 a month fair market value? Maybe fair market value is the amount that can ensure that there is more than more business that could consider renting it.
Again, I very much respect the contributions of the brothers whose family has owned that building for a minimum of 40/50 years. However, they are not recent purchasers of the property who suffer a particular squeeze (other than property taxes which many of us feel). They own a building that has both professional rentals upstairs and a commercial space downstairs. One of the brothers has been a valued member of the Village Alliance for many years and so the issues of the makeup of Maplewood Avenue retail establishments has been especially important to them in the past.
I am simply saying that everyone makes choices. And I am disappointed in the choice they made.
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Tom Reingold
Citizen
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 4757
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 15, 2004 - 10:36 am: | |
I think you and I agree more than you realize. I much prefer to shop locally, and I am willnig to pay a slightly higher price, but within limits.
It may not be about a squeeze for the owners. If the difference in rent a nail salon can pay and a green grocer can pay is, say, 20%, the owner is going to feel foolish for not taking the higher rent. In fact, it's like GIVING his tenant the extra money.
I would LOVE to have useful businesses to patronize in town. I have made a lot of progress in finding local businesses in Maplewood, South Orange and Millburn. I go to the big box stores a heck of a lot less than I used to, and I'm very happy about that.
I'd like to think of a way to attract useful businesses to town so that we can patronize them and even pay a higher price. I just haven't thought of a way to do that, and neither has anyone else. I agree that yet another nail salon is not all that useful. But it is not really the decision of the landlord which type of business shall occupy the space. It is not the town government's, either. If we try to have a central authority, it is likely to be draconian and ineffective. But I'd love to be wrong about that. As I said, maybe we can think of incentives that could work, but I really don't know. |
jet
Citizen
Username: Jet
Post Number: 658
Registered: 7-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 15, 2004 - 4:51 pm: | |
My wife is a small biz owner in Summit . We first looked in MW , rents are way out of whack , the biz probably would have failed in MW. Without taxes being significatly lowered in MW the current trend will continue. Or maybe the landlords will cut rents to " cute business ", not likely. Unless you can get a lot of fannies in & out of your store , without costly inventory a small biz will fail in MW. That biz model is called salons & bars. |
LilLB
Citizen
Username: Lillb
Post Number: 277
Registered: 10-2002
| | Posted on Friday, December 17, 2004 - 4:27 pm: | |
It seems like there should be some sort of ordinance that you can't have more than 2 businesses of the same type in town. I'm sure there would be quite a bit up for interpretation, but it's along the same vain when a town doesn't allow "chain" stores (GAP, Williams-Sonoma, etc.)to set up shop there. Having a town filled with Real Estate offices and Nail Salons is really a crushing blow to what shopping in Maplewood has to offer. Without diversity, I think you run the risk of fewer people shopping there at all. |
Tom Reingold
Supporter
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 4800
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Friday, December 17, 2004 - 4:30 pm: | |
LilLB, are you proposing a command economy, a là the former Soviet Union?
Consider the problems put forth in the messages above yours. You state the problem well, but the solutions are not so easy to come by. |
Joan
Citizen
Username: Joancrystal
Post Number: 4483
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Friday, December 17, 2004 - 4:40 pm: | |
Lilb:
I think your plan needs to be thought out more carefully. Are you suggesting that there should be no more than two restaurants in town, no more than two places selling take out food, no more than two clothing stores, florists, gift shops, antique shops, day care centers operating out of store fronts, etc.?
Would you really want to restrict businesses to no more than two of a kind throught the town when we have several commercial districts, each of which may be serving a different segment of our community. If there is one store of a certain type on Valley street and another store of the same type on Maplewood Avenue, does this mean that a store of this type could not open on Springfield Avenue? |
Reflective
Citizen
Username: Reflective
Post Number: 615
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, December 21, 2004 - 7:35 pm: | |
What I will miss are the great window displays of cornacopia that anchored that corner.
Downtown Maplewood is the poorer for their leaving. |
Reflective
Citizen
Username: Reflective
Post Number: 628
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, December 23, 2004 - 7:21 pm: | |
I wanted to re-visit this thread. To say...
And I will also miss Warren and Elliot and their years of being a wonderful part of Maplewood's "downtown" character.
I also wish them well, best of health, much success, and thanks for being part of why I have relished living in Maplewood.
They and their family have indeed been an institution in town.
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