Quote:
Originally Posted by AmigaHope
Brick and mortar is dying in general in larger cities due to a bizarre quirk of landlords. Since real estate has gotten so expensive due to housing shortages, they expect brick and mortar to keep up... Except it can't, so rents get raised and shops go out of business, but landlords hold onto the empty boarded-up retail space expected even more rent and thinking they can hold out until the "right" retail customer comes in -- that never does.
Brick and mortar can only come back when there are vacancy laws banning boarded-up storefronts -- in that case landlords will be forced to lower their rents back to what the market can bear.
(This is also why landlords love short-term seasonal rentals where they know the tenant will leave quickly, for things like Halloween shops. In their mind it's a stopgap until their white horse business that can afford to pay their exorbitant rent arrives.)
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That's been my theory for a while now too. Especially in "Malls".
Every time I visit my home town of Tunbridge Wells, I actually find it quite emotional seeing the once new and great "Royal Victoria Place", opened by Princess Diana no less, when I was a teen, and a project my brother was involved in building (as a tradesman), now sitting with so many empty shops. Those that are populated are shitty pound shops or fly-by-nighters, some of which have taken up space left void by fallen giants like Woolworths or BHS.
It's quite disturbing.
The only one that brings a smile to my face is seeing GAME empty, coz those fkrs sacked me from my dream job, after only 2 weeks, back when I was ~19 lol.
I'm not one to hold a grudge. But when I do, I hold a BIG ONE!
