Grand Forks Economy

[The Sicatoka]

10 minutes ago, geaux_sioux said:

I heard Judy's is toast. Is that true?

WW#gobcD! *

 

*What will #gobc do!

[gfhockey]

We never had meetings there 

[gfhockey]

Just would get inside info from playas from team rhere

[The Sicatoka]

See. Your alleged "info well" is drying up. 

#gobc? Dead. 

[NoiseInsideMyHead]

Bye, bye, Sears.

http://www.grandforksherald.com/business/retail/4454050-grand-forks-sears-location-close-september

The future of Columbia Mall is dim.  Two anchors vacant, food court non-existent.  

So, does Kmart relocate, or does it continue to wither and die over at the "other" mall?

[The Sicatoka]

Fargo already lost their Sears. 

Kmart is part of Sears. It's not long for the world either. 

Malls everywhere are dying. Heck, walk through West Acres or either mall (Kirkwood or Gateway) in Bismarck. Lots of open slots also. 

I believe Doug Bergum's vision of having a vibrant downtown with specialty shops and combined use (commercial at street, residences above) is the future. Sure, you'll have some big boxes still; but, the world is becoming online based. Malls are suffering for it. And what'll survive are the specialties, the niche stores. 

[jdub27]

Looks like a good spot for a new library.

[UNDBIZ]

2 minutes ago, jdub27 said:

Looks like a good spot for a new library.

If it goes for $400,000 like the Macy's space, the city should consider it.

[The Sicatoka]

I was reading somewhere that in some places malls are being converted to anything you can imagine. Condos. Assisted living. A fire station! Why not a library. 

[andtheHomeoftheSIOUX!!]

35 minutes ago, jdub27 said:

Looks like a good spot for a new library.

Mandan is looking at moving their library into an old grocery store.

[The Sicatoka]

Just now, andtheHomeoftheSIOUX!! said:

Mandan is looking at moving their library into an old grocery store.

Repurposing old (structurally sound) big buildings is smart. 

[northernraider]

2 hours ago, UNDBIZ said:

If it goes for $400,000 like the Macy's space, the city should consider it.

What's happening with this. Any updates 

[SiouxVolley]

The entire Sears enterprise will go broke soon, so the closure of the Grand Forks store is no surprise.

Amazon is actually opening self checkout stores throughout much of the US.  There just have stockers and a security person.  They have converted some Whole Food Markets to that too, but still with deli and lunch personnel.

http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-books-seattle-bookstore-review-2016-8#if-you-want-a-book-you-have-to-check-amazon-for-the-most-current-price-if-its-cheaper-on-the-website-its-cheaper-in-the-store-and-if-something-is-on-sale-on-the-website-its-on-sale-in-the-store-too-neat-3

The real estate market isn’t so pricey now.  Before they were wondering where big stores would go in GF.  Divide the space in SEARS into small sections and have many specialty stores and services fill it, like a mall extension.  Home of Econmy should consider the Sears spot, as their current location doesn’t have much drive by traffic.

[CarpeRemote]

On 5/31/2018 at 5:31 PM, The Sicatoka said:

I was reading somewhere that in some places malls are being converted to anything you can imagine. Condos. Assisted living. A fire station! Why not a library. 

Probably because libraries are even more obsolete than malls. Shelves of books are medieval technology.

Libraries now are glorified meeting spaces, study halls, and a place to make copies   

Nobody makes libraries anymore, they just downsize or close them. If I don’t want to buy a kindle book I download it directly from the library onto my desktop, laptop, notebook, or kindle. They don’t even need to buy a hard copy to lend it out. And google search gives more info than every magazine in a library in seconds  

The entire Harvard library could be in a large room with computers, scanners, and a handful of IT employees and librarians. 

I’ve seen gov’t offices successfully rent mall space. Tax office, DMV,  gun licenses, special offices of police force, early voting, etc 

 

[TheFlop]

On 6/2/2018 at 12:53 AM, CarpeRemote said:

Probably because libraries are even more obsolete than malls. Shelves of books are medieval technology.

Libraries now are glorified meeting spaces, study halls, and a place to make copies   

Nobody makes libraries anymore, they just downsize or close them. If I don’t want to buy a kindle book I download it directly from the library onto my desktop, laptop, notebook, or kindle. They don’t even need to buy a hard copy to lend it out. And google search gives more info than every magazine in a library in seconds  

The entire Harvard library could be in a large room with computers, scanners, and a handful of IT employees and librarians. 

I’ve seen gov’t offices successfully rent mall space. Tax office, DMV,  gun licenses, special offices of police force, early voting, etc 

 

Any chance we could get you to serve on the GF Library Board to bring some much needed common sense to them?

[The Sicatoka]

Ottumwa, IA, feeling the mall (and retail) pain. 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2018/06/08/rural-malls/683158002/

[The Sicatoka]

On 6/2/2018 at 12:53 AM, CarpeRemote said:

Probably because libraries are even more obsolete than malls. Shelves of books are medieval technology.

Libraries now are glorified meeting spaces, study halls, and a place to make copies   

Nobody makes libraries anymore, they just downsize or close them.

They put in public devices to access the data, data that used to be in medieval form stacked on shelves.  

[Sioux>Bison]

The grand forks malls is almost entirely vacant on the ends with vacant anchor retailer. Stores need to start selling things people actually want to shop for and maybe they wouldn't go under. I'm a bigger guy and can barely find decent looking clothes from anywhere other than scheels and Cabelas. Retailers need to step it up.

[Shawn-O]

3 hours ago, Sioux>Bison said:

The grand forks malls is almost entirely vacant on the ends with vacant anchor retailer. Stores need to start selling things people actually want to shop for and maybe they wouldn't go under. I'm a bigger guy and can barely find decent looking clothes from anywhere other than scheels and Cabelas. Retailers need to step it up.

Or...on-line retailing is taking over the planet.  

[SiouxVolley]

2 hours ago, Shawn-O said:

Or...on-line retailing is taking over the planet.  

Online is only 10% of retail right now.  But some brands like Sears have almost zero.  Even WalMart is moving more to online and making their stores a pickup center.  Losing 10% of sales is often enough to force a store out of business.  Sears was sick 10 years ago, now it’s terminal.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/379112/e-commerce-share-of-retail-sales-in-us/

Kohls actually will partition its stores to include on-line stores that haven’t had a previous presence making it more like a mall within a big box store.  There is a big push for some online stores to have a physical footprint.  But that will be harder for Grand Forks.

.http://www.nreionline.com/retail/online-retailers-continue-grow-their-physical-footprints

[Cratter]

Lowes  now sells Craftsman line of tools previously sold by Sears, which might make it easier to find last minute replacement parts.

[NoiseInsideMyHead]

8 hours ago, Cratter said:

Lowes  now sells Craftsman line of tools previously sold by Sears, which might help finding last minute replacement parts easier.

Craftsman and Die-Hard are two brands that should definitely survive the demise of Sears.

Thanks for reminding me...I like the pre-cut lines for my Craftsman weed whacker and need to hit up the Sears store before it's gone entirely.

[Cratter]

If Fargo raises their minimum wage, will Grand Forks have no option but to follow?

GF could soon have a $12 minimum wage.

[johnsowe]

Malls across the country are in trouble.  Even in the cities like Southdale are having problems.  They closed  JC Penny's and are doing major facelift. Of course having the MOA 5 miles away doesn't help.  I like shopping online but I still like to see the product before I buy it.  The one thing I like is shopping on line and having my groceries delivered.  I hate grocery shopping. 

[Siouxperfan7]

17 minutes ago, johnsowe said:

Malls across the country are in trouble.  Even in the cities like Southdale are having problems.  They closed  JC Penny's and are doing major facelift. Of course having the MOA 5 miles away doesn't help.  I like shopping online but I still like to see the product before I buy it.  The one thing I like is shopping on line and having my groceries delivered.  I hate grocery shopping. 

Lifetime Fitness is moving into the JCPenny location at Southdale.  I think you will see more and more non-retail business moving into malls.