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The death of the brick and mortar toy store

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Re: The death of the brick and mortar toy store

#161

Post by mech998877 »

mschuster91 wrote: post #76
salynchnew wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That seems like a rather inefficient use of resources. How long will a fund typically keep that on the books before they have to offload the asset or declare bankruptcy? At a certain point, that smells like a scam with a real estate business attached to it.

> That seems like a rather inefficient use of resources. Inefficient for society? Yes. But for the capital providers aka investment (and let's be clear: retirement ) funds and banks? Definitely not. The fundamental problem at the root of all of it is how the US does pensions. In contrast to most European countries that operate in a redistribution system, aka the current workers pay the pensions of the current pension…

The argument that letting people invest their own money leads to a distortion of asset markets is the most amusing thing I've read today.

Re: The death of the brick and mortar toy store

#162

Post by gosub100 »

wvbdmp wrote: post #87
ofrzeta wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's really baffling that even in the shittiest areas rents or property prices are insane. It seems the capital owners just don't care or don't lose enough money to care. They should be expropriated. Of course that won't happen.

I see this also, but I don’t get it. An empty building still costs a bunch of taxes and upkeep and still rapidly deteriorates without tenants looking after it. Aren’t these people hemorrhaging money? What do they have to show for it? My city actually handled a majority of the rent so a business could revitalize a large-ish property that had been empty for years. Of course it failed as soon as that deal ran out.

I think for businesses that own multiple properties, they can claim losses on vacant buildings to offset their taxes in other profitable ones.

Re: The death of the brick and mortar toy store

#163

Post by emehex »

Andy_Donner wrote: post #101

My grandmother used to take me to Toys R Us for my birthday every year for exactly this reason — she didn't want to guess what I wanted, she wanted to watch me choose. Walking around that store and seeing what the toys looked like in person was something I looked forward to for days. You can't recreate that with an Amazon wishlist.

I still do this for my dog every year on his birthday. Funny that the Pet Store survived the Internet while the Toy Store did not...

Re: The death of the brick and mortar toy store

#164

Post by gosub100 »

colechristensen wrote: post #42
vasco wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the only way to be successful is to start by buying multiple downtown locations outright I think we know why the downtown is empty. Nobody is going to do that to open a shop. Not even the mega chains are usually buying anything.

The path to the return of main street is bullying your city council to attach ridiculous property tax penalties for any vacancies for whatever the central business district commercial zone is and not allow land zoned in that fashion to change. Force the rents and property values down until a competitive market rate is arrived at naturally. Punish the greed that attempts to store or preserve value by leaving things va…

You don't think that corporate weasels have a way to avoid the tax?

In Nevada, if you have a gaming license you must "use it or lose it", and for this reason, sometimes 24-hour "casinos" pop up in vacant buildings, just to operate the minimum number of hours to keep the license. Like one day a year.

If you tried to implement a vacant property tax they would set up the most pathetic minimum-compliant "business" you could imagine. "Golfball cleaning, $3.00 per ball, open 1-4pm tues-friday".

Re: The death of the brick and mortar toy store

#165

Post by carra »

I am surprised to hear this. In Spain there are plenty of physical toy stores. I can easily think of a few not too far from my home. Not only that, it's also common here to see entire aisles full of toys in some big supermarket franchises, like Carrefour.

Re: The death of the brick and mortar toy store

#166

Post by steveBK123 »

kurttheviking wrote: post #6

I own a reasonably well performing indie bookstore. I've noticed for the model to work you need a critical mass of other local shops clustered to make the trip an experience for families and diverse tastes. My working theory is that three of such small businesses are sufficient and could operate well with a common inventory strategy and manager (e.g. a bookstore, a toy store, and a tea or candy shop...nothing that sp…

This makes a lot of sense from my own behavior. If a downtown has multiple places to stop, I am far more likely to go.

Better yet if it has attractions for both my wife and me, then we are both more likely to go.

Even better - if it has attractions open at different times of day - morning - errands like hardware shop, foods basics | afternoon - cafe, prepared food, more retail shop | evening - sit down dining, bars, checkout a book store.

It's always weird how some downtowns only cover a slice of this and as a result are dead after 6pm.. or don't come alive until 5pm.

Re: The death of the brick and mortar toy store

#167

Post by IAmBroom »

mech998877 wrote: post #161
mschuster91 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That seems like a rather inefficient use of resources. Inefficient for society? Yes. But for the capital providers aka investment (and let's be clear: retirement ) funds and banks? Definitely not. The fundamental problem at the root of all of it is how the US does pensions. In contrast to most European countries that operate in a redistribution system, aka the current workers pay the pensions of the current pension…

The argument that letting people invest their own money leads to a distortion of asset markets is the most amusing thing I've read today.

Pensions are not investment funds (for the individual employee/retiree). They are distinct from 401ks and their ilk. GP explicitly spoke about "pensions", which have almost no requirement to diversify - at least one I know of was discovered to be "invested" in luxury rugs and furniture for the CEO (Their value will go up!!! /s).

Re: The death of the brick and mortar toy store

#168

Post by notatoad »

ofrzeta wrote: post #46
bombcar wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing I've noticed is that even dying downtowns want insane amounts of rent; I think you have to be able to buy the building to make it work. However, that's not as unrealistic as it may seem, because the city itself often owns a decent amount of downtown, and can make a deal.

It's really baffling that even in the shittiest areas rents or property prices are insane. It seems the capital owners just don't care or don't lose enough money to care. They should be expropriated. Of course that won't happen.

i don't know if it's the same everywhere, but in my town there's essentially no taxes on vacant commercial buildings. the tax rate is based on the use

and so landlords who own a whole bunch of properties would much rather a unit sit empty for a year than lower the rent to fill it, becauase it costs them basically nothing and lowering the rent on one unit might have a cascading effect that lowers the rents on all their other properties.

Re: The death of the brick and mortar toy store

#169

Post by SoftTalker »

kurttheviking wrote: post #6

I own a reasonably well performing indie bookstore. I've noticed for the model to work you need a critical mass of other local shops clustered to make the trip an experience for families and diverse tastes. My working theory is that three of such small businesses are sufficient and could operate well with a common inventory strategy and manager (e.g. a bookstore, a toy store, and a tea or candy shop...nothing that sp…

> a bookstore, a toy store, and a tea or candy shop

This was Borders and B&N, in their prime. A one stop shop. They had a childrens area with books and toys. They had a coffee bar. And of course books.

Re: The death of the brick and mortar toy store

#170

Post by IAmBroom »

BrenBarn wrote: post #97
armenarmen wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AFAIK Commercial is priced at a multiple of rent. So when an owner still has a loan on a building that was based off of multiple of 3000/mo and decides to rent it out for 1500/mo it effectively cuts the value of that building in half. Just an accounting issue for someone who owns it out right, but devastating for someone with a loan. I think this is why you’re seeing landlords offering multiple free months of rent no…

I hear people say this a lot but it doesn't make any sense. Why would the value be based on some imaginary rent rather than the actual amount of money taken in? It seems stupid for anyone to say that asking, say, $2500 rent with three free months (giving $27k for the year) is better than just asking $2000 with no free months (giving $24k for the year). If this is really what is going in then the system deserves to cr…

Your suggested alternative generates a need for massive accounting by the banks, tracking each loan's aggregate monthly rental income.

A simpler rule that mostly covers today's problems, and adds very little overhead after the loan is signed, is often considered good enough.

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