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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

#111

Post by GJim »

porknbeans00 wrote: post #106
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…

kids don't want to browse amazon. =)

Aside from the fact you would have to be nuts to buy kids toys (or anything that must meet a safety standard) from Amazon.

... yet some people still do.

Re: The death of the brick and mortar toy store

#112

Post by bluGill »

BrenBarn wrote: post #99
Arainach wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, because the mortgage companies' valuation is based on rent and does not consider any incentives.

Right. . . but isn't that just obviously stupid? If I say the rent is $3k a month but you get all 12 months free, why would anyone be fooled by that? Why would you base it on some hypothetical rent rather than the amount of actual money that the property takes in?

The bank knows but they maintain the fiction that they don't because their books collapse too if they count those. Banks make money from loans.

Don't forget this is typically a short term things. When the economy improves the building will be rented again. So they need the books to look good today to get through.

Re: The death of the brick and mortar toy store

#113

Post by bluGill »

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…

Even in the best of times you will have empty places so they have to ignore unrented places since there is no formula that can tell the state of the economy from just current rent. Real estate is always local so even in the worst economies there is always some place booming

Re: The death of the brick and mortar toy store

#114

Post by abanana »

Schlagbohrer wrote: post #102

Does the article mention that private equity killed off the still-profitable Toys R Us?

I opened this comments page wondering if anyone would point this out. The idea that all sales have moved to online is always trotted out as the main excuse, but the reality is that most of the big well-known UK retail failures were caused by private equity, asset-stripping and loading them up with debt until the interest payments are too high to be payable.

Re: The death of the brick and mortar toy store

#115

Post by bluGill »

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.

As I've said elsewhere, when the economy improves it will be rented again.

Re: The death of the brick and mortar toy store

#116

Post by bartread »

In the UK at least a big part of the problem for all high street retail is high fixed costs.

High rents for "prime" locations that, given the trend over the last 25 years, are no longer very prime, coupled with high business rates set by central government make it incredibly hard to make any money. And that's even before thinking about staff, where cover is no doubt needed at a higher concentration per square foot than warehouse based businesses.

Couple that with increases in minimum wage[0] and employer NI, and taking into account inflation and cost of living in recent years, and a lot of formerly workable retail businesses have simply been rendered non-viable.

[0] Which, by the way, I have no quarrel with.

Re: The death of the brick and mortar toy store

#117

Post by james_marks »

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…

[dead]

Re: The death of the brick and mortar toy store

#118

Post by techdmn »

For the last few years I've been working on a project, before I buy anything online I try to find it at a local retailer (ideally locally owned). If I do find it, I pay cash. I treat it like a game, it's a scavenger hunt. I'm putting money back into the local economy, helping local shops stay open. Makes it significantly more difficult for pervasive modern surveillance to track which items I look at or purchase. I don't get any emails about it later.

Re: The death of the brick and mortar toy store

#119

Post by [deleted] »

bartread wrote: post #116

In the UK at least a big part of the problem for all high street retail is high fixed costs. High rents for "prime" locations that, given the trend over the last 25 years, are no longer very prime, coupled with high business rates set by central government make it incredibly hard to make any money. And that's even before thinking about staff, where cover is no doubt needed at a higher concentration per square foot th…

[deleted]

Re: The death of the brick and mortar toy store

#120

Post by philistine »

Schlagbohrer wrote: post #103
golem14 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be great to have a "rural revival" where it's worthwhile to go back to the howling old owl in the woods, hunting the horny back toad. Maybe the wave of AI layoffs can actually make that happen. We would need a visionary planner like maybe Christopher Alexander and then an administration to deeply care and support such a development. I suspect if I were forced to make such a move, I'd be initially very upset,…

The united states could spark a rural revival like you're talking about with investment into the healthcare and education infrastructure in those communities. That's what other countries do to prop up the rural economy- the steady lifelong jobs created for all the people who work at the schools, clinics, the library, provide an economic base for the town.

That has never been a part of the American experiment. Structured development like that has yet to happen in the United States.
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