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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

#191

Post by watersb »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #141
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…

There was a lot of anxiety in the US over Japanese buying everything up in the 80s. Just wait it out. The US will collapse its economy like Japan.

Japanese bought Rockefeller Center in New York City in the 1980s.

That was when it felt like we were "Turning Japanese". It was great and scary and crazy and we wrote cyberpunk stories.

Re: The death of the brick and mortar toy store

#192

Post by sgarman »

sjducb wrote: post #96
pif wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> devastating for someone with a loan Sorry, I can't understand why. Could you please expand a bit? I don't get how decreasing the value of the building makes the loan more difficult to repay.

Loan to Value (LTV) is a percentage that tells you how safe a loan is. You divide the amount of the loan by the value of the building. So if I buy a building for 10 million with a 6 million loan and 4 million of my own money then I have an LTV of 60%. This means if I go bankrupt then the bank can sell the building and get its money back. If the value of the building halves because the rent halved then I have a 6 mill…

So how long can you collect $0 of rent on your $5000 building before the bank realizes?

Re: The death of the brick and mortar toy store

#193

Post by anthonypasq »

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.

land value taxes would fix this. is too cheap to sit on derelict property

Re: The death of the brick and mortar toy store

#194

Post by zoomablemind »

bombcar wrote: post #145
tardedmeme wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just accounting, it means enough things that they're incentivized to manipulate it upwards. It impacts the loans they can get and the interest they pay, enough that it may be worth it to forego some actual income to keep the fake numbers up.

And they’re often owned by funds that are measured in the billions. A parking lot in New York covers for a bunch of empty middle America storefronts, as long as the valuation works out on paper.

It seems that approach is a way to generate losses without actually losing the titles. These losses are needed to offset incomes elsewhere thus not paying taxes on profits.

Investment fund's commodity is value - the rest are just tools to optimize the value.

Re: The death of the brick and mortar toy store

#195

Post by colechristensen »

gizajob wrote: post #74
colechristensen wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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’re right but it seems like the exact opposite scenario is usually in effect. Particularly in the UK, landlords seem stuck in some kind of bizarre logic of “oh, nobody can rent my building, it just has to sit here being worth nothing” and “oh, you want my worthless building, then naturally I’ll need ALL your profit and more.”

There are accounting practices in place where a property value is set based on rents and that value isn't reset when a unit is vacant, but it IS reset when a new lower rent is in place through various mechanisms of valuations.

Re: The death of the brick and mortar toy store

#196

Post by mattbrewsbytes »

me_smith wrote: post #33
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 is a timely comment for me. I have been doing research on opening a small indie (new/used) bookstore in a small old downtown I walk through almost every day. It has restaurants, specialty shops, coffee shops and a small local grocery store. I've always thought it was missing a bookstore. Any tips/warnings that might not be immediately obvious to a hopeful bookstore owner? Do you think there is a sweet spot in te…

I'm just an internet commenter who knows nothing about running a retail store and has thought about a bookstore as well. With that out of the way, finding high margin items to sell to offset low margin items would make sense. I think this is why you see coffee paired with bookstores, coffee should be high margin but might also require food licensing/inspections.

Ideas for a local bookstore: seasonal and local items for sale, think gift giving timeframes - mothers day, fathers day, end of year holidays. Items like unique greeting cards, calendars, custom gift wrapping, having a kids section with higher margin items kids like - toys, trading cards, etc. Also you could throw some checkout friendly things like book lights, book marks, candies, etc.

If you find local craftspeople, offer some shelf/floor space for free if you can agree on a split of the margin. Hand-crafted things would pair well during holiday seasons and advertised properly might get repeat visits and word of mouth spreading.

Re: The death of the brick and mortar toy store

#197

Post by MichaelZuo »

ceejayoz wrote: post #134
BrenBarn wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That still sounds like a scam.

Yeah, it's a big high-stakes game of musical chairs.

Ironically, this is one of the strongest proofs that American society is very un-capitalistic.

Shareholders, who would have received the dividends from rent payments otherwise, simply go pound sand when this happens.

Even though there should be plenty of shareholders willing to accept lower asset values in exchange for continued, reduced, dividend payouts.

Re: The death of the brick and mortar toy store

#198

Post by egypturnash »

piokoch wrote: post #60
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…

Yup, that's why molls were so successful. They were deteriorating because of Internet, as a new "moll", covid speed up the process. But, frankly speaking, molls also killed many mom & pops shops scattered in the cities. So this is just evolution, I am not sure if it goes in the right direction, but consumers have the last word and they have spoken, even though, in the long run it hurts them.

moll | mäl | noun informal, dated 1 (also gun moll) the female companion of a gangster or other criminal: I'd rush the money over to his moll. 2 a prostitute.

I think you probably mean "mall".

Re: The death of the brick and mortar toy store

#199

Post by AdamN »

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.

We still go to our local toy store - which is quite nice and only about 5 blocks away (in Berlin).

Re: The death of the brick and mortar toy store

#200

Post by SoftTalker »

zoomablemind wrote: post #194
bombcar wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And they’re often owned by funds that are measured in the billions. A parking lot in New York covers for a bunch of empty middle America storefronts, as long as the valuation works out on paper.

It seems that approach is a way to generate losses without actually losing the titles. These losses are needed to offset incomes elsewhere thus not paying taxes on profits. Investment fund's commodity is value - the rest are just tools to optimize the value.

In aggregate, the owners of these properties are investing to earn a return. Losses only lead to "not paying taxes on profits" if there are no profits. The overall portfolio has to be earning a risk-appropriate return or investors will go elsewhere.
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