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JC Out of Business 2009 edition |
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Just can't stay away
 
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I know in this economy it shouldn't be much of a surprise... but is anyone else depressed when hearing about all of these small businesses closing?
First Imagine Atrium, then I heard Maximilian (children's boutique by Grove PATH), now I just received an email from On the Inside's demise... So depressing, I frequented all of these stores. I will miss them very much! I am sure there will be others closing soon...
Posted on: 2009/3/15 21:52
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Quite a regular
 
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2009/2/26 19:34 Posts:
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i think it's harder for the small mom and pop store to succeed these days - specially if you sell things that can be had elsewhere. at all of these stores, you can buy their goods online at other retailers.
unfortunately, e-commerce has become the universally unfair competitor... more proof that if you want a local shop to stay open (who needs a barren storefront?) you need to frequent it, frequently... hopefully, stores will open that will offer goods we need in a unique way. condolences to the brave people who tried to make a business run here.
Posted on: 2009/3/15 22:07
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Just can't stay away
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2008/5/25 3:44 From Jersey City Heights
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It is depressing. I remember growing up In NYC in the 70's and 80's, it seemed that your communities were more closeknit. I'm sure this was probably the case here as well.
My experience was that the neighbors in your community made sure to support their local merchants even during difficult economic times. Times have changed and I don't really see much of that anymore. Not to say that this is the sole reason why this is happening but definitely contributes to it. It seems like people are alot busier, more preoccupied with their own personal lives and in their own worlds...
Posted on: 2009/3/15 22:29
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Home away from home
 
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Part of the problem with the independent businesses in Jersey City is the lack of a centralized business district and too few "tourists." A single boutique probably isn't going to attract enough customers on its own to justify a day trip for Manhattanites or suburbanites, but a collection of shops in a centralized location will. Smith Street in Carrol Gardens, or Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg, or 7th Avenue in Park Slope or even Washington Street in Hoboken are all a concentrated collection of stores and shops that attract people from outside of the community to support the businesses.
Posted on: 2009/3/15 23:11
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Home away from home
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Your right on the mark !
Posted on: 2009/3/16 9:29
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Home away from home
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I lived in Carroll Gardens in the early to mid 80s. The notion of Smith Street being a "destination" would have been totally laughable back then. Things change. Maybe Newark Avenue someday.....
Posted on: 2009/3/16 9:54
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Home away from home
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The Powerhouse would be an ideal location for a central shopping/arts district. A couple of small indie theatres mixed with some retail and restaurants. A smaller scale version of Fanieul or Baltimore's Inner Harbor.
Posted on: 2009/3/16 10:16
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Home away from home
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Central Avenue in Jersey city Heights has a similiar layout to hobokens washington street. The shopping area isnt as long which should make it easier to transform. its also has some decent stores but hasnt turned the corner. it reminds me of washington street in the 1990s
Posted on: 2009/3/16 10:29
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Home away from home
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Central Avenue won't until it gets a subway station.
Posted on: 2009/3/16 10:34
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Home away from home
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point well taken but it does have buses to manhattan and path trains. outdoor cafes, shops, and parking would draw $ spending crowd. Now its mostly crappy dollar stores with a few quality establishments up and down the avenue.
Posted on: 2009/3/16 11:02
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Home away from home
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Apparently they're going to be doing a bunch of work on Christopher Columbus which will make the pedestrian traffic on Columbus even worse than it already is. I think that's part of the reason they decided to shut down Maximillian.
I've heard consistently that the city is not helpful at all to small businesses. Seems to me downtown is stuck with the lowest common denominator: dollar stores bodegas and money wire shops...
Posted on: 2009/3/16 11:19
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Home away from home
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If you use the Grove St. station as your hub there are quite a few Restaurants, boutique stores, etc. going in any direction for several blocks. How many businesses do people want? There will never be a store to accommodate every new whim you can dream up. And BTW? When are the PATH people gonna start greasing up the passengers so they can squeeze more and more into the system? Every day it seems a new Tower goes up and no one seems to care how all these new people are gonna be moved around. And where is that "Ultra" Lounge??!!
Posted on: 2009/3/16 12:15
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Home away from home
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That is the simple problem. Its 3 blocks north, 3 blocks south, 3 blocks west, but no continuous strip, no real anchor, nothing to provide a sign that this is a place to go shopping. Not to mention the the south side of Newark avenue is mostly empty storefronts.
Posted on: 2009/3/16 12:44
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Just can't stay away
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yes, the closet comparable central business district to those of brooklyns bedford ave or smith st. is central ave in the heights, but its lack of rail transport make it really only accessible to those who live by it. newark ave has good potential but its narrow sidewalks and lack of street parking make it not as inviting as washington st. in hoboken. that doesnt mean that higher quality stores cant survive there, it will just be hard to pioneer that as it gets further from the PATH stop.
Posted on: 2009/3/16 13:17
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Home away from home
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what about a trolley line going from 9th st congress lightrail elevator up and down congress street to central ave. That would be a fun
way to get hoboken, downtown jc shoppers to this area.
Posted on: 2009/3/16 14:12
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Home away from home
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Not sure where I saw this, but I've read of some proposal to turn Newark Ave into a pedestrian-only street from Grove to Jersey Ave. Maybe it'll encourage small businesses if that were to happen. Or maybe not, after all...this is JC, not Venice...
Posted on: 2009/3/16 14:20
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Just can't stay away
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During the summer months, the drainage grates around Grove PATH do start to smell like Venice's canals.
Posted on: 2009/3/16 14:35
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Come on and rock me Amadeus |
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Home away from home
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Improvements to downtown JC's infrastructure to make it more shopping/pedestrian friendly would all help. However, JC's demographics aren't going to help anytime soon. Let's face it most newcomers move here because it's cheaper than the alternatives given the proximity to New York. What this means, is that as a whole, we're not a bunch of big spenders.
I think the majority of newcomers to JC can be categorized as: 1. Families with very young children 2. Immigrants that are here for a short period of time (think Indian and Pakistani contract workers) 3. Young, single people who moved here to save money None of which are big spenders. The long time residents aren't much help in this respect either: they're the ones who brought us the dollar stores and bodgas. Vibrant downtowns are created mostly by young, single people and there aren't enough of them here yet. It'll happen, but not yet. In the meantime, like the pioneers of the Wild West, many of todays pioneering merchants will take an arrow or two.
Posted on: 2009/3/16 15:12
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Home away from home
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stani
youre painting in very broad strokes. You are right about moving to jc to save $, but many bought in JC so they would have some $ left over to spend rather than being house poor or apartment poor.
Posted on: 2009/3/16 15:16
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Home away from home
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Demographics by definition are painted in broad strokes.
Posted on: 2009/3/16 15:33
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Home away from home
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There are a lot of things that could be done to improve downtown retail, and taking a little bit of everything would help a lot.
1. A greater population density would bring provide a stronger base for retailers. 2. Streamlining of permits, fees and inspections required for opening a business. 3. A centralized shopping district with a critical mass of shops directed at similar demographics. 4. Better marketing of a given district as a whole targeting both suburban markets and our urban neighbors. 5. Anchor businesses to attract out of town money. Also I'll add that it is probably worthwhile to make some improvements in the street with less litter, more trash cans, better lighting and improvements to storefronts.
Posted on: 2009/3/16 15:42
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Home away from home
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Surely it's all about rents vs. location. You've got to assume that those storefronts on Newark would rent in an instant for the right price, but that the landlords are holding onto some idea that they're going to get huge sums for their space.
Will the new coffee shop on Division where Lisa's Roti was make it? She was driven out by a rent raise the business couldn't carry, but it's an out of the way spot for a coffee shop with little foot traffic or parking. The restaurant space next to Basic has been empty for years because the landlord somehow thinks he'll get $10,000 a month for it. Even with Hamilton Square opening, I doubt that'll happen. Those are off the strip, I can't imagine what's going on with rents on Newark or Grove. So, are overreaching landlords killing our commercial districts by trying to cash in before the "yuppified" districts are actually established?
Posted on: 2009/3/16 15:57
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Home away from home
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May the retail gods continue to watch over Tia's.
Posted on: 2009/3/16 16:10
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Home away from home
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jennymayla wrote: I've been in there many times, and I want to buy something, I really do! Even on sale, the prices at Tia's seem exorbitantly high. But that's not the biggest obstacle--I don't mind paying a lot if I absolutely love a piece of clothing and think I look great in it. Is it just me, or is Tia's target consumer the Beverly Hills-sized woman? Everytime I go in there and try on something, I come running out feeling freakishly fat...For the record, I'm smack in the middle at size 8 - except at Tia's, where I can't even squeeze into their size 12s and I'm too afraid to ask if they have a bigger size (I suspect they don't).
Posted on: 2009/3/16 16:44
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Home away from home
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Is it possible that the expectation of a revitalized Newark Ave. is leading landlords to hold out for higher rents than are currently warranted, just like the landlord nex to Basic may be counting on the draw of Hamilton Square to produce higher rents? Retail leases are usually long-term, so why rent it now, when a year from now the area will be so much better ...
Posted on: 2009/3/16 16:47
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Home away from home
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I posted something on this on another thread. Why does the city make is so hard to open a business? Restaurants have to jump through some pretty big hoops to get a liquor license in this town.
Posted on: 2009/3/16 16:56
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Home away from home
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"so why rent it now, when a year from now the area will be so much better"
I wish you were right. Moved into my place in 2006 thinking that it will improve. It hasn't and it won't until some old businesses close down. Those establishments bring in riff raff from shady parts of JC and they need to go for things to get better.
Posted on: 2009/3/16 17:03
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Newbie
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Vigilante, Vigilante, Vigilante...  You're just like Rush Limbaugh! You want our (Jersey City) economy to fail. No suggestions just negativity. Still haven't gotten over that converstion  ?????VIGILANTE FOR JERSEY CITY MAYOR!!!! ONE Street light. ONE grocery store. ONE BAR. NO Options. NO NEW Business. MORE OF THE SAME!!! Paid for by ONE CAMPAIGN and Vigilante for Jersey City Mayor.
Posted on: 2009/3/16 17:15
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Home away from home
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Lets keep non-jc politics for another thread. For the record Rush wants obamas socialist agenda to fail not the U.S. He was pissed like so many other Americans to see Obamas spending bill stimulating nothing more than his own agenda.
now back to stimulating jersey City's shopping districts....
Posted on: 2009/3/16 17:21
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Home away from home
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There are how many bars and restaurants within 3 blocks of Grove St. Station? What do you want? One bar that serves scotch, the next one that serves beer and another to play that song you love so much? Get out and use what we've got!! There are plenty of fine establishments! This isn't your hipster doofus universe. Spoiled and entitled doesn't work here. Something tells me you could never be satisfied. "Oh this place isn't cool anymore".
Posted on: 2009/3/16 18:33
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Home away from home
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I am both spoiled and entitled and it totally works here. For me at least. I love where I live and I love what I have around me. I am spoiled with a nice sized condo that I could actually afford and have sense of entitlement by being able to have a car here. I am spoiled when I look out at the (almost always) gorgeous VVP and when people come to visit and they see how kick-ass my neighborhood is. I am sad that some of the more unique and diverse (ok, upscale) places have failed but I am not surprised. I knew what I was getting into when I moved here. I get my true over-the-top spoiled and entitled needs met in NYC during the week and am happy to come home to my JC neighborhood every night and avoid NYC like the plague on the weekends. I am proud of where I live, warts and all. I want to see the local businesses succeed and worked hard to help them (and have the receipts to prove it). Viva la Grove Street!
Posted on: 2009/3/16 19:09
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Home away from home
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One woman's stimulus! Yeeaah, Baby !! 
Posted on: 2009/3/16 19:45
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Home away from home
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Oh boy, another problem with reading comprehension.
Posted on: 2009/3/16 20:31
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Just can't stay away
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To make this Grove Path area better, the town has to help with parking, on CC and on Newark, and maybe buy some lots, and use quarter meters. It also has to chill with taxes and endless redtape with permits. That filters down into the rent prices, by landlords. Most of the Indian establishments are dirty, have crappy signs, no style points and are uninviting.
The area needs better lighting, visable/caring police presence. The town has to stop with the F*&ing duct tape on the bottom of all the light poles.
Posted on: 2009/3/16 20:33
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Home away from home
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lol -- just because I didn't 100% drink your caustic kool aid doesn't mean I didn't understand it. I just provided a different point of view on it. nice try though.
Posted on: 2009/3/16 20:37
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Home away from home
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No. You read it wrong. Nothing caustic about Grove Street.
Posted on: 2009/3/16 20:42
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I am sad to hear of the local shops closing as I always have tried to support them. Having moved here 5 years ago, from NYC I feel as though Grove St has been at a standstill. Yes, they built up by the path station but on the Main Street you have a nice shop like Tia's, and then 2 doors down Cruz's Furniture which is in dire need of a makeover.
Until you can get a consistency of stores to bring in the clientele, Grove Street is going to remain as is.
Posted on: 2009/3/16 21:54
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Home away from home
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That's actually not a bad idea. Aside from hoping for some decent central planning, there still is room for small businesses in downtown JC. Less sexy, more utility is advisable for any entrepreneur out there, though. Let's face it: small bookstores are a romantic ideal, but hopelessly impractical. And a store that sells toddler shirts for $25 and toddler shoes for $50 is going to have a limited market. Let's face it, we're a bedroom community. We need stuff for after work and weekends and services to help us work. There's room for more good, cheap eats. There's room for good small bakeries (Made with Love has a chance of making it), and PostNet on Grove saved my Saturday: I went to the post office at noon and - I kid you not - the line was 75+ people long. I schlepped over to PostNet and mailed a parcel USPS with a line of 3 people. Probably paid $2 more, but saved an hour... I'm actually curious and interested in what other goods/services the denizens of JC think we NEED downtown...
Posted on: 2009/3/16 22:06
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Home away from home
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The real problem with a small bookstore is that it is not itself a destination. Something like a bookstore or a CD store or a comic book store could be a valuable asset and act as an anchor, but it has to be something worthwhile that attracts people. I'll go to Princeton just to go to the Record Exchange, and inevitably spend money in the other shops, or to Cranberry to go to the Bookworm. They are both destination stores that bring in their own customers, and then those customers end up spending money in surrounding places. Jersey City simply doesn't have anything of that scale or caliber.
Posted on: 2009/3/17 0:03
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Home away from home
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+1
Over the past 3 years or so, I have repeatedly asked them to carry my size, to no avail. Despite this, though, I have supported Tia's by purchasing accessories for myself, gifts for others, and by bringing my girlfriends and relatives there. Quote:
Posted on: 2009/3/17 0:23
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Home away from home
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I hate to kick her while she's down, but the owner of Maximillian needs to learn a thing or two about customer services and common courtesy if she wants to open another retail business here or elsewhere. I'm really not surprised her store is closing. Her prices are mid- to high and her unfriendly nature did not make me want to support her business at all. (And anyone who knows me knows that I support local businesses.)
The first time I went there was when she first opened. I needed a birthday present for a 3-year-old girl and decided to check the store out. The owner was very cold, unfriendly and unhelpful. This, despite the store being completely empty except for me. I nearly walked out but decided I really liked two of the dresses (for which I paid at full retail price). The second and last time I went there was last Saturday, when I needed a last-minute present for the same birthday girl and her new baby brother. I had no idea the store was closing until I got there. Again, the owner was unfriendly and unhelpful, and wouldn't even get off her chair or end her phone call, even though I asked for her help. I ended up purchasing two items - a present for each child. I asked for separate bags and was met with such disdain I wanted to walk out. But I was running late and didn't have time to hit the mall so I stuck with it. When I asked for tissue for one of the bags, this woman finally decided to end her phone call to lecture me that she did not "giftwrap presents." I was speechless. Anyway, I can't wait to see what new business opens up next to Friendly Cleaners. Quote:
Posted on: 2009/3/17 0:36
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Home away from home
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If you are a fan of Imagine Atrium or On the inside , it isn't too late to make a concerted effort to shop in these local establishments and to encourage others to do so too.
If I need a greeting card or a gift , I visit both of these establishments and I always find something- then there is also the Vosages chocolate bars at Imagine Atrium-mmm.
Posted on: 2009/3/17 18:31
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Home away from home
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Hmmmm. I saw a beautiful pitcher and glasses at On the Inside last time I was there. Maybe I'll see if they're still available.
Posted on: 2009/3/17 20:07
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