Tammy Mattice -- I haven't heard about Bootlegger ...but Bentley will be closed down as of April 30/14Bonnie Sabin O'Neill -- It was written on the wall when Walmart came to town.When you move box stores away from the downtown core you kill a town. Our downtown is looking very sad too.I do not shop Wamart but there is getting to be less and less options.
May Cooper -- yeah Bentley's is closing our mall sucks and the owmers have no idea what there doing and i was told that they charge way to much for rent no wonder why they cant get no good stores in there plus it needs major renovations
Hope Tallen -- No it's not. They have a new manager being trained to take over after summer.
Tamara Dika -- Bentley is closing because the mine is not happening and I also heard nothing is going to take the place of zellers for that reason too
Shelby Crowe -- Nothing will come here. the mall sucks and the mine is a no go.. that mine would have done so much for this town.
Cathy Davis -- sad, i like the Bentley store this is horrible... there really isn't much left
Judy Stevens -- cant blame them if they do ..|Will be a sad sight that mall..\hell its so pathetic already..This town is starting to be depressing
Tammy Mattice -- I agree Cathy DavisI enjo shopping a Bentley as well ..another good shop down
Amanda Driver Lilly -- I have hope that maybe one day our mall will return to its once glory self .
Judy Stevens -- I've been here 4 years and each year there is less stores in the mall.
Meanwhile at today's Chamber of Commerce meeting - Williams Lake Mayor Kerry Cook addressed the topic of shopping by publicly stating that the City had been in contact of the owners' of the Prosperity Ridge Shopping Plaza and they are planning to put into place more retail space on the existing Prosperity Ridge shopping site (location of where Walmart is)
May Cooper -- agree I shop at wall mart cause there groceries are cheep and there baby items are good and cheaper than our other grocery stores I don't buy clothing from wall mart specially for my daughters there cheap they rip easy and shrink I don't even go in the mall unless we go to mikes spot only
Teresa Tom -- I heard staples is closing is that true? I heard that they didn't renew there lease
Judy Stevens -- they are closing a few staples across Canada , so not shocked that ours would be one of them
May Cooper -- that would suck that's were I get my kids school supplies there way cheaper
Travis McAlpine -- Yeah, when it came to all the supplies this year, Walmart couldn't touch the selection that our school was wanting for our child so we went to Staples too.
Mike J Leech -- Have to stock up before the beer n wine closes then;)
Tammy Mattice -- Oh I seriously doubt that will ever close Mike J Leech. ..lol
Brenda Fox Nohr -- Maybe as their contracts/ leases come up .. Some are choosing not to renew?
Tammy Mattice -- That's exactly what is happening Brenda Fox Nohr
Bella Johnson -- I was gonna go to bootlegger saturday!! It better be there!! Lol i need new jeans and love theirs!!!
Kristoffer Harris -- Mike J Leech Mining, Forestry, Ranching & Booze. Williams Lakes 4 main industries, I don't think you will have anything to worry about
Diane Maureen Pleasance -- Kind of like being held hostage, those who said they were coming should have been held to a contract of some kind that would require a financial forfeiture. And I think the reason for closures is Walmart not the mine and I have also heard for years that the mall rental is preposterous!
Bonnie Sabin O'Neill -- I agree Diane Maureen Pleasance.
Diane Maureen Pleasance -- Suzannes by the Bank of Montreal sells great clothing all Canadian made and have good deals on their sale racks
Bonnie Sabin O'Neill -- I sure am hoping we do not lose shoppers, too. I do shop Suzannes and BFF.
Diane Maureen Pleasance -- At least we have a good selection of pharmacies to shop at!
Tressa Taylor -- sad shopping situation in this pitiful , highly dysfunctional town, the mall is a disgrace . The town needs a new plan as the current plan is a bust.
Shelby Crowe -- I dont see how Wal-Mart would make the other stores close.
Jazmyn Douillard -- Haines has a great selection for school/office supplies and they will order anything in I get my Copic markers from them and those are a pain to find outside of Kelowna/Kamloops.
May Cooper -- yup agree I don't shop for anything but groceries I go out of town to shop or on line or I have friends that pick up items for clothing and I just pay them back specially for children's and baby clothing
Shelby Crowe -- I for one am all for Wal-Mart and glad we got one. wish we had a Costco too
Kristoffer Harris -- I don't think Walmart is to blame entirely for the closure of local businesses, most of you have already mentioned the downfalls of the current state of affairs of the mall itself as well as the general economic plight in Williams Lake right now.
May Cooper -- yup we need Costco sometimes I don't trust there food to much after what happen a few years ago they didn't keep there meet factory clean and sometimes there frozen stuff gets a recall on it but I still love Costco
Judy Stevens -- We will never get a costco . Our population needs to quadrupal before that would happen
Tammy Mattice -- I agree with Kristoffer Harris. .it's all about the economic climate. .new businesses will only come if they can succeed. ..
Judy Stevens -- Exactly if we get no new big business to hire people and give job security we won't get other shopping . The mills only have so many years of trees left to cut . Then who will provide higher paying jobs . Our town will get smaller and smaller
Tracy Wilson -- We moved here in 06 and every year it's looking worse, so sad, we are thinking of moving! I wonder how many other families are contemplating a move too?
May Cooper -- the mayor needs to come up with a better game plan for this town we don't even get the carnival anymore theres already nothing to do with our kids
Tammy Mattice -- Nope not thinking about moving ..you don't desert your town just because it is going through a rough patch
Tracy Wilson -- It's not about deserting your town, it's about thinking of your family!
Tracy Wilson -- I find it hard to believe it's only a rough patch, it's been going down since we moved here in 2006, that's 8 years and it still continues to get worse! If prosperity ever comes here then things could turn but how long has it already been going on?
Kristoffer Harris -- I think we all need to come together & pose these questions to our present Mayor & Council or upcoming candidates for election come November. Enough is enough & I know I intend to ask these questions.
Tammy Mattice -- You're right Tracy Wilsonit has been a bit and we do need a wide variety of services. ..shops ..and activities. ..but who can fix these things? Correct me if im wrong but wouldn't that be our mayor and city council?
Tracy Wilson - Sure!
Tressa Taylor -- Look to the little town of 100 mile they have a lot of stores for a small town with hardly any work, people feel safe there , our town has a real policing issue if they took on some of the policies that 100 mile uses maybe we could have evening shopping and entertainment venues, We need a thriving town that's open for business , not broken windows and constant shop lifters, I wouldn't want to open a store here, you would need 6 secret shoppers just for the shoplifters and that's in a small store. 100 mile doesn't tolerate people hanging around town drinking either that my biggest pet peeve about this town couldn't really believe it when I first moved here and still can't believe that's what we have to live with. sorry to be a downer on this town issue , but there is deeper rooted problems here than just what new store can come. clean up the towns problems from the root, or you will never bloom a better town.
Myra Medeiros -- The mall would do fine if they actually ran it with growth, business and community in mind. The problem is that they charge way too much rent. There are a few other factors that play a big part
Brad Morgan -- Yeah I've been told that the people who own this mall also own one down in the lower mainland somewhere, and they charge the same $ per square foot rent here as they do for the other one. Makes no sense. But that's what happens when you have out of town owners with no vested interest in the success of the place. Seems more like they just keep it for a tax writeoff or possibly money laundering purposes because they make no effort to improve it.
Jess Ppfftt -- Does ANYONE, have ANY idea how much land owners pay in tax??????? NO, clearly you dont, that is why land owners have to charge so much for rent is because of their tax base.........Plain and simple........They also, get a tax break if the commercial space is not rented, its actually in the land owners best interest NOT to rent out smaller spaces, because then they wont be charged more tax for little revenue. Its the CITY, and the fact that all our tax money goes to policing for rising crime rates, that are consistently falling.........(well, they cant make their minds up.........They need more money because its high, but then they brag that its been lower..........We pay higher taxes than some of the nicest neighborhoods in Canada.....True story
Jazmyn Douillard -- Jess Ppfftt the mall is owned by a company in Vancouver. We pay a fraction in property taxes here compared to there (same as compared to the Okanagan, etc). The loss in monthly income verses not getting the tax break is huge, but again this is Vancouver so they're not bothering to break a sweat.
They also came out with a letter to the city last year explaining that they believe what they are charging are comparable prices for here, so it goes to show how out of skew their idea of our rental costs are.
The building itself, yes, is likely a tax write off. Though I think few people know exactly what a write off is, and that isn't not near as beneficial as you may think letting it sit empty.
Jess Ppfftt -- The anchor stores pay the rent and if they add extra stores their assessed value goes up, there for so does their taxes. Thats what I'm taking about. Obviosuly, our buildings worth are not as much as that of downtown Vancouver or Kelowna. However, our percentage against the "value" of the building is higher, thank most. We pay a greater percentage against the assessed value of the property.
Jazmyn Douillard -- However we will lose the anchor stores - as we've already lost Zellers and it looks like Staples is on the chopping block - and the lowered value doesn't help out the owners enough to make a relatively empty mall beneficial.
Lisa Dee -- Property taxes here are outrageous, no way would I live in the city, pay those taxes and not have any benefit whatsoever. It's higher here than even some places on the Island which is absolutely ridiculous. When looking into investment properties, it's cheaper to buy somewhere else with the price and the taxes. My question is where are all those tax dollars going??
LLoyd Bleakley -- Does anyone feel they were strung along into believing there was another big store going into Zellers spot.
Diane Maureen Pleasance -- We all were
Amanda Driver Lilly -- Yep it dosent help that there is still a stupid sign outside the old zellers would have been better if they left it alone as i swear it is just an excuse not a answer to the problem .throw the problem under the rug
Ryan Hatt -- Why would they put stores in the mall when they are just going to close in a few months... This town has died off to what it was. I wish they would bring stores and fill te mall how it was years ago but it's not going to happen..
Ryan Hatt -- This town needs jobs to bring the stores in... More jobs= more business for the stores and more money that people will spend... The mills are dying off. This town is starting to be like a ghost town and will be soon. As soon as the mills go down all that there is are the mines... Then what people.. The stores are just going to keep closing.
Debbie Wilson -- This town needs jobs like what New Prosperity would have brought. Its my understanding that that project isn't completely dead. Perhaps its time that we organized a rally like they did in 100 Mile House showing our support for the mine and the jobs that it would bring. (See "Say Yes to the Taseko Prosperity Mine Project" page) I would be willing to help with such an event but am not a public speaker or anything like that. In my opinion if we just keep complaining on here about what we don't have and are losing nothing will ever change.
Jazmyn Douillard -- I agree Debbie, but for everyone that wanted the mine it seemed two more didn't
Tammy Mattice -- I agree with Debbie Wilson...
Debbie Wilson -- I don't think that twice as many didn't, I think that they were just more vocal, Jazmyn Douillard.
Tamara Dika -- Think about what they said when mount polley opened up its going to create so many jobs, we need more Mills for our dying industry it's going to create so many jobs and bring so much to this town. I think the prosperity mine is a huge issue and people should pull their heads out of the sand but It's definitely the new distraction to keep minds away from previous industry problems. This town has been dying for years. As for staples which yes is the anchor store to the mall the lease has not been renewed that is a truth and they probably will be pulling out, so with the mall I'm sure the stores still standing have signed a Co tenancy clause which means the smaller stores can break there lease at any point if the anchor store closes.
Tamara Dika -- The people in power are afraid of change and not opening their minds to new ideas that's what's bringing this town down.
Travis McAlpine -- So many misguided thoughts and ideas in this thread. Please people check your facts that you are so "sure" about before posting your thoughts. There are too many rumors flying around without the need for people assuming what they are "sure" about.
Jess Ppfftt -- A fact is something that is not disputed, and clearly their are disputes.........lol
Jess Ppfftt -- You cant dispute gravity, however, you can dispute ones intent.
As we get closer to the mid-October - Nov 15th civic election period and based on the FB discussion - the general themes of shopping and the local economy will be, in my opinion, part of that wider community discussion that will happen as Williams Lake elects their 2014-18 Municipal Council (Mayor and 6 Councillors)
~SF
1 comment:
Failing malls didn't get into trouble overnight, and most began their descent long before the tough climate. Typically, a mall begins to suffer due to job losses and other pressures in the surrounding neighborhood or because a newer mall opens nearby. The loss of key tenants -- such as the wave of department-store closures over the past three years -- hastens the demise. Also sapping malls' vibrancy: the increased preference among consumers for big-box stores, such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. WMT +0.55% and Target Corp. TGT +0.88% , which rarely operate in malls.
Developers, in fact, have been moving away from the enclosed-mall format in favor of big-box centers anchored by free-standing giants such as Wal-Mart or open-air shopping centers with tiny parks and outdoor cafes sprinkled among fashion stores. Only one enclosed mall has opened in the U.S. since 2006: The Mall at Turtle Creek in Jonesboro, Ark. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB124294047987244803
Post a Comment