After
This location is closed due to extremely high rent and tax. In the future, landlord is planning to split this store, to make more money….
As Esquared said below in the comments:
...even a chain store can't afford the rent in the ev anymore...
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Dunkin' Donuts is really dead on Second Avenue
After
As Esquared said below in the comments:
9 comments:
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ain't shedding a tear but even a chain store can't afford the rent in the ev anymore...
ReplyDeleteGreat point, Esquared.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that many landlords and business owners have had the idea that the economic downturn will be short, only a year or too.
ReplyDeleteIt will be interesting if we wind up seeing shuttered storefront after shuttered storefront in Manhattan -but not the outer boroughs!- because landlords simploy won't adjust their rents because they expect the fall in real estate value to be temporary.
DD's are individually owned by franchisees.
ReplyDeleteWould that not mean that chains are actually more expensive to operate, being that they have to pay the franchise fee/license to begin with?
From the NY Observer:
ReplyDeleteA push to force a vote on a set of new commercial rent regulations has failed, at least for now. El Diario reported Monday that Councilman Robert Jackson is pulling his motion to discharge, a rare action that would force a vote on his commercial rent bill, the Small Business Survival Act...
The bill would have established an arbitration process for all small businesses renewing their leases, letting an arbitrator determine the rent and lease terms when the landlord and tenant cannot agree. The real estate industry and Council Speaker Christine Quinn were opposed to the bill, as was the Bloomberg administration.
I have posted a Love Note From A Customer about DD's closing. check it out.
ReplyDeleteAnd let this be a lesson to aspiring/head-in-the-clouds retailers/food establishments in the neighborhood (I'm looking at you Sigmund Pretzel Shop :
ReplyDeleteRents are high.
Aim for LOW OVERHEAD.
With rent likely to be your biggest expense, start with that.
Look at that place:
That's a HUGE space, for a fucking donut and coffee shop, where the average transaction is, what, a few bucks? If that? You can get away with a big space like that in the suburbs, not here.
A quick in-and-out donut/coffee place in this neighborhood should be a quarter that size, with a case/rack and a guy at a counter.
And how many similar places are there around you? Saturation, much?
Again, efficient use of space/square footage. Especially if the product is a commodity like coffee.
Also valid if you sell a premium good, so as long as it's unique and truly better than what people can get anywhere else.
See: Luke's Lobster, Porchetta
A note to the fine folks at Sigmund's: Wonderful concept/addition to the 'hood, though I fear the THREE-spaces worth of real estate you've taken over to sell $2.50 pretzels might mean that your stay is short-lived. The place would have been more sustainable without the seating area.
Thanks for the comment, dmbream.
ReplyDeleteSigmund's and Luke's are on Monday's SLA/CB3 docket for beer/wine licenses. If approved, then this will certainly help the bottom line...
You make a good point about the space... There always seems to be a line out the door at the tiny Abraço on Seventh Street. (And, from what I understand, their rent is low...)
You mentioned the liquor licences.
ReplyDeleteNeat, but necessary for essentially a "take-out" place? (How much do they go for these days? Someone just mentioned this to me the other day and I'm forgetting. A lot less than in the 'burbs, I know, which can be in the multiple hundreds of thousands).
Indeed, RE: Abraço. Caracas, as well.