TUFF TIMES IN GRAND JUNCTION.

Gee, hope 2013 is better. But I wonder ?

This spring I posted about the Smashburger across from Mesa State athletic field closing. Along with a Pizza Hut and Taco Johns
across the street from the main campus and the minor league Rockie's stadium. Plus a Chinese restaurant 2 blocks away closing.

Now that Taco John's sits empty, Smashburgers was re-opened at Jimmy Z's, lasted 2 months. The other Smashburger downtown closed. so did another Chinese restaurant and the Asian/ Chinese buffet has changed owners twice.

But yesterday really made me wonder. Family restaurant, 20 tables, opened 22 years, behind post office, next to church, lots of traffic.
Today is last day, crowded weekends , dead Mon-Fri. As though that was not enough, big shopping center 1 block from busy Walmart, anchor is Startek, 400 employees, has a Rib City, Radio Shack. Vacuum cleaner guy bailed this summer as did UPS storeand King Soopers. But I have never seen this combo go away till this week.

Next to each other even. A rent a center store and the adjacent liquor store. Damn. At least the HOOKAH store is still open.

Quote: Buzzard

Gee, hope 2013 is better. But I wonder ?

This spring I posted about the Smashburger across from Mesa State athletic field closing. Along with a Pizza Hut and Taco Johns
across the street from the main campus and the minor league Rockie's stadium. Plus a Chinese restaurant 2 blocks away closing.

Now that Taco John's sits empty, Smashburgers was re-opened at Jimmy Z's, lasted 2 months. The other Smashburger downtown closed. so did another Chinese restaurant and the Asian/ Chinese buffet has changed owners twice.

But yesterday really made me wonder. Family restaurant, 20 tables, opened 22 years, behind post office, next to church, lots of traffic.
Today is last day, crowded weekends , dead Mon-Fri. As though that was not enough, big shopping center 1 block from busy Walmart, anchor is Startek, 400 employees, has a Rib City, Radio Shack. Vacuum cleaner guy bailed this summer as did UPS storeand King Soopers. But I have never seen this combo go away till this week.

Next to each other even. A rent a center store and the adjacent liquor store. Damn. At least the HOOKAH store is still open.

Welcome to the new America

Rent a Center are highly profitable ripoffs preying on the poor. Hookah store indicates changing demographics which could be the reason many of the restaurants were all closing. Otherwise, commerce is in BigBoxes and The Internet. Strip Malls are no longer an asset to tax rolls and empty businesses can not be revived because commerce itself has shifted. One town in Montana lost a century old coffee shop, its half a dozen new owners have all gone bankrupt because there is no local commerce anymore. Money circulates at major outlets and everyone else is just hanging on without any discretionary spending locally. You got some commercial real estate space for rent? Get used to For Rent signs or else get used to a series of comic book stores or other no capital, no income operations that are not much better than a boarded up place.

Since they are all in the same area, maybe the landlord raised the rent or has another option for the land and is "forcing everyone out." Is WalMart coming to town?

Quote: skrbornevrymin

Is WalMart coming to town?

Already there as mentioned in OP. Thanks for looking.

Quote: Buzzard

As though that was not enough, big shopping center 1 block from busy Walmart, anchor is Startek, 400 employees, has a Rib City, Radio Shack. Vacuum cleaner guy bailed this summer as did UPS storeand King Soopers. But I have never seen this combo go away till this week.

Next to each other even. A rent a center store and the adjacent liquor store. Damn. At least the HOOKAH store is still open.

In the strip mall near my house the same mom and
pop restaurant has changed hands 5 times since 2008.
It was there for 15 years and went under after the crash.

People keep buying a complete steup: Full kitchen, walk
in freezer, tables and chairs, etc, thinking they're going
to make it work. But they all go under in 6 months.
People just aren't eating out like they were.

After the election, I asked the same question, what will the next year(s) be like. Someone answered that the unemployment is going down and things will get better.

I disagree and hope that I am wrong.

Walmart does bring lower prices but the regular workers do earn a living wage. Plus, Walmart drives out middle class business owners that did pay a better wage as well as make a living and spend that money back in the community. www.commondreams.org had pointed this out many times.

At the job I just quit, we saw the middle class slowly dwindle. Low income, or no income, people cannot afford $500 for a divorce or a custody case.

Again, I hope that I am wrong and the U.S. prospers.

I wasn't trying to pick on WalMart. I was attempting to point out that the landlord may be negotiating to redevelop the land for a large tennant (WalMart, Target, Winco, etc.) and needed to push the current ones out. Another possibility is that one of the businesses (possibly the King Soopers) was the draw for the traffic patterns in the shopping center and when it closed, the others were unable to pull the necessary foot traffic on their own.

Pretty easy to nail this on Obama. Should be obvious to any non-Obama supporter. Yes, welcome to the new America.