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KingFisher posted:This is pretty good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MOwRTTq1bY Late stage capitalism is loving weird as hell
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Apr 25, 2017 03:36
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Horseshoe theory posted:Kind of a rehash of the previous list I posted, so no real shock on who is distressed. The Sears in south Seattle closed two years ago and just re-opened as an Amazon Fresh pickup center.
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Apr 25, 2017 04:35
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HEY NONG MAN posted:The Sears in south Seattle closed two years ago and just re-opened as an Amazon Fresh pickup center. Like a public-facing grocery store or just a warehouse for the delivery service?
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Apr 25, 2017 06:39
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Tiny Brontosaurus posted:Like a public-facing grocery store or just a warehouse for the delivery service? Public facing. There is a special parking structure you pull into in front then someone comes out with your groceries and you drive away.
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Apr 25, 2017 14:04
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AA is for Quitters posted:I work for best buy, and get paid costco wages, which is part of why i genuinely like my job most days. There are things I hate about it (which is normal retail stuff, like lovely people), but all my coworkers are for the most part, genuinely happy with their job, or at least if not happy, content. There's actually decent benefits, the discount is dope, (except on loss leaders, since it's tied to cost) and its not a terrible place to work. This is interesting to read, thanks for sharing. I remember BB was always on the Corporate Death List a few years back, but I'm guessing closing redundant stores and re-focusing to have their employees actually know what kind of TV/phone works for you has improved things. I wish they'd carry computer parts again like they used to back in the 90s though. I've had parts crap out on me on my machine and it'd be nice if I could just drive down to Best Buy and pick up a good power supply/motherboard/etc.
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Apr 25, 2017 16:03
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HEY NONG MAN posted:Public facing. There is a special parking structure you pull into in front then someone comes out with your groceries and you drive away.
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Apr 25, 2017 16:07
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axeil posted:This is interesting to read, thanks for sharing. I remember BB was always on the Corporate Death List a few years back, but I'm guessing closing redundant stores and re-focusing to have their employees actually know what kind of TV/phone works for you has improved things. I wish they'd carry computer parts again like they used to back in the 90s though. I've had parts crap out on me on my machine and it'd be nice if I could just drive down to Best Buy and pick up a good power supply/motherboard/etc. I know being pro capitalism is pretty politically incorrect here in D&D, but I've recently read two really decent books that go over how certain businesses are really succeeding in the marketplace by re-focusing their company purpose to care more about customers and employees and not focus solely on increasing shareholder stock prices at the expense of everything else. Firms of Endearment Conscious Capitalism Both are really good reads if you think there might be some redeeming merits of capitalism and aren't purely 'full communism now'
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Apr 25, 2017 16:17
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Cicero posted:I'm kind of surprised they have a person do this instead of a conveyor belt or something. Seems like that'd be a way easier thing to automate than drone deliveries. Are you familiar with a company called Dahiir Insaat?
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Apr 25, 2017 16:19
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Sir Tonk posted:Late stage capitalism is loving weird as hell Solkanar512 posted:There was a thing on Nightly Business Report (PBS business news) talking about this very issue. They found that despite the issues we're talking baout here, rent had increased slightly and occupancy was stable. Many of the closed stores were being replaced with high end gyms, restaurants and other "experience" based businesses. glowing-fish posted:I would say building on a retail complex might save 20% off of building from scratch?
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Apr 25, 2017 16:41
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OwlFancier posted:Are you familiar with a company called Dahiir Insaat?
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Apr 25, 2017 16:57
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Cicero posted:No? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_4qKt6Wr5w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSgzH66oH28 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQsNktD9zW4 C O N V E Y O R F U T U R E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zMOWg6Adok S A F E T Y B E D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NyTNOgttfE M E T A L G E A R OwlFancier fucked around with this message at 17:20 on Apr 25, 2017 |
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Apr 25, 2017 17:02
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HEY NONG MAN posted:Public facing. There is a special parking structure you pull into in front then someone comes out with your groceries and you drive away. Is Amazon secretly Dahir Insaat?
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Apr 25, 2017 17:53
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SpaceCadetBob posted:I know being pro capitalism is pretty politically incorrect here in D&D, but I've recently read two really decent books that go over how certain businesses are really succeeding in the marketplace by re-focusing their company purpose to care more about customers and employees and not focus solely on increasing shareholder stock prices at the expense of everything else. Haha, you're talking to me, the guy who was screamed at in the Democrats thread for suggesting that running on "full communism now" is actually really dumb/bad and that competition can be a good motivator. This is good stuff, thanks for the links.
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Apr 25, 2017 17:53
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Cicero posted:I'm kind of surprised they have a person do this instead of a conveyor belt or something. Seems like that'd be a way easier thing to automate than drone deliveries. They have a person stand outside at the parking stalls and another person standing outside at the store (I presume to receive customers who don't have a car). They always look miserable and cold.
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Apr 25, 2017 18:11
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OwlFancier posted:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_4qKt6Wr5w I can't wait to spend a night in my personal hell cube!
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Apr 25, 2017 18:28
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OneEightHundred posted:I'm guessing that if it's practical to convert old factories into office space and mixed use, which is pretty common, then it's practical to do the same to a mall. You'd still have to gut the interior, but things like "the Cinnabon kiosk" would cease to exist, mid-mall stores are separated by walls that can be easily removed. Sewer AFAIK isn't actually that big of a problem as malls already have significant sewer capacity for the employee restrooms that you just never see. Old factories and mills are made of brick and steel and have features like windows which are often charming. We've also been programmed to see conversions of those spaces as desirable. Dead malls are grim blasted hellscapes with leaky roofs and no windows and blueprints unsuited to the living space of real people.
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Apr 25, 2017 18:52
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ultravoices posted:Old factories and mills are made of brick and steel and have features like windows which are often charming. We've also been programmed to see conversions of those spaces as desirable. You can already put new windows in and replace the roof though. Factory/warehouse/mill refurbishment into housing that's legal instead of the impovised illegal squats such residences are meant to evoke require tons of interior and exterior reworking in the first place to meet living standards.
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Apr 25, 2017 19:15
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fishmech posted:You can already put new windows in and replace the roof though. Factory/warehouse/mill refurbishment into housing that's legal instead of the impovised illegal squats such residences are meant to evoke require tons of interior and exterior reworking in the first place to meet living standards. Fair enough. A dead mall close to my workplace just came down after five-ish years of being vacant over the course of the last month. Some of the anchors were originally outposts of downtown department stores and the build quality was charming and could have been spun as desirable if converted. The covered arcades for the stores connecting them were added later and that looked like any pile of random concrete. But no one wanted to convert that whole pile into something else, despite plans being floated over the years, so they tore it all down and reportedly a multi use development will be going in its place.
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Apr 25, 2017 19:46
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Because Vegas decided in the mid 2000s that shopping would displace clubs as the profit centers, they built a ton of shopping (and many other projects were scheduled and never happened), so my instincts with this sort of retailer is to judge it based on how many storefronts here will close. Bebe is ridiculous. Six stores on the Strip and only one in the suburbs. I wonder why they thought they needed to be in every shopping complex. They could have closed at least two of them, given that one is in kind of a lousy location and two are in malls that are across the street from each other. H&M only has three stores in the same area (though they don't do outlet malls and you could argue they should have four.)
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Apr 25, 2017 20:00
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axeil posted:Haha, you're talking to me, the guy who was screamed at in the Democrats thread for suggesting that running on "full communism now" is actually really dumb/bad and that competition can be a good motivator. I was definitely not implying you were full communism if that's how I came across. Mainly wanted to post those links after the most recent discussion, and your post was just the most convenient to quote. I run a small business in an industry that is certainly lacking in conscious capitalism, but I find the concepts applicable and have already seen some small return on investment by changing how we approach projects compared to our competitors.
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Apr 25, 2017 20:51
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I feel like the problem is that nice capitalism is successful when there's megacorp dickheads to compete with. Theres always going to be this race to the bottom. Kind of like how the murderous dictator isn't a feature of full communism now but tends to pop up.
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Apr 25, 2017 21:12
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Also it still serves to concentrate wealth into the hands of a few while denying agency to the majority of workers. That's bad also.
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Apr 25, 2017 21:30
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Yeah regardless of where you fall on the full communism now spectrum, it's reprehensible that treating your employees well and paying them living wages is like some kind of outlying concept for retail companies. Government should have stepped in long ago on this and it's criminal how much wages have been allowed to stagnate in the last thirty years given the growth of GDP. Capitalism is still plenty awful, even if there's a handful of less terrible companies out there.
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Apr 26, 2017 02:30
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Cicero posted:Coastal California desperately needs more housing yesterday, what's the downside? Increased water use and transportation/infrastructure issues, mostly. One rainy season isn't gonna turn around the fact we live in a desert.
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Apr 26, 2017 03:24
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I forgot to mention earlier but, major shopping centers usually have pretty good public transportation if the area has public transit at all. It's not uncommon in the least for a big mall or something to become a de facto hub for transit routes in suburbia and spread out areas of certain cities. This feature is one reason that conversions of all or part of a failing mall to purposes like a new county college branch or plain old office space can work out well - students and employees can both travel much easier than to an office park or campus opened in traditional industrial parks or other outlying areas. One good example of mall-as-transit-hub is the White Marsh Mall outside of Baltimore, MD. The Mall not only routinely serves as the terminus/transfer hub for 4 different MTA Baltimore bus lines going to the northeast suburbs from downtown and other suburbs, it's also used as a Megabus stop for services from a few other cities (so Megabus can avoid the hassles of actually going all the way into Downtown, since they can rely on bus service from White Marsh to handle those connections). You can check it out here: https://mta.maryland.gov/sites/default/files/MTA-Regional-Transit_0.pdf
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Apr 26, 2017 03:44
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ultravoices posted:Old factories and mills are made of brick and steel and have features like windows which are often charming. We've also been programmed to see conversions of those spaces as desirable. fishmech posted:I forgot to mention earlier but, major shopping centers usually have pretty good public transportation if the area has public transit at all. It's not uncommon in the least for a big mall or something to become a de facto hub for transit routes in suburbia and spread out areas of certain cities.
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Apr 26, 2017 06:09
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What happens to all these retail and big box buildings once the business leaves? As much as I wish the real estate could just be turned into parks or gardens or whatever the truth is that demolition is expensive and what ends up happening is the building gets left to rot and crumble, the parking lots crack and weeds come through and everyone just ignores it. Now with the pace accelerating and more and more strip malls closing, do we just have to live with these carcasses of former buildings littering towns or is there a plan to tear down / re purpose?
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Apr 26, 2017 17:28
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Change the rotten buildings with weeds popping through concrete to green brutalism art exhibits. you barely have to change a thing!
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Apr 26, 2017 18:02
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OneEightHundred posted:Converting a mall into residential isn't really practical, converting it into office space probably is though. I've seen both small community colleges and high schools use mall space.
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Apr 26, 2017 18:09
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Glass of Milk posted:Increased water use and transportation/infrastructure issues, mostly. One rainy season isn't gonna turn around the fact we live in a desert. As far as transportation/infrastructure goes, same thing, denser = better. Much better to have apartment complexes in cities than push the growth to sprawling suburban tracts at the edges.
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Apr 26, 2017 18:39
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935 posted:What happens to all these retail and big box buildings once the business leaves? today, swap meets. tomorrow, homeless containment zones.
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Apr 26, 2017 20:12
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935 posted:What happens to all these retail and big box buildings once the business leaves? As much as I wish the real estate could just be turned into parks or gardens or whatever the truth is that demolition is expensive and what ends up happening is the building gets left to rot and crumble, the parking lots crack and weeds come through and everyone just ignores it. Now with the pace accelerating and more and more strip malls closing, do we just have to live with these carcasses of former buildings littering towns or is there a plan to tear down / re purpose? One abandoned big box strip mall in my hometown area had part of the massive parking lot taken for a senior living apartment tower, and then the strip mall part proper had the interior walls knocked out to form one continuous open space down the length of it. They then moved the nearest permanent flea market into it when its old building closer to Philly was scheduled to be torn down for some other development project. In the process of moving the flea market, they were able to construct a bunch of ministores inside the building so that the big time sellers basically operate as more typical stores, while still having a ton of space for the hobbyist sellers. A lot of places though they just get torn down intentionally, or some rear end in a top hat kids do an arson and they burn down of course.
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Apr 26, 2017 21:09
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Here's the parking structure for that amazon fresh pickup store
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Apr 26, 2017 21:15
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Does Amazon plan to expand Fresh stores to Texas to compete with Whole Foods, now that Albertsons might buy them?
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Apr 26, 2017 21:17
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935 posted:What happens to all these retail and big box buildings once the business leaves? It get converted into something people will go to, or at worst case for storage. Costco abandoned a building in my hometown in 1997, which got converted into a 16 screen multiplex that's still running. By 2000 Costco had built a second warehouse building a half a mile away from it because of course they did.
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Apr 26, 2017 22:09
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dex_sda posted:Change the rotten buildings with weeds popping through concrete to green brutalism art exhibits. you barely have to change a thing! Put a ticket booth out front and charge people for an "urban exploration experience".
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Apr 26, 2017 22:49
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Turn the big box stores into weed grow ops
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Apr 26, 2017 23:14
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OneEightHundred posted:The experiment on those is still being run, but a lot of what investors are doing now reminds me of the Dotcom Bubble, throwing shitloads of money at rapidly-expanding tech brands that haven't proven that they have a profitable business model. We're either going to wind up with the New Economy, or it's all going to explode, and there's the comedy outcome of these highly-disruptive tech companies being disrupted out of their own market niche by other companies. The Amazon event being discussed is essentially a #humblebrag that they are succeeding without showing MAXIMUM PROFIT every quarter (they re-invest into themselves as much as possible), as opposed to how places like Sears do it, which is to attempt MAXIMUM PROFIT every quarter while screaming they are not owned and turning into a corncob. That's not really "late stage capitalism," that's good business sense and has been since the beginning. It's the other guys who are going under and trying to drag the economy with them. quote:What happens to all these retail and big box buildings once the business leaves? I'd be surprised if this hasn't been posted in this thread yet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h78geZglBiQ&t=101s For the most part they just sit there.
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Apr 27, 2017 01:00
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I was tempted to suggest "they get recycled as urbex youtube videos."
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Apr 27, 2017 01:03
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Anubis posted:Fun look at how bankruptcy can cause a total unrecoverable meltdown even if the numbers look like they might be able to pull out. I worked in Topeka at a place that has been poaching a lot of talent from Payless corporate as of late. During my last week one of the ex-employees was saying how their corporate offices had a broken A/C but they couldn't get any of the local companies to come out and fix it because no one believed that they'd actually get paid (due to previously unpaid bills held up in court). If you can't keep your HQ below 80 in the summer, you might as well pack it up, really. I'd be shocked if payless was still a thing in 2 years, based on the stories I've heard from their corporate people. Has shoeless always sold lovely off-brand shoes? I remember them selling brand name before...But last time I stepped in it was all lovely offbrand stuff. I think Shoeless could have done really well if they targetted an upscale market with trendy shoes. Shoe sales for urban shoes have gone up and become more popular over the past few years.
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