How has Covid-19 and the ever-evolving retail landscape affected Jacksonville in the past few years?

 How has Covid-19 and the ever-evolving retail landscape affected Jacksonville in the past few years?

 

·      The Avenues Mall

The Avenues, now 30 years old, is slowly declining. The defunct Sears remains blocked off and has not been replaced, even after a year. This does not mean that it won’t be filled by something in the future. 

More and more brands have made their exit from the Avenues, leaving empty spaces for rent that are getting filled by off-brands, bottom dollar fashion lines and small independent retail ventures such as a wine boutique and an olive oil specialist. 

The Gap, Banana Republic, Jos A Bank, New York and Co, Cotton On, PayLess Shoe Source and now Francesca’s have all shuttered their stores at this location. Some of these brands have closed in other locations as well.  In the case of NY and Co and Payless, all of the stores have closed.

Major retailers JC Penney and Forever 21 have seen some financial woes and face possible bankruptcy, which could mean the shuttering of two more anchors in the future.  

·      The St. Johns Town Center

The Town Center continues to add on to itself and change, but it also has faced some decline in parts. Most recently, when a high fashion brand left its spot on the corner outside of Nordstrom, Tommy Bahama’s new concept restaurant and Marlin Bar took over. After months of remodeling, it is open.

A new large structure is being built across the main strip from Nordstrom.

An entire line of shops that was directly outside of the Nordstrom, that opened in 2014 with the new department store, have all vanished except for Free People. An independent boutique, Disney Store, Yankee Candle, a formal wear store and Natural Life have all closed down. This is in the newest part of the town center.

In the older portions, most of the stores are still open and only a few have been replaced by something else. The Gap and Baby Gap closed and are still vacant, Justice for Girls is also gone. 

Along the lifestyle plaza section of the town center, the Pier One has gone alone with all other Pier One stores. A Christian bookstore and the Dress Barn brand have all closed in the past few years. 

Across Town Center Parkway, where a series of new restaurants and an Aldi were built along with a new location for Best Buy,  and on the other side where Best Buy used to sit, several of the restaurants have failed. 

Brio Tuscan Grill has gone this year, BlackFinn closed at least a year ago, a Moe’s location has closed and Pei Wei has closed. Toys R Us and Buy Buy Baby closed when Toys R Us went bankrupt. A large furniture store has also closed down. 

 

·      Regency Square Mall

I have not had a logical excuse to drive over to the Arlington district of Jacksonville for a long time, but from a recent update I saw that Regency has continued to dwindle to almost nothing and the Dillard’s Clearance was the only anchor left.  The mall suffered an air-conditioning failure last year and it was unclear if that was repaired or not. Plans for a large company to turn it into outlet stores fell through. A new investor was recently considering taking the mall on and possibly demolishing part of it to create shopping centers. A church has taken over the Belk space in the center of the mall and has also shown interest in utilizing other parts of the mall.

 

·      The Jacksonville Landing

The Landing, which counted as a shopping mall, was opened in the late 1980’s. When I would visit it in the late 2000’s, most of the mall shops were closed or occupied by bottom dollar independent retailers. There were only a few restaurants left, and they were tourist-trap style establishments with “so-so” food. There was a nightclub, but this later closed. The whole interior portion of the Landing had a tired old “inner city subway” vibe to it, with its dim lighting in places, dirty tiles and musty smell. It was clear, even ten years ago, that it was on its way out. 

City of Jacksonville developers had been proposing ideas for replacement structures since the early 2000’s, but only recently was something done.

In 2018, a deadly shooting occurred in a gaming bar inside the main building.

This hastened the City’s decisions to make change happen.

In spring of this year, amidst all of the Covid-19 shutdowns, the entire Landing structure was demolished. 

Now as 2020 draws to a close, a plan for the vacant site to be sodded temporarily has been called for. I have been near that part of downtown this year, but have not gone close enough to the site to see if it was covered in lawn grass or not. Over the course of the next few years, proposals have been made to build apartments, restaurants and maybe a museum. 

 

·      The St. Augustine Outlets

The Premium, outdoor-facing outlet mall has lost some stores in the past few years including Zales, Nine West, Cotton-On and a few others. Nine West and Cotton-On closed all of their stores nationwide from what I understand.

Overall, the mall is still very busy. Perhaps it is not racking in the sales numbers that it was ten or fifteen years ago, but it is still packed out on some days with minimal parking. 

The Prime Outlet, on the other hand... it continues to shrink much like Regency Square Mall. Now almost every forward-facing external shop that was newly opened in the 2008 expansion has closed down. On the left side of Saks (Which is still open), only Talbots and Guess remain from the original lineup. Vanity Fair filled in the old Cold Water Creek, but had only moved from its former space where Old Navy is now. Francesca’s opened in the mid-2010’s but was formerly Juicy Couture in 2008. Hugo Boss, Kenneth Cole, BCBG, 2B Bebe and Escada have all gone. On the right side of Saks, more stores have survived than on the left including Michael Kors, Loft, Cole Haan, Dooney Bourke and a sunglasses store. Gucci was the first to close just one year after the new stores opened, and American Apparel closed when most of the stores nationwide were shut down. 

Inside the mall is another store all together. Entire corridors are vacant now.

To me, it seems like the mall is basically kept afloat (just barely) by Saks, Old Navy, Vanity Fair, Bealls Outlet and H&M. Lucky Brand is still open as well. It opened on the interior in 2008 when the exterior opened. There is also a Famous Footwear, Bon Worth, a tool store, Bath and Bodyworks, Zales, Nautica, a fudge shop and a couple of NFL and college football themed stores. 

Stores like Disney, Body Shop, Coleman and Dress Barn left some time ago. One by one, the other interior stores on the more populated side of the mall have shuttered. Journeys, Rue 21, Papaya and Charlotte Russe closed a few years back, as well as the “as seen on TV” store on the other side.

Pacsun shut down not too long before the pandemic, as a bankruptcy filing caused them to close a few but not all stores. New York and Company closed this past summer, along with its other stores. 

In the food court, one space has been vacant for years and the Pretzel Twister shut down recently. The other four spaces are (I think) still occupied. 

       

·      Brands that vanished in 2020

Label scars are not just peppering local malls. Some big names in retail have met their demise this year possibly at the hands of Covid-19.  

o   Stein Mart stores are completely gone, the last of them having closed this fall.

o   Pier One imports began liquidation of all of its stores and officially closed down at the end of the summer.

o   NY&Co closed all of its stores, but is still operating its website.

o   Jos A Bank and Mens Warehouse, owned by the same parent company, filed for Bankruptcy but so far have only planned to close 500 stores and not all of them.

o   Justice For Girls was already ailing but closed its remaining stores, or made plans to close them in a few months, this year in the midst of the pandemic. 

 

Brands that may still vanish in the near future

 

o   Ascena, the company that owns Justice, also owns Ann Taylor, Loft and Lane Bryant. The company has filed for bankruptcy and closures of a number of those stores is yet to come in the next year or so

o   Brooks Brothers will close a number of stores after its bankruptcy this year.

o   GNC has been closing stores as malls fall into decline, but the entire chain may soon be defunct.

o   JCPenney filed for bankruptcy and was already ailing before the pandemic. It plans to close many more stores, but not all yet.

o   JCrew filed for bankruptcy this year and may close many stores next year

·      Brands that will shrink by a few hundred locations because of the pandemic

o   Bed Bath and Beyond

o   GameStop

o   Tuesday Morning

o   Victoria’s Secret

o   Chicos

o   Forever 21

o   Walgreens

o   Office Depot

 

And these lists only cover the affected stores we have in the Jacksonville Metro area... there are many other brands, such as Lord and Taylor or Modell’s Sporting Goods, that don’t have locations near our area. 

 

 

Whatever Happened To...

Whatever happened to some bottom dollar but popular fashion names of my youth?

 I crossed the threshold into becoming a teenager in the year 2000.

That means, for me, those ever so crucial years of scoping out fashion trends from teen magazines and weekend mall-hopping with my mother and besties fell during the early 2000’s.

My favorite mall stores in 2003 and 2004 and beyond still exist today. The early 2000’s were part of the heyday of preppy teen fashions like polo shirts, low rise boot-cut jeans with “bedazzling”, shirts with brand names in bold across the chest and overpriced colorful leather flip-flops. At least, that’s what was king in Florida at the time.  The “cool kids” (AKA the rich crowd with no rules) donned Hollister hoodies, LaCoste Polo shirts, Abercrombie and Fitch Jeans that were so low they bared the entire midriff and American Eagle graphic tees. Each tee had a secret hidden adult message in its image, like an ad for a fictitious Laundromat that said “Drop your shorts here”.

As one of the more oddball children in my class, I was not wealthy enough to drop hundreds at these stores each month nor was I permitted to wear clothes that would have basically made me into a walking sexual innuendo. Still, despite all the odds, my favorite brands were Hollister and American Eagle in those days. I would buy it second hand, accept the hand-me-downs from my next-door neighbor who WAS one of “the cool kids” and shop the clearance sales. My mom would filter the content and require that I wear colorful layering tank-tops, also a trend at the time, under the crop tops that didn’t leave enough to the imagination. (That’s right. Crop tops aren’t just something that’s become popular since the late 2010’s.) Both stores still exist to this day, as well as Abercrombie and Fitch and LaCoste, but most of them have had to re-brand at least once. Some have gone through financial hardship, and all but LaCoste have had to adopt and adapt the “hipster” look that became huge for the youth of the late 2010’s. Form-fitting polos in bright pink (for BOTH men and women) have been replaced by loose-fitting, over-sized black “cozy” sweaters, grunge plaid and purposeful tears.

Since I was NOT one of the wealthy “it” crowd, and my parents did shop on a budget, I also got acquainted with some lower-end but still cute names in fashion. My mother always preached “quality over quantity” but sometimes I would indulge these made-in-China knockoffs of the most popular styles for teenage girls. Around that time, Forever 21 was starting to rise to fame. In my area. It might have already been popular in bigger cities but in my neck of the woods in central Florida, it didn’t exist. To have a shopping spree at the gigantic low-cost fashion retailer, one would have to trek 45 minutes to a very classy upscale mall in Orlando. Once I moved to an area south of Jacksonville, I had to make a trek to one of two not-so-upscale malls to go to a mini version of this store, until the two-story one opened in an old Belk space at the closer of the two malls. Forever 21 still exists to this day, but is falling into some hard times. And the quality gets cheaper every year.

But what about some of the other names? The names that were very common at that time, but that you never see now? Models in Seventeen would be wearing cute outfits with at least one piece being from one of these stores. My friends would want to go to these stores on our girls-day-out, because most of the time, we didn’t have $100 between us. These stores were in every mall and sometimes the large strip malls in the area.

Welcome to “Whatever Happened To...”

#1: 5-7-9

This low-cost fashion retailer was created in the 80’s to cater to young women that were three of the most common sizes in America at the time. It neither catered to emaciated girls nor curvy ones.

Today it has evolved to offer sizes for all body types, from petite to plus. Most of the stores have closed, but the ones that still exist seem to be owned by Rainbow. These two companies were intertwined.

I only saw the stores in the malls of bigger cities than mine, like Tampa and Orlando. I frequently saw an article of clothing from the store on a model when I would paw through Seventeen or one of the other teen magazines for outfit ideas. The girl would be wearing an outfit with a theme, like “spring weekend” and her cute jacket worn over her floral, flowy top would advertise as being from 5-7-9. I don’t think I personally ever shopped there, though.

#2: DOTS

If Forever 21 was lower-cost fashion, DOTS was bargain-bin fashion. We’re talking about the types of clothes that start to unravel or fade within a few washes. Still, I would happily join my girlfriends in burrowing through those bargain racks on a Saturday to find essentials like tanks and tees for only $3.

The DOTS store in my town was located in the largest strip mall on the Southside at that time. This strip included a movie theater and three discount “department stores”: Marshall’s, Ross and Stein Mart. A larger outdoor shopping center has since been built, and while all three of those stores are still there, the movie theater is now Hobby Lobby. DOTS has been extinct for at least a decade.

DOTS filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2014 and closed all 360 of its stores since then.

#3: Gadzooks

This store was fun. Every location contained half of a classic Volkswagen Beetle, either coming out of the wall or attached to a display table. This store also seemed to channel remnants of 90’s “Rave Culture” well into the 2000’s. I was too young to be part of that, but I liked some of the looks, especially the resurfacing of 60’s “flower child” style. I remember being fourteen or fifteen and finding huge platform sandals, bell-bottomed jeans and colorful tops that looked like party clothes to me.

Gadzooks, like 5-7-9, had also been created in the 1980’s. It was originally just meant for T-shirts. Where they went wrong was when they reduced the merchandise to only women’s in 2003, they ran some backwards-seeming ads that went against the feminist culture that’s been slowly rising up in America since around that time. Later on, they would have to file bankruptcy twice. Forever 21 Purchased many of the stores as the brand went defunct.

I actually remember this merger. It was in the late 2000’s. I lived south of Metro Jacksonville by then. There was a tiny Gadzooks store in the mall closest to me that informed me one day that Forever 21 was buying them out. I was happy... I loved Forever 21! The tiny store received its Forever 21 logo above the door. Then, Forever 21 rented out a huge two-story space in the mall and that store closed to merge into the larger one.

#4: Anchor Blue

This one was not on my radar for most of my youth. In fact, it didn’t even exist in my area at all until (I think) after I left that town to go to college. Somewhere in that time frame, an Anchor store opened up in the mall in my hometown. I still would not have known about it, if it weren’t for a boy I dated in my senior year of high school. While he liked more gothic-seeming attire, His younger sister and her friends adored Anchor Blue. They had gotten familiar with it during the few short years he and his family lived in Arizona. They talked about it more than once, which made me curious.

During one visit home while I was in college, most likely one of the two summers I went back, I went for a walk through the Anchor Blue store that had opened up in the mall there. To be honest, it wasn’t anything special to me. I saw a collection of jeans that were mostly embellished on the back pockets. This was popular in the mid-2000’s. I also saw a wide selection of graphic tees with either band references or comical content, and some short dresses and other popular teen fashions for that time. To me, it looked like a mash-up of Hot Topic’s graphics minus the “goth”, Don Ed Hardy jean knockoffs, Forever 21’s skirts and dresses, and all of it Beall’s Outlet quality at American Eagle prices.  I’ll be honest: these friends I used to have talked it up so much, I was actually kind of looking forward to it. Then when I arrived, I was disappointed. I don’t even remember if I bought something or just kept window-shopping.

If that was around 2006 or 2007, its run was short-lived. In 2011, the brand filed for bankruptcy and closed all of its stores.

To be continued...

*I do not own these logos or images