The Nostalgia of Closed Stores

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/viral-photo-geoffrey-giraffe-last-154500540.html

     Business is business. It is cut and dry. Provide products and services that customers want, sell these same products at a high volume at a price higher than the cost of goods and production, and, voila, the business is profitable and can thrive and grow. Don’t do this and the opposite happens, the business loses money and will eventually have to cease operations, call it quits.
     This is not a one-time deal. Businesses have to do this continually. To make it even more challenging, competitors would love to steal market share and act aggressively to do just that. Markets and the preferences of customers are always changing. So, businesses need to be aware of all this and adapt and innovate their product and service offerings to remain competitive and relevant to their customers. As a result, some businesses expand and grow while others shrink and even go out of business.
     One need not look any further than the retail marketplace in the US to see these scenarios playing out in real time. Amazon is thriving and expanding in healthcare, pharmacy, and groceries while vertically integrating into transportation. The weaker, traditional brick and mortar stores are suffering. Toys R Us and Carson Pirie Scott are two chains that are closing down. Per the Wall Street Journal, mall vacancy is at a six year high at 8.6% and approaching the highs set during the depths of the Great Recession. This is simply due to the rise in online shopping which is certainly easier and often more affordable.
     While business is business, nostalgic memories of stores we loved are something different. Should we lament that Carson’s and Toys R Us have closed their doors? From one

https://twitter.com/dvickroy/status/987736410114404354

perspective, they lacked the insight, resolve, and management acumen to adapt. It is survival of the fittest and, simply, these two entities were no longer fit. On the other hand, customers liked these stores. There has been some serious lamenting about the demise of Toys R Us. It was, after all, a toy store and several generations grew up with fond memories of these cavernous fantasy land of toys. There have been photos posted on social media and in news sites, more of Toys R Us and less of Carson’s, about empty stores and even Geoffrey’s last day on the job.
     There is a sadness about seeing a place that was once vibrant with activity lay empty and dormant. I have felt that when I walk through plant, warehouse, store, school, or civic building that has closed. The greater the time we had spent at these places, the more nostalgic we tend to be about their closings. I am nostalgic about Sears even though they have yet to close their doors. It is odd that we lament when businesses close but realize that we had not patronized them for years. Folks in my generation and older from Detroit still speak nostalgically about the Downtown Hudson’s and what a grand place it was. But, when it closed, people had to have realized that they had not been there in years. On the other hand FAO Schwartz in New York City was a place that thousands in New York City visited at Christmastime. But it closed because, while lots of folks visited during the holidays, they bought their toys at Toys R Us and Walmart because they were cheaper there.
     The heart and pocket book operate very differently.

Downtown Detroit JL Hudson's in the day
http://detroitmemories.homestead.com/newsletters/HolidayDetroit.html