Slope's Love=? Closing
Another one bites the dust. The oddly-named women’s clothing store Love=? at 162 5th Avenue in Park Slope will be closing shortly, according to Gowanus Lounge. Retail rents in the area are going to have to start going down soon, no? There are a gazillion vacancies on Flatbush right now. Love=? on Fifth Going Bye…
Another one bites the dust. The oddly-named women’s clothing store Love=? at 162 5th Avenue in Park Slope will be closing shortly, according to Gowanus Lounge. Retail rents in the area are going to have to start going down soon, no? There are a gazillion vacancies on Flatbush right now.
Love=? on Fifth Going Bye Bye [GL] GMAP
I’m pretty sure the Salvation Army on Bergen/Flatbush is an exporter of goods to Salvation Armys elsewhere.
I’ve made several donations to them, and there donation room is always full of stuff, and periodically a very large truck will come by and load up all the recent donations and take them off to somewhere else.
I guess the north slope/prospect heights area has more donors than buyers.
There was just an article recently that the Montague Street Housing Works brought in over a million dollars in this past year…their first year open.
I really think they should consider a location on 7th Avenue. 5th already has a couple good thrift/vintage stores, and something like Housing Works with a bit more of an upscale selection would be a perfect fit, I think.
I also think Buffalo Exchange should consider a location on 5th Avenue.
I’m all for more thrift shops. Salvation Army has been closing locations in Brooklyn and Manhattan. The one on Fifth in the South Slope and the one in Bay Ridge both closed in the last few years. Housing Works opened on Montague, though. Until then there wasn’t a “real” thrift shop in Brooklyn Heights/Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens/Gowanus/Central Slope.
The liquor store taking over the chinese food place is moving from a few storefronts over – Garry’s Wine and Liquor.
Sure, the market has something to do with it, but frankly the reason that this store failed is much simpler. It wasn’t a very good store. I used to live a few doors down and they didn’t have many customers. The clothes were kind of crappy and at some point they started selling flowers. Not fancy arrangements, but bodega-style arrangements. It was just a weird place. I’m amazed it lasted this long.
northsloperenter – I may have overstated my point a bit, but lets be realistic – if you are an owner/operator of a retail store, working 6-7 days a week, with 10’s of (if not hundreds of) thousands of dollars invested in your physical store plus inventory, and your margin of ‘error’ is less than 20K, you are not long-term viable. Sure you might last a few more years, but fashion, economy, expenses, demographics, change and shift and you better be able to absorb a 20K turn (either in higher expenses or lower sales) or its only a matter of time before you fold.
the salvation army on Atlantic is awesome. Also the goodwill downtown somewhere is great as well.
“bring back a nice old fashioned salvation army or goodwill”
You are in luck. There is a Salvation Army on Flatbush and Bergen. Indeed, as you no doubt know, there are several used clothing stores on 5th.
“Does rent matter – sure but if the difference between opening and closing is a few thousand a month – then frankly the store isnt going to make it anyway.”
I think you overestimate the margins that these places operate under. 20-30k per year can make or break a lot of small businesses.
sometimes stores like these close because the only employees are the owners and they arnt making enough money to live.