Difficult news about Bowl & Board

[magpie-leah.livejournal.com]

Did anyone else hear that story today on NPR about Bowl & Board? For many years I have really appreciated this small "chain" of stores for carrying interesting home goods. It was heart wrenching to hear about the difficulties they are facing.

You can read the article here but I highly recommend listening to the audio version:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103818978

One thing the reporter said which was interesting was that in tough economic times, landlords should think about working out a reduced rent situation, if possible, rather than booting a store out on their ass and then having an empty unrented storefront for months and months.

(I don't think that's exactly what happened here but it seems like plenty of other stores are closing due to not being able to afford their rent right now or not being able to afford increases in their rent right now.)

Let's hope Bowl & Board can make it through these tough times!

Edited to add... I didn't realize this at first but I guess this is part of a series of 5 articles so far about Bowl & Board http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101946050

Comments

[ron_newman]

Bankruptcy?? I had no idea.

This story makes me really regret having voted for Rosemary Macero for Governor's Council back in 2006.

(by the way, what you linked to was actually the March 16 story. This is today's installment.)

[magpie-leah.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link correction, Ron. I just updated the post.

[mattdm.livejournal.com]

wow, that sucks. thanks for posting.

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

that stinks!

anyone know if purchasing from the store in Davis helps out the other stores, since it's all connected?

[vibrantabyss.livejournal.com]

Anything that shows the company is keeping even or at least not sinking fast will be useful fodder in arguing the court should keep it going. And they have some damn nice sales going on...

high rents

[tuftsgirl79.livejournal.com]

I too am saddened to read that it has not gotten better for the owner of B & B.

The landlords in Davis need to realize it is no longer the same climate it was years ago, not even close.

I would bet anything his rent there is $15,000. Who can survive with that kind of rent in this economic climate? A big box store, maybe a cellphone store? A bank?

Yes, I agree it is better than an empty storefront, but then again maybe an empty storefront would send a message to the landlords in the square.

I have had more than one friend or co-worker try to open a business in Davis or surrounding squares and they just couldn't afford rents that are 7-15k a month.

I hope B & B pulls thru, but I also hope that the owner doesn't kill himself trying to keep a place alive that is no longer viable. Who knows what will happen to B & B when the Ikea finally opens in Somerville.

[squonk.livejournal.com]

Oh, my God. I had no idea.

I just bought a beautiful cottage cabinet from Bowl & Board, which I am using as an entertainment center. It's the most money I've ever spent on a single piece of furniture that wasn't a sofabed, but I spotted it and had to have it in my living room. It was marked down pretty steeply, and they marked down my delivery, too. The woman I'd last talked to about it--she seemed like a manager--had mentioned their "delivery guy," so I was surprised when the truck showed up and she was hauling the piece up herself, along with a decidedly non-delivery-guy-looking gentleman whom she called Mark. I am pretty sure that this was Mark Giarrusso.

I feel like sending them a card or a casserole or something.

Re: high rents

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

The article seemed to indicate that the landlord causing the major issues was in Brookline, actually.

[pjmorgan.livejournal.com]

I like Bowl and Board too, and I'd like for Somerville to retain as many local or at least not national stores/chains for variety. That said, lets be careful about calling Bowl and Board a victim. They practiced very poor financial planning and the landlord is the victim here and we are in no position to tell them what they should do. Bowl and Board agreed to pay rent every month and violated that agreement. I think the landlord is in a better decision to decide how to handle the situation than we are.

If we want more local places and less empty storefronts, I would suggest we look at streamlining the process to opening stores so more small business owners might choose to do so. Its lengthy, cumbersome confusing and can take a year and little of this bureacracy and time delays add any value. Whatever value is added by the process by the city could be added in less time. Naturally, larger more experienced chains are going to be more able to navigate through these landmines. A local business person is going to have trouble putting their life savings at stake when the city can hold them hostage at any point in the process for months at a time.

[ron_newman]

What process are you referring to? Generally when a retail store replaces another retail store, no zoning approvals of any kind are needed. Storefronts don't stay empty in Davis Square very long.

[pjmorgan.livejournal.com]

Is that really true? There's no bureaucracy? Why did it take Sherman's one year to open in Union Square?

[ron_newman]

Are we talking here about retail stores or restaurants? The latter have more regulation due to health issues, I think.

high rents

[tuftsgirl79.livejournal.com]

It is true that Davis storefronts do not last long, but that Bowl and Board space was empty for at least 6 months after M & M closed.

I know someone who had inquired about the space and it was initially 20k because it has a large basement space as well as the retail space.

That is an absurd amount of money. Those days are over. Landlords everywhere are going to have to take a good look at what sort of prices they are asking. Unfortunately this will probably not help Bowl and Board is their situation in the here and now.

I agree with the other post, Bowl and Board should have known better when they tried to get out of their Brookline lease without realizing the repercussions. That is Business 101.

I have been in to B & B many times and have yet to purchase anything, even when I wanted to find something after reading the NPR article.

Re: high rents

[ron_newman]

Looking back in this tag, I see that McIntyre & Moore closed at the end of March 2008, while Bowl & Board had opened by mid-August. Four and half months doesn't seem to me an unreasonable amount of time for that.

I don't think we should demonize the Gorin family who are the landlords of Bowl & Board (and Poor Little Rich Girl). They have always tried to rent to local businesses instead of chains.

[ron_newman]

There are only two other stores remaining, Martha's Vineyard and Providence, according to their website.

[haptotrope.livejournal.com]

I think by having an empty storefront at a demonstrated high rent, it can equal a pretty huge tax write off.. and depending on the scenario, that can be serious money.

[smoterh.livejournal.com]

Tax write offs are based on expenses not foregone revenue. So if the landlord has the storefront rented or not, they are going to write off the expenses, regardless of the occupancy.

You're right however that since the store will not be occupied, the landlord will not be receiving revenue and therefore their tax contribution will be smaller.

[tt02144.livejournal.com]

This is unfortunate, but unfortunately not unique. There are many, many people in the same situation across the country. So many businesses have already closed or downsized, with employees laid off. Of course, if the government was interested in helping the people they would do something about the high taxes paid not only by individuals, but especially by businesses. Many have suggested that payroll taxes be suspended for 6 months, but instead we get a 'tax cut' of $12.00 a week which is supposed to help us. Meantime, the government is preparing to raise taxes significantly to pay for their all of their new programs!