130 replies to this topic

[DigitalSky]

StevenRocks, on Apr 19 2006, 04:49 PM, said:

Definately give it a shot. I can't promise you'll like it, but it won't be a wasted trip, I'm sure.

I might give it a shot this summer.

Edited by cantnot, 24 April 2006 - 01:21 AM.

[DigitalSky]

cantnot, on Apr 18 2006, 05:04 PM, said:

Now that Belk at Mall of Georgia is open, it would be nice if Simon updated their mall map.

I just want to say, 2 months later, Simon still has NOT updated the Mall of GA map.

[AubieTurtle]

How about these views of Mall of Georgia

Edited by AubieTurtle, 16 June 2006 - 04:56 PM.

[Abe2M12]

Personally Belk is not that bad, but i'd still prefer Lord and Taylor. The 4 story 275,000+ sq flagship at SouthPark in Charlotte is really impressive. I think its nicer than Dillards at Atlantic station or Macy's at lenox which happens to be the southeast flagship. They have oscar de la renta, theory, and stuart wietzman (can't spell), I guess its proper because SouthPark is the equivalent in Charlotte of what lenox/phipps is to Atlanta. I guess belk doesn't have a big image in atlanta because atlanta already has enough department stores (macys dillards parisians nordstrom, etc) and thats why its image in N.C, S.C, and south GA is more positive, because there are very few macys and parisians. The Belks in those areas actually rise above one floor and 150,00 sq ft. As for Mall of Georgia, I hate it.... whenever i drove by on my way to Charlotte i always wanted to stop and visit, and then i finally did. It was a disappointment, its just a really big mall with very few special stores like Benetton (no mens section though :( ) A|X and Nordstrom, but thats about it....the Nordstrom wasn't that cool anyway, and the dillards was very wornout. I mean its a good mall but it seems just like town center in Kennesaw, except newer and bigger and no vacant department store. I wish town center would demand macys to take its ugly furniture store out of the huge 3 story old macys building and put something cool like bloomingdales, but that will never happen, so i'll just keep driving to perimeter. MOG is decent but nothing special in my book just the big factor.

[Fear of Heights]

No offense, I'm having a hard time getting pumped up about Belks. I can only go by the fact that there is a Belks in SELMA, Alabama of all places. A once OK sized city of 40,000 way back in its heyday in the 70s that has floundered ever since. Selma, my hometown, has a Belks located at the Selma Mall. This mall has been a joke for 20 years now and couldn't support McRaes, which is considered a pretty good mid ranged retailer. The mall has horrible occupancy and Belks buyout resulted in them putting a store there. Any retailer that is willing to waste there time in a city that can only support a Super Walmart isn't trying very hard in my opinion. What's a shame is that Belks is gonna to buy going to or has already bought Parisians, an upper middle range retailer with a very long history in the Macys range of retailer and turn them in to McChain retailers. They've already ruined a very nice Parisians story at the Riverchase Galleria in Bham.

Back to the original subject, going from a Nordstrom to a Belk at the Mall of Georgia? I've been in that mall and it deserves better.

[StevenRocks]

Fear of Heights, on Jun 20 2006, 03:52 PM, said:

Any retailer that is willing to waste there time in a city that can only support a Super Walmart isn't trying very hard in my opinion.

I think you're neglecting the fact that not everybody in Selma wants to shop at Wal-Mart.

Fear of Heights, on Jun 20 2006, 03:52 PM, said:

Back to the original subject, going from a Nordstrom to a Belk at the Mall of Georgia? I've been in that mall and it deserves better.

They've gone form Lord & Taylor to Belk. Nordstrom is still there.

[gsupstate]

Fear of Heights, on Jun 20 2006, 01:52 PM, said:

No offense, I'm having a hard time getting pumped up about Belks. I can only go by the fact that there is a Belks in SELMA, Alabama of all places. A once OK sized city of 40,000 way back in its heyday in the 70s that has floundered ever since. Selma, my hometown, has a Belks located at the Selma Mall. This mall has been a joke for 20 years now and couldn't support McRaes, which is considered a pretty good mid ranged retailer. The mall has horrible occupancy and Belks buyout resulted in them putting a store there. Any retailer that is willing to waste there time in a city that can only support a Super Walmart isn't trying very hard in my opinion. What's a shame is that Belks is gonna to buy going to or has already bought Parisians, an upper middle range retailer with a very long history in the Macys range of retailer and turn them in to McChain retailers. They've already ruined a very nice Parisians story at the Riverchase Galleria in Bham.

Back to the original subject, going from a Nordstrom to a Belk at the Mall of Georgia? I've been in that mall and it deserves better.

Belk is in Selma Mall because of the buyout of Proffitt's/McRae's division of Saks Inc. McRae's entered Selma in the early days of this company (when Proffitt's and McRae's had merged to become Proffitt's Inc, prior to the spending spree on Carsons, Younkers, Parisian and ultimately Saks to become Saks Inc). At the time McRae's opened in Selma, it was a square footage grab, to up the square footage of the company and make it look larger on paper. McRae's Selma store was always a "C" store and had abreviated lines of merchandise. "A" stores for McRae's like Northpark and West Town had more upper end merchandise. Same with Belk....they have A, B & C. Mall of Georgia will be an A. Selma and other small towns will remain a C. You can't judge a department store chain by their small town stores.

[kayman]

Fear of Heights, on Jun 20 2006, 02:52 PM, said:

No offense, I'm having a hard time getting pumped up about Belks. I can only go by the fact that there is a Belks in SELMA, Alabama of all places. A once OK sized city of 40,000 way back in its heyday in the 70s that has floundered ever since. Selma, my hometown, has a Belks located at the Selma Mall. This mall has been a joke for 20 years now and couldn't support McRaes, which is considered a pretty good mid ranged retailer. The mall has horrible occupancy and Belks buyout resulted in them putting a store there. Any retailer that is willing to waste there time in a city that can only support a Super Walmart isn't trying very hard in my opinion. What's a shame is that Belks is gonna to buy going to or has already bought Parisians, an upper middle range retailer with a very long history in the Macys range of retailer and turn them in to McChain retailers. They've already ruined a very nice Parisians story at the Riverchase Galleria in Bham.

Back to the original subject, going from a Nordstrom to a Belk at the Mall of Georgia? I've been in that mall and it deserves better.

Oh yeah FOH, the Parisian store at Riverchase is still there and still offering top-quality mechandise (for now). You mean the Proffitts store that Belk has ruined. It maybe an 'A' store for Belk, but its a crappy 'A' that seems more like a 'C' to me.

[memphian]

I visited the Proffitt's at Riverchase right after it first opened... they did some okay things but overall I was not impressed at all. I thought they did a bad job of renovating the store.

[kickazzz2000]

Some of you people really need to take a business course. In an economic environment where Department stores are closing and getting bought out left and right, who is doing a lot of the buying?

A company that sees that there is money to be made in smaller towns with C level stores as well. Belk.


I would encourage some of you to take a trip to small towns in upstate NY or exurban areas in NJ. Go find a Macys and tell me how upscale it was.

Edited by kickazzz2000, 03 August 2006 - 10:42 PM.

[kayman]

kickazzz2000, on Aug 3 2006, 11:42 PM, said:

Some of you people really need to take a business course. In an economic environment where Department stores are closing and getting bought out left and right, who is doing a lot of the buying?

A company that sees that there is money to be made in smaller towns with C level stores as well. Belk.
I would encourage some of you to take a trip to small towns in upstate NY or exurban areas in NJ. Go find a Macys and tell me how upscale it was.

I've taken one already, so I already know about "consolidation" (of everthing in life). The problem is the chain's perception with regular folks that happened to be of upper middle to upper income levels. They are the ones that Belk will have hell and high water to convince, not us. I'm already forseeing that Belk is in for a big surprise with some of these markets if think they can pull a fast one on folks b/c the people will do the same to them. Just look at Lord & Taylor and you know what I mean. Yes, I know Belk is a private company, but that doesn't matter to regular consumer either.

[StevenRocks]

Leonard23, on Aug 5 2006, 05:18 PM, said:

I've taken one already, so I already know about "consolidation" (of everthing in life). The problem is the chain's perception with regular folks that happened to be of upper middle to upper income levels. They are the ones that Belk will have hell and high water to convince, not us. I'm already forseeing that Belk is in for a big surprise with some of these markets if think they can pull a fast one on folks b/c the people will do the same to them. Just look at Lord & Taylor and you know what I mean. Yes, I know Belk is a private company, but that doesn't matter to regular consumer either.

What "fast one" is Belk trying to pull?

[kayman]

StevenRocks, on Aug 6 2006, 01:01 AM, said:

What "fast one" is Belk trying to pull?

Lower the quality of top locations under the consumer's noses at locations like Phipps, Brookwood, Summit, or CoolSprings. I've seen it happen with other chains and their buyouts before.

[StevenRocks]

Leonard23, on Aug 6 2006, 09:13 PM, said:

Lower the quality of top locations under the consumer's noses at locations like Phipps, Brookwood, Summit, or CoolSprings. I've seen it happen with other chains and their buyouts before.

There wouldn't be a point in doing that. A smart retailer would covet those type of demographics and cater to them, which is how I think Belk feels. I think the biggest thing that will change is the name and not the comittment to giving those shoppers what they want.

[DigitalSky]

I'm surprised at Simon Corp's apathy, not updating that mall map STILL!

[Kenneth Disraili-Jean]

StevenRocks, on Jun 20 2006, 06:55 PM, said:

I think you're neglecting the fact that not everybody in Selma wants to shop at Wal-Mart.

They've gone form Lord & Taylor to Belk. Nordstrom is still there.

And the Macy's is very nice also, and the Dillard's is nicer than Belk in my opinion, but the biggest news is Belk going in to posh Phipps Plaza. OMG, what will all those well heeled shoppers do????????????

[convulso]

well, phipps could always do as bayer properties in birmingham did, and sue belk to prevent its presence detracting from the upscale image of one of bayer's retail properties (the summit). the case was settled, a move seen here as something of a victory for bayer (who claims filing the suit was an effort to ensure that belk take the summit's upscale image seriously as it moves in on the parisian there, but not an attempt to tie belk's hands in the bham market).

all this yah-yahing is funny.

[Kenneth Disraili-Jean]

Well Convulso, I called Phipps Plaza management today, and they told me that they flew all the Phipps Parisian associates and managers to Charlotte to Southpark Mall to see thier flagship store. As you know Belk is headquarted in Charlotte and Southpark is their verson of Lenox. Anyway after seeing this 4 level store, all the Phipps associates were impressed and said " Oh, so this is what it is going to look like!" They seemed to be impressed due to the fact that it was more like a half Nordstrom- half Saks. They noticed that they carried brands not usually ever seen at Belk's such as Escada and Oscar de la Renta. Phipps officails have informed me that this will be a "Flagship Belk". This is all ok, but will the shoppers catch on and go for it. That will be interesting to see when the fall gets here and the name change is made official.

[convulso]

kennethdisraili, on May 10 2007, 07:21 AM, said:

......

that's pretty much the reaction of the bayer people to belk's concept of a proposed 'fourth flagship' store at the summit. once they heard the intention to offer brands exclusive to the flag stores, they settled down a bit. the suit was a smokescreen designed to ensure locals that belk would attempt to live up to parisian's image as a nice place, whatever that may mean.

but enough from me about the parisian / belk debacle in alabama. that's been burnt to a crisp in other forums on here and it always ends badly.

[VistaLakes01]

convulso, on May 11 2007, 04:35 AM, said:

that's pretty much the reaction of the bayer people to belk's concept of a proposed 'fourth flagship' store at the summit. once they heard the intention to offer brands exclusive to the flag stores, they settled down a bit. the suit was a smokescreen designed to ensure locals that belk would attempt to live up to parisian's image as a nice place, whatever that may mean.

but enough from me about the parisian / belk debacle in alabama. that's been burnt to a crisp in other forums on here and it always ends badly.

We've had two Belk stores open recently here in metro Orlando which brings the total to three and all three are different. The old one in Leesburg at Lake Square Mall is very crappy, the one that took over Parisian in Seminole Town Center is actually ok, up to date fashion-wise but very conservative. The most recent one to open that replaced McRaes in West Oaks Mall is very generic and very similar to Kohl's or JCPenney. They don't carry LaCoste but carry Izod and brands like Haggar and Gant. None of them even come close to Nordstrom or Bloomingdale's or our "real" Macy's at Millenia. Belk also opening a couple of lifestyle center stores in the metro, one at The Loop in Hunters Creek at one at Bella Collina in Clermont. Belk doesn't have a very good reputation with Orlando shoppers in the past, we used to think the Jacksonville retail scene was horrible because Belk was a major department store there (they've since gotten Dillard's and lost Parisian.)