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Belk coming to Mall Of Georgia


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StevenRocks probably knows more about this than me but destination malls usually have a misture of stores that are not readily found anywhere. I can tell you....that the Mall of Georgia does not have. Perimeter and Lenox/Phipps both have Atlanta's only Bloomingdales. Lenox has the only Neiman Marcus and Phipps the only Saks Fifth Avenue. Why in the world, if I live in Alpharetta, I will drive past Northpoint....which has Macy's, Parisian, Dillards, Sears and JCPenny to go to the Mall of Georgia to go to Macy's, Nordstrom, Dillards, JCPenny and soon to close Lord and Taylor. For Nordstrom you may ask....think again because it's easier for me to jump on GA400 and go to Perimeter Mall than cut cross to Gwinnett county.
You're quite right, Lady Celeste. Mall of Georgia is a beautiful mall overall, but there's not enough retail "meat" to it that makes people come back again and again. I still haven't made it there and don't plan to unless I just haappen to be nearby, because it's not that interesting to me beyond my basic interest in malls and its aesthetics.
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For northeastern GA - Mall of Georgia is a destination mall. Or even for some in upstate SC, as my aunt who lives in Spartanburg has visited the mall occassionaly. Perhaps for it's first year of existence it might have been a destination mall for Atlanta. But since then Mall of GA is just another mall in the metro area.

But I would assume for those living in Gainesville, Toccoa & various other northeastern GA towns, it is a destination mall. But for that matter, any regional mall on the peripherary of a metro area is a destination mall for the adjacent rural environs. In the 70's / 80's, South Park mall in Charlotte was a destination mall for much of north central SC, particularly Rock Hill.

But otherwise - I would agree the concept of a 'destination mall' is that it is so unique & it's merchandise one of a kind that it warrents a visit. In Atlanta, I can only think of Lenox & Phipps as destination malls. Arguably Atlantic Station due to it's architectual design would also be considered one.

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  • 1 month later...

Hi ....new here but been reading a while! Want to throw in my 2cents about Belk ....grew up in SC so Belk is a household name. I agree, nothing upscale about them particularly (at least most stores) but they are stable and have a decent customer base. It could be the fate of MOG to get Dave and Barry's Sport Shop in the place of the Saks like happened in Chicago. Anyway, at least they got a real department store because Dick's was already there. I'd like to have seen Bloomingdale's or Saks or Neiman's ...that would have kept well in the "destination" category that was mentioned.

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For northeastern GA - Mall of Georgia is a destination mall. Or even for some in upstate SC, as my aunt who lives in Spartanburg has visited the mall occassionaly. Perhaps for it's first year of existence it might have been a destination mall for Atlanta. But since then Mall of GA is just another mall in the metro area.

But I would assume for those living in Gainesville, Toccoa & various other northeastern GA towns, it is a destination mall. But for that matter, any regional mall on the peripherary of a metro area is a destination mall for the adjacent rural environs. In the 70's / 80's, South Park mall in Charlotte was a destination mall for much of north central SC, particularly Rock Hill.

It's interesting, I was chatting with some friend the other day who live in Stone Mountain, and they said Mall of Georgia had become "their" mall.

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Honestly I would much rather have the Lord and Taylor as opposed to a Belk. As many have said, Belk hasn't had much of a presence here in the Atlanta market. The stores that are here tend to be as Teshadoh said in suburbs that are sort of far out and in strip malls. This in my mind cheapened Belk's image...and I'm only speaking of my own feeling. When I went to UGA, I was surprised when I saw that their mall (Georgia Square Mall) had a Belk as an anchor. I almost never stepped foot in the mall because I thought that any mall that had a Belk had to be of a lower grade than what I was used to in the Atlanta market. My parents are both northerners so travel around the south was not something that I did....other than Florida. Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised with the Belk at the Georgia Square Mall but once I came home, the only Belks I could find reminded me of TJ Maxx or Marshalls....better yet Kohls or Ross.

I tend to agree with your sentiment about Belk's stores. Regarding Athens, before GA Square Mall opened in the early 80's, there were 3 traditional multi-story department stores in downtown Athens: Davison's (later became Macys then Rich's and now Macy's again), JC Penny, and Belk's. All three moved to the mall when it opened leaving downtown in a lurch for several years. Prior to moving, Davisons and Belks, in particular, were traditional full service department stores. Growing up in Athens and not having visited another Belk's store elsewhere, I always thought of Belk's as a mid-level department store. Not until traveling in the Carolinas later on, did I realize some Belk's stores were strip mall or mini mall type stores.

I guess my point is that, for some communities as others have pointed out above, Belk's filled a more traditional department store niche, rather than a glorified Marshall's or Khols that some Belk's seem to resemble.

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I am not a mall person, but my wife is. Regarding the concept of regional malls in ATL, when traveling to ATL to shop, I find Lenox and Phipps to be true destination malls. Perimeter Mall is reasonable as well. Any other mall I'd only visit if it were geographically convenient.

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I wasn't aware that Mall of Georgia was pulling a demographic that affluent.

Well you have the Lake Lanier area which includes dozens of McMansions and get-away homes so I could see Neiman at Mall of Georgia. It might struggle in the beginnning but it would get along ok.

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I wasn't aware that Mall of Georgia was pulling a demographic that affluent.

I wouldn't put a Niemans as large as the one at Lenox Square but my thinking is this...

In Gwinnett you have in the immediate area of MoG, the Sugarloaf area. This area has several large pockets of high income. As Hotlanta said, you have the Lake Lanier area. Alpharetta and Duluth are immediately to the west and Suwanee and Flowery Branch are to the north. Many of the sports athletes and entertainers live in this area be it part time or full time. The wives/fiances/girlfriends of these athletes/entertainers will spend money. Most probably already go to Lenox/Phipps anyway.

Then again, perhaps they won't because I see more Bentleys, Aston Martins and high-end Mercedes Benzes at the local Target so maybe they are just as cost conscious as the old monied people of Buckhead.

I remember years ago when Neiman's was scouting for another Atlanta location. Taubmans I think was planning a mall of the intersection of GA 400 and McFarland Rd. This is just three exits north of the NorthPoint Mall exits. I always thought that it would have made more sense for them to place the Niemans at Northpoint and make the new "Forsyth" mall a lifestyle center. Anyway, the mall was never built and nothing ever came of Neiman's second Atlanta location. I feel that Northpoint's management droped the ball when Lord & Taylor announced that they were pulling out of the southeast market. They should have actibvely recruited Neimans to Northpoint. That would have been my first choice. The demographics in the 20 mile raduis is there. Since they dropped the ball, the Mall of Georgia would be my second choice. I just don't think that the northside market needs another mall. Not right now anyway. Putting a Neiman's at the MoG would capture the North Fulton, Forsyth, Lake Lanier and northwestern Gwinnett market that I would have thought was in line with Neiman's target market.

JohnAtl may be correct that Nordstrom's is as highend as the Mog will get. Then again as the market matures, who knows. Maybe Northpoint can get the second Saks and MoG get the second Neimans. In relative terms, they aren't that far from each other. I just don't feel that Belk is the way to go....not if the malls management is trying to make it a destination mall. Right now its a regional mall. Yes people from parts South Carolina will go there because in some cases that's the biggest then for them in the area. I can garauntee from perosnal familial experience, noone in my family is flying in from California, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Texas or Illinois asking to go to the Mall of Georgia. To them it's merely a big mall. A Belk's will only insure that it stays that way. Such a shame because overall I really like the Mall of Georgia.

That's just my two cents because I'm in no way Mall expert....

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You know Lady Celeste, I really had no idea the demographics in that part of Gwinnett were really that good......I very rarely ever go out that way (I'm an ITP guy), so you may very well be right. But I agree, Belk is a bad move for them if they ever intend to attract anything upscale.

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I think Belk runs the gamut here. Some stores are more upscale than others, but overall as mentioned it's a mid-market department store that's starting to be seen outside malls in strip centers.

We had several Belks department stores in Augusta Georgia when I was younger (I think there are only 2 left and one proposed in the metro area) but they were not nearly as popular as a...say Macys or Richs. These seemed to dominate the Georgia malls. Now, after living in South Carolina for 5 years, Ive seen that Belks has a store in just about EVERY town in the state. Even my little micro-town of Honea Path (population of like 2000?) had a Belks at one time.

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I think Belk runs the gamut here. Some stores are more upscale than others, but overall as mentioned it's a mid-market department store that's starting to be seen outside malls in strip centers.

I've shopped in Belk's most of my life and always thought they were pretty fancy-schmanzy. Which goes to show how pedestrian my tastes are.

:dontknow:

:lol:

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When i heard a new anchor was coming to Mall of Georgia on the internet, I knew Lord and Taylor was out. I started wondering what the new anchor could be and I figured it had to be upscale due to the other anchors already present at the mall. I guessed it would have been Bloomingdale's or maybe even a Marshall Fields even though the merger would possibly eliminate them. I would have never guessed Belk because I feel that that was a major blow to the mall and a downgrade considering the other stores you have in there like Armani Exchange and others. Belk is not a bad store it just doesn't seem to meet the criteria for MOG. Belk is pretty nice and they do offer neat items and they generally have a nice interior. I don't think we will be dissapointed with this store at all but let's hope they get it right.

I found this interesting article and thought it somewhat pertained to MOG in a way.

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Steven perhaps you can show some pictures of nicer Belks in the greater North Carolina area.

I'm telling you, Belk does not have the best image here in the metro Atlanta market and I'm having a hard time understanding why the Mall of Georgia even recruited them to fill the Lord & Taylor space. After over 20 years of being in lesser stripmalls in small exurbs...because I personally don't ever remember Belk being more than on the level of a Goody's or Kohls...Belks reenters in earnest the Atlanta market at a really nice mall. Can it really change it's image after so much damage has been done. Not only that, Atlanta's shopping market is probably one of the most competitive in the country. From high end to low end, Atlanta has just about everything.....what is Belk going to do differently that the plethora of other stores have not already done. They don't even advertise here.

Lady Celeste, Belk isn't that bad of a store. In most of the Belk locations I've been, the stores are very nice, usually on the level of a Parisian. I will admit that some of the old stores in rural towns aren't to the same level; they're on a JC Penney Level. However, Belk is, and has been transforming its image. I've seen Belk stores in West Cobb and Conyers, and both of those stores are very nice. Yes, they're in stand-alone buildings, but that doesn't make them any less grand.

Someone mentioned Kohl's as not being good, but in my opinion, Kohl's is a nice store, comparable to a Macy's. There's nothing cheap about Kohl's. It's above JC Penney, in my opinion. I think the free-standing store concept is why people say the things they do about Kohl's.

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Why is it that people hate malls SO much in a city or just anywhere, for that matter? I've never really had a problem with them and I am thankful we have such presitioug ones as Lenox and Phipps. Arbor Place Mall has done nothing but good in bringing business to my town.

That said, mall in every little nook and cranny of the state is overkill, IMO.

Or perhaps is it the crazy spurt of development that is often unplanned that peple hate so much? (In that case, Arbor Place has really caused my town to fall victim to it on a greater scale than before.)

I really enjoy Arbor Place Mall. It's one of the better malls in the Atlanta market, in my opinion.

My favorite malls are Town Center, North Point, Arbor Place, and the Mall of Georgia.

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We had several Belks department stores in Augusta Georgia when I was younger (I think there are only 2 left and one proposed in the metro area) but they were not nearly as popular as a...say Macys or Richs. These seemed to dominate the Georgia malls. Now, after living in South Carolina for 5 years, Ive seen that Belks has a store in just about EVERY town in the state. Even my little micro-town of Honea Path (population of like 2000?) had a Belks at one time.

Honea Path! :wub:

I used to go there when I was a kid in the 70's to visit my grandparents. Nice little town - I've probably been to that Belks too, unless they drove us to the 'big city' of Anderson.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I went to MoG for the first time today. Nordstrom is a fancy enough anchor, similar to the one in Charlotte, and the rest of the mall is nice, similar to Northlake Mall near Charlotte- an upper-md-market mall, but not a standout like Phipps Plaza.

I can see local people shopping at MoG if they need a quick trip to the mall to get a nice tie for a last-minute dinner party or something, but I don't see that mall being a destination like Phipps or Lenox.

I saw somewhere that a decent percentage of Lenox's shoppers are from 100+ miles away. If people are driving from South Carolina or Charlotte to go shopping, what's another 30 minutes to get to Lenox or Phipps?

I was also surprised by the customers at MoG; I expected them to be the Louis Vuitton and Jaguar crowd due to having Nordstrom and formerly at L&T as anchors but there seemed to be a large lower-income (not racial here; the people were largely white) customer base, along with some upper-income people.

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I went to MoG for the first time today. Nordstrom is a fancy enough anchor, similar to the one in Charlotte, and the rest of the mall is nice, similar to Northlake Mall near Charlotte- an upper-md-market mall, but not a standout like Phipps Plaza.

I can see local people shopping at MoG if they need a quick trip to the mall to get a nice tie for a last-minute dinner party or something, but I don't see that mall being a destination like Phipps or Lenox.

I saw somewhere that a decent percentage of Lenox's shoppers are from 100+ miles away. If people are driving from South Carolina or Charlotte to go shopping, what's another 30 minutes to get to Lenox or Phipps?

I was also surprised by the customers at MoG; I expected them to be the Louis Vuitton and Jaguar crowd due to having Nordstrom and formerly at L&T as anchors but there seemed to be a large lower-income (not racial here; the people were largely white) customer base, along with some upper-income people.

I'm curious to understand the meaning of the highlighted part above that I quoted from you. By clothing, how can you tell that someone is lower income or higher income? If it wasn't the clothing then what was it that gave you the impression that someone was higher income. I'll use an example so you can have some food for thought....

Kenny Rogers.....the singer....is a simple man, grew up in the projects of Houston (I'm getting this from an article about him in today's AJC) and from all appearances when I have seen him does not strike me as a monied man. Today in the AJC article it tells of him cselling his 5 acre Buckhead mansion (Lionheart for those in the know) for $10,000,000. He plans on building a newer home in the area. Now, you could walk past him and not see names of brands blazened across his body....would you assume he was lower-income. Assuming of course you don't know him by sight.

Warren Buffett drives a Lincoln TownCar...definitely not of the Jaguar set.

Some of those same people....and this is the saddest part of it all....are driving around in their $85,000 Jaguars, with their $2300 Louis Vuitton bags and driving home to a $150,000 house. Now how in the world can someone justify spending $85,000 for a car yet live in a $150,000 house? Houses/land are assets...cars and purses depreciate...but I guess people new to money are the first to want to show it off.

My grandfather would always tell me when I was a little girl....the only way to stay rich is to keep the money you have. I always thought him much to frugal. :whistling:

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I should rephrase that then-- rather than low-income, I should have used the term "not prone to spending a lot of money on clothes and other merchandise." You made some very good points.

What confused me about MoG is that a lot of the people there didn't seem particularly likely to shop at Nordstrom or another expensive store, based on the fact that they were wearing clothes that were probably from less-fancy stores and that they drove less-fancy cars. The mall itself seemed packed, although Nordstrom wasn't.

So I think MoG is due for some re-tenanting so that the stores match the customer base, unless people more likely to spend money on expensive things shop more at the mall. Eastland Mall in Charlotte is a good example of a mall that shifted its tenants to match its clientele. eastlandmall.com has a mall directory; many of the stores are more moderately priced now than the ones the mall used to have.

I think Belk is making a good move. Belk stores are all over the price spectrum; some are very upscale, and others aren't. So once Belk has a store there, it can adjust its merchandise to match the customers; the store itself wouldn't have to be replaced by another chain. Belk is a good chain; the comments above about it reflect some Belk stores but not the fancy ones.

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