There’s an interesting article in today’s Boston Globe about the impending demise of Jasmine Sola, a trendy, upscale women’s clothier that had until recently been on a meteoric rise. The story details how Jasmine Sola went from a carefully-curated boutique in Cambridge, Massachusetts to a booming regional chain known for its colorful stores and high-end (yet young-skewing) merchandise before being sold to New York and Company, who in only two years managed to overexpand and destroy the chain’s merchandise mix. The way they neglected to cater their merchandise mix to individual markets is also somewhat reminiscent to many of the complaints about the national strategy employed by Macy’s:

“Manganella, an Italian immigrant who started Jasmine in 1970 with a $2,500 loan from his mother, had relied on instinct, not science or financial spreadsheets. He learned about women’s clothing from his mother and sister, both seamstresses, and developed a keen sense of style. At Jasmine, named after the flower, he had given space to unknown designers, which made his boutique a fashion icon for teens and twentysomethings…

“Meanwhile, New York & Co. began changing the formula that made Jasmine a success, narrowing the number of brands offered, buying lower-end merchandise, and opening bigger stores. New York & Co. started outfitting all Jasmine stores with the same amount and type of items, eliminating another of Manganella’s innovations: merchandise tailored for each store, with lower-priced clothes for the college students shopping at Harvard Square, and higher-end clothes for Newton and Wellesley.

“The change meant a new Miami store received chunky sweaters and corduroy pants in the middle of the summer - the same back-to-school items Northeast stores featured, according to Liza Baird, who had worked at local Jasmine stores, and moved to Miami in April 2006 to open the first Jasmine shop in Florida. Sales were so poor, Baird said, that some days the store barely broke $1,000.”

There’s also quite a bit about the dispute between New York and Company and Jasmine Sola founder Luciano Manganella, who was fired after allegations of sexual harassment.

Jasmine Sola is just one of the retail closures we’re seeing this Christmas season, along with Levitz Furniture and CompUSA. KB Toys also announced a wide swath of store closures, which raises speculation that the chain may be history once the holiday season draws to a close.

By most accounts, the 2007 holiday shopping season has thusfar been a bit of a bust. In an effort to bring a bit of cheer (and remind everyone of how fun that holiday mall shopping used to be!), one of our frequent contributors, Michael Lisicky, has sent in the following set of photos of vintage department stores and malls at Christmastime, along with this note:

“As a holiday gift to the readers of Labelscar, here is a collection of photographs from my collection of stores from the past as they celebrated the holiday season. Many of these stores no longer exist. Whether it was shopping downtown or in the local malls, department stores help set the pace for displaying holiday cheer. Even as some were breathing their last breath, they still managed to deck the halls.

Enjoy these photos and enjoy the holidays.”

1- B. Altman New York 1989

2- B. Altman New York 1989

3- Burdines downtown Miami 1994

4- Burdines downtown Miami 1994

5- Burdines Aventura 2004

6- Emporium San Francisco 1995

7- Globe Store Scranton 1991

8- Goldsmith’s Southland (Memphis) 2004

9- Bon-Ton/Hess’s Allentown, PA 1995

10- Hutzler’s White Marsh (Baltimore) 1989

11- Leh’s Allentown 1991

12- Miller & Rhoads Richmond 1989

13- Rich’s Lenox Square 2004

14- Rich’s Lenox Square 2004

15- Rich’s North DeKalb 2004

16- Rich’s Greenbrier 2004

17- Stern’s Manhattan Mall 2000

18- Stern’s (Gimbels) Philadelphia-Center City 1988

19- Stern’s Middlesex Mall 2000

20- Strawbridge & Clothier Philadelphia 1995

21- Strawbridge & Clothier Philadelphia 1995

22- Thalhimer’s Richmond 1991

23- Thalhimer’s Eastgate Mall 1991

24-26 - John Wanamaker (Hecht’s) 1995 Philadelphia

I was in California last month, and I had a few hours to kill one afternoon when I was in the East Bay area so I swung by the Eastmont Mall in Oakland California. I didn’t do any research beforehand, I just saw it marked on my Rand McNally map so I toodled by.

It was worth it.

Now, let me step back a bit. Had I done some research beforehand, I might’ve heard some of the horror stories about how this is a pretty dangerous place, and a pretty tough part of Oakland. I could tell it wasn’t exactly the best part of town when I visited but it seemed OK to me–even kind of cheery–and I wasn’t even remotely scared to be prowling around. Of course, then I come home to write this article about the place and I find heartwarming stuff like a YouTube video of a drive-by shooting while it is occurring in 2006.

The Eastmont Mall–or Eastmont Town Center as it seems to be referred to nowadays–is a pretty strange mall. Built in 1970, the large two-level mall served the vast southeast side of the city of Oakland. The mall’s floorplan is relatively typical, with a “T” shape and two large anchor stores, but is a bit unusual because a long strip mall flanks the mall’s southwestern edge facing Bancroft St., and one wing of the mall protrudes through the center of the strip mall and exits to that side of the parking lot. Originally, the mall’s primary anchors were JCPenney and Mervyn’s, and a Safeway Supermarket and Woolworth were amongst the more junior tenants.

The mall fell into steep decline in the early 1990s when JCPenney and Mervyn’s left, and the reputation of the declining neighborhood kept most suburban shoppers away. Over the 90s, the mall was gradually converted into county offices, including a health clinic, police station, and other services (somewhat famously, there’s also a Planned Parenthood). The strip mall portion continues to house retailers, and there are a few isolated stores or cafes within the mall itself, but only a few.

Because Eastmont Mall hasn’t functioned as a true “mall” for a good 15 years, it’s retained much of its vintage early 1970s decor. This isn’t to say it’s terribly pretty–in fact, it’s a pretty plain and ugly mall. But it is stuck in a time warp, and for that reason alone it’s kind of interesting. Also, it’s available as a location to film your next movie. What’s not to love?

It’s been a while since we offered anything other than shopping center write-ups, and we realize that part of the advantage of having a chronological blog is the ability to post current information.

In suburban Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a large upscale regional mall proposal called Pabst Farms Town Center is tenatively back on, but this time with a different developer and possibly a different format.  In October, Chicago-based General Growth Properties dropped the project, citing lack of interest for the upscale tenants the city wanted to attract, such as Nordstrom or Von Maur.  Today, Doris Hajewski writes in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that the city has found a new developer in Developers Diversified Realty (DDR) of Cleveland.  However, DDR’s portfolio does not include high end department stores, and it was reported that the center will probably be open-air rather than enclosed as previously planned.  Yet the city of Oconomowoc is repeatedly pressing that the site not be just a collection of big box stores or any other sort of bland ephemera, like the development a couple exits to the east along I-94 at WI 83 in Delafield.Personally, this turn of events is kind of a let down.  The state of Wisconsin, which has an above average rate of growth, has not had a new regional mall constructed in over twenty years.  In fact, it has lost several in the same span of time.  More specifically to this project, Waukesha County is a fast-growing and wealthy county, with an estimate of 380,000 residents as of 2006.  Waukesha County currently has one regional shopping center, located in the far eastern side of the county in Brookfield; it was constructed over thirty years ago and is a simple one-level barbell design with three anchors.  

As the entirety of Waukesha County is suburban Milwaukee, residents also utilize the shopping options there, which have also dwindled in recent years and focus on Mayfair Mall in Wauwatosa and Bayshore Town Center in Glendale.  However, as suburban growth has invaded Waukesha County, the county’s center of population has moved significantly west away from Milwaukee.  In addition, the towns closest to the center in the “Lakes” area are some of the wealthiest in the state. 

This project would simultaneously take advantage of both the center of population shift in Waukesha County and the lack of large regional centers in the area.  Located in western Waukesha County with easy access to I-94 and the new WI 67 bypass around Oconomowoc, the center would draw from a large and wealthy base, including rapidly growing areas along I-94 west all the way to Madison which is only 40 minutes away and the state’s second largest population center.  

So, the argument that the density is low in Oconomowoc and that no one would come is completley ludicrous.  People will travel to get to this type of center, if it’s made destination-worthy.  And, it sounds like it would have been and possibly will be if the city and others get their way.  They definitely have the right idea, and have been planning this project for years, even working with the WI Department of Transportation upgrading the interchange there and locating a business park with a future hospital at the southern end of the interchange.  I think it’s entirely appropriate for the city to send the message to developers that they don’t want another generic strip mall of big box stores; that sort of thing already exists a few miles down the road anyway and has been growing tremendously over the past several years.  

In addition, the shift from an enclosed mall portion to the development to open-air may reflect popular trends right now, but let’s get a few things straight.  For one, consider the average temperature in Wisconsin in January is 15 degrees.  Who wants to walk around a pretend-village going store to store in the winter?  Or even when it’s raining?  Or really hot?  That brings us to another point.  Many of these open-air “Lifestyle Centers” are the same vapid looking, whitewashed village downtown, often built in suburban areas on reclaimed farmland and consist of the same group of stores often found in enclosed malls.  What’s the deal with this?  These developments become even more ridiculous when the concrete sea of parking lots surrounding them really makes them nothing better than glorified strip malls; they aren’t that nice.  Let’s not have one of these?

In other news, Levitz Furniture appears to be closing up shop following an auction of its assets.  The New York-based chain has also given many employees hints they may be permanently layed off in January, even though the winning bidder has not indicated whether they will liquidate the stores and give up, or resume doing business.  Levitz has not been doing well for some time, having scaled back significantly from having a nationwide operation several years ago to focusing on core markets on the west coast and New York metropolitan area today.  

And finally, a little bit of fun.  We’ve unearthed a vintage mall tour from 1987 of the now-defunct Crystal Point Mall in Crystal Lake, Illinois, posted on YouTube.  Located about 40 miles northwest of Chicago, Crystal Point Mall existed from 1976-1998 and was McHenry County’s only regional enclosed mall.  It was anchored by Joseph Spiess and Robert Hall Village, which later became K-Mart.  In 1996, Spiess went out of business and K-mart soon closed off their mall entrance, and the mall’s in-line stores slowly vacated as their leases weren’t renewed because the owner wanted a strip mall with big box stores, and not an enclosed mall.  You can read more about Crystal Point Mall at Lisa’s neat retro page all about the mall, complete with photos.