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NYC rent is too damn high for Geoffrey

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!, Dec 31, 2015.

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  1. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    Put in some stripper poles. Hire some strippers. Problem solved.
     
    Baron Scicluna, Dec 31, 2015
    #13
  2. Riptide

    Riptide Well-Known Member

    Your legacy grows.
     
    Riptide, Dec 31, 2015
    #14
  3. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    I've never understood how pretty much any typical store in Manhattan or London or Tokyo (those not selling grossly overpriced merchandise) can turn a profit.

    You can't possibly sell a bottle of aspirin or a Big Mac at a percentage markup equal to the rent you are paying. So how does the typical drug store or fast-food joint turn a profit?
     
    BTExpress, Dec 31, 2015
    #15
  4. Mystery Meat II

    Mystery Meat II Well-Known Member

    I'm guessing they don't; they're loss leaders that trade traditional profit for the presence of being in Times Square. Is having a massive interactive ad, which is the purpose those stores serve, worth the hefty buy-in? Probably not at $42M a year.

    Also, I was hoping this was about Geoffrey the butler from Fresh Prince.
     
    Mystery Meat II, Dec 31, 2015
    #16
  5. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    A caption on one of the photos in the link reads as follows:

    Can that be correct? Thousands of miles? For a bargain on a toy (or whatever)? Or is this just grossly careless writing?
     
    BTExpress, Dec 31, 2015
    #17
  6. JohnHammond

    JohnHammond Well-Known Member

    Need a GoFundMe so Toys R Us can stand up to the landlord.
     
    JohnHammond, Dec 31, 2015
    #18
    BurnsWhenIPee and YankeeFan like this.
  7. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    BTE, that can't be right. They might have been visiting from thousands of miles away and ducked in, but that'd be it.

    Truthfully I think the writer might have been thinking of FAO Schwarz when he wrote this story. When that store closed, it was a big deal. This one is a nothing.
     
    LongTimeListener, Dec 31, 2015
    #19
    heyabbott likes this.
  8. MisterCreosote

    MisterCreosote Well-Known Member

    Is there a store in Manhattan that doesn't sell grossly overpriced merchandise?
     
    MisterCreosote, Dec 31, 2015
    #20
  9. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    When they rented the store 15 years ago, rent was around $400 a square foot. It's now $2,000 a square foot. Yeah, it was never going to be a profit center, but you could chalk up a chunk of the cost to marketing the chain -- when the rent was $400 a square foot. The space was massive and had a giant ferris wheel, a 20-foot animatronic T-Rex and a life-sized Barbie dollhouse. There was a lot of cross-promotion and in-store advertising for other brands going on, which I would bet was a decent revenue generator.

    At current insane rents, though, yeah, that kind of space at that rent isn't going to make sense for too many things. NYC has seen a massive real estate bubble run up over the last 20 years. It is not only unsustainable, it would have popped and come crashing down 7 or 8 years ago, without insane monetary policy that just reinflated the madness. It has about reached its limit, though, and has probably about peaked. The luxury housing market, which parallels that Times Square space has cooled down significantly over the last half year. The bubble is going to pop eventually -- their ability to suppress interest rates (what blows the bubble) has already reached severe limitations. Rents in Manhattan won't be anywhere near where they ran up to when the implosion happens.
     
    The Big Ragu, Dec 31, 2015
    #21
  10. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    I'm talking about a $4,000 handbag more than a $5 Big Mac.
     
    BTExpress, Dec 31, 2015
    #22
  11. murphyc

    murphyc Well-Known Member

    Geoffrey tried to keep rent lower by offering the building owners all the toys they could play with, but they told him to grow up.
     
    murphyc, Dec 31, 2015
    #23
    Donny in his element likes this.
  12. LanceyHoward

    LanceyHoward Well-Known Member

    Macy's Herald Square store is estimated to gross one billion a year. The company just put 400 million dollars into a remodel so it seems they do well with it.
     
    LanceyHoward, Jan 1, 2016
    #24
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