Shopping

As I make my way into the world of contracted labor, estimates and getting work done to my home, I've encountered something probably not all that uncommon to experienced home owners out there.

Continue reading "Lowes. Garage Doors. Yup."

I commented several months ago about what might happen to Eastgate Mall (we were voting for an Ikea store, which sadly, probably won't happen). Several people indicated that something was in the works for new development for the property, but that's apparently no go, because today the Star is reporting the the mall is going on the auction block:

Eastgate Mall will be put up for auction Feb. 7, a move that likely will end its 50-year history as Indianapolis' oldest indoor shopping center. Prospective buyers of the vacant shopping center are talking about tearing it down and redeveloping the 40.6-acre site, said Gordon Greene, a manager with Chartwell Group, of Cleveland, who will conduct the sale.

The live auction of the 370,000-square-foot mall and four other properties in Ohio, Texas and Georgia will be at 2 p.m. at the Concourse Hotel in Columbus, Ohio.
The seller, Dallas-based JTL Capital, bought the mall in 2005 when it was largely empty. Since then, it has lost its last tenant and sat vacant.

"The building borders on the obsolete. It's a land play," Greene said of the sale.
If redeveloped, the site is eligible for a 10-year property tax abatement from the city.
JTL set a reserve price of about $2.8 million on the property. If the top bid comes in lower, the seller still would consider it, Greene said. He said the sale could close 50 days after the auction.

The mall opened on East Washington Street in 1957. Until Washington Square Mall opened in 1974, Eastgate was the retail hub of the Eastside. After shopping-center giant Simon Property Group bought Eastgate in 1981, it evolved into a thriving off-price consumer mall. Simon sold it in 2002, and it has had three owners since.

On the other hand, the latest rumors about Ikea's new store in Cincinnati were saying the store is definitely on the way, but the fall 2007 opening date is pushed back due to construction delays and it won't open until 2008. (boo, hiss)

In other follow-ups from previous discussion here, the Fresh Market going in at 54th and College has demolished the old Atlas building and two others on the lot in preparation for building. (yay!)

Over Christmas, I thought I had a hot inside tip on Glendale Mall after talking to the owner of MicroTime Jewelers while she replace my watch batteries, but I was scooped the next day by the Star, who reported that small stores were being evicted to make way for new development, and that a Target on the site was a possibility. Later reports in the Star mentioned that after some negotiation, Glendale Library Branch will remain on the site.

I was at dinner the other day with some friends, planning our next roadtrip to Shaumburg, Ill. to shop at Ikea, and riffing on where we'd like them to build an Ikea store in Indianapolis. After rejecting several locations, Eastgate Mall occurred to us. We should be city planners; we're so smart. What do you think? Good idea? Bad idea? Realistic? Dream on?

I'm more of a Target shopper, generally, but I like to see luxury stores like Saks Fifth Avenue park themselves in Indy. I think it helps burnish our image a bit. The latest addition is Tiffany, which will open at the Fashion Mall at Keystone at the Crossing on June 8. (Coincidetally, my wedding anniversary is on June 10.)

After a few minutes of browsing the Tiffany web site, here's the cheapest thing I could find.

Recently, Sunflower Market opened in Broad Ripple. This made me happy, as I had been disappointed over the lack of choices in my neighborhood for a good grocery store. When I thought about it, though, I realized that Indy has quite a few choices in the natural foods arena. Georgetown Market, Trader Joe's, Wild Oats, Sunflower Market, and Good Earth Natural Food Company all offer lots of choices for those who want to stay organic, go vegetarian, or assure a steady supply of flax seed oil. I made the rounds last weekend to get a feel for each of these stores, and did a little price shopping. You'll find a comparison chart of prices at the end.

Continue reading "The Great Granola Tour of ‘06: Comparing Indy’s Natural Grocery Stores"

I'd really like to hate Walmart for some socio-political reason bigger than myself. Something like destroying small downtowns across the midwest, or the institutionalization of not promoting women, or using government welfare programs to subsidize their payroll, or any of another 1000 things that we hate empire-size companies for. And I guess, deep down I do hate Walmart for those things too, but I hate them for something else more.

I hate Walmart because of the empty shopping carts that litter their parking lots.

This may seem petty, but it really is a universal truism across all Walmarts in the Indianapolis area. No matter what time a day you go to one, the parking lot will be filled with shopping carts. What irks me most are the abandoned carts that are within a car's length of a cart corral. The energy required to not put these carts away just seems so much higher than the slight amount of energy required to put them in their proper place.

I've got some ideas about why carts are always left out at Walmart:

• Walmart is under staffed and simply cannot keep up
• There is some corporate policy in place that dictates leaving the carts out to create a sense of "business" around their stores
• People that shop at Walmart hate to put carts away
• Shopping at Walmart causes people to not want to put their carts away

You'd think that finding shoelaces would be one of those no-brainer shopping experiences that's easily taken care of. You'd think.

Continue reading "Shopping for Shoelaces"

I caught wind of this a few weeks ago, because my friend Jason works for the construction company that will be building the new store: the IndyChannel is reporting that a Crate and Barrel Store will be going into the location of the the recently vacated for new digs TGIFridays restaurant at Keystone at the Crossing. Because that mall (and that tiny little area) isn't nearly crowded enough as it is.

Continue reading "Crate and Barrel comes to the Fashion Mall"