Quote:
Originally Posted by Handro
I’m confused though, because people seem to be forgetting that right across the street there is an H&M, Uniqlo, and Verizon store. Down the block there’s an especially unsightly Walgreens. There’s also a Zara, and Banana Republic—which might market itself upwards but is still just a run of the mill mall brand. Theres others too; a Levis store, one of those makeup stores (ulta or Sephora, I forget) and probably more I’m not remembering. And let’s not forget that Macy’s itself isn’t exactly a paragon of luxury.
I guess my point is that the Mag Mile isn’t any more luxurious than Woodfield Mall, and a Target is much less unsightly than a giant “For Lease” sign in the window for the next 5 years.
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My own point was not about luxury, it was about shopping. Yes, technically you shop at Target and it is something that could be seen as a step up from a Walgreens with more options. And yes there is a small Walgreens on the Mag Mile a few blocks south. This is maybe a little more about the actual location and not just about it being Target. I think if Target said they would open a 15k sq ft store a few blocks south then it wouldn't really matter as much and nobody would even waste their energy on this. We are instead talking about them previously trying to take over a spot where Macy's was in a huge space. There are a lot better uses of this space than putting a gigantic Target store.
I'm also not really sure how you could fully compare Target to H&M. Sure, they both sell clothing (one has trendy-ish clothing at times and the other doesn't. Both are cheap). After that they are completely different businesses. Target's big format stores have full groceries being sold and then of course they have everything down to diapers, board games, and water guns being sold. It's not even close to comparable to something like H&M. With online shopping these days, selling those things IMO in a format like this is an even worse business than clothing, which many people still like to try on in real life (like me). Most people aren't going to favor buying a board game in real life over Amazon unless they need it ASAP.
Anyway, i'll put my feelings a different way as a former resident of within a few blocks of this, which is probably going to sound very weird to a lot of people. The powers that be should be doing what's in their power to not turn the Mag Mile from an outright tourist destination into a non descript neighborhood area that could be Anywhere USA that so happens to have some of the most well known buildings/addresses in the country (John Hancock, Water Tower Place, etc). Again a small Target store somewhere else even a few blocks south and nobody would even care. To me this all just kind of meshes even with the recent direction in marketing that gives the idea that nobody gives a shit anymore about having people finding out about the city.
To be honest, with dying retail except some forms of luxury (which is mostly on streets near Michingan Ave but not on it), part of the area should re-conceptualize anyway. I'm not talking about just calling it a day and putting a bunch of neighborhoody establishments in there (which includes big corporate entities such as Target or Walgreens) and making the area less into an actual destination.
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