- Thread starter NALs
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Blue Mall SD Expansion
if anyone went there, share some pictures i want to see what it looks like before my visit down to DR in July
It's already happening:
Plaza International has focused only serving the 9-5 white collars who work nearby and the plaza survives thanks to the traffic from Union hospital across the street.
Bella Terra is getting worse as the bars at the ground floors barely survive and the only attraction that they have is KGB and the rooftop disco.
Bella Terra never really took off. It isn’t the location, but rather its bad design that killed it from the start. I bet that was designed not by an architect or someone with experience designing malls. That’s what happens when the “I’ll save a couple of pennies by doing it myself than hire a professional” sets in. Try getting return on that “investment” (more like a costly money pit).
It isn’t and never was. There are other countries that are used more for money laundering than the DR and you don’t see as much activity there are you do in Santo Domingo or even Santiago. Some of these countries are even poorer than the DR and the development gap between them and the DR is growing in favor of the DR. Money laundering doesn’t produces development.
Tiffany & Co. is open in Blue Mall SD.
Notice that in the Caribbean they have stores in Aruba, Bahamas, Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. The first teo probably depend more on tourists while in the last two on locals.
In the rest of Latin America they are in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Peru. That’s it. A region with over 20 independent countries and it doesn’t reaches 10 where Tiffany&Co. has a store.
Notice that in the Caribbean they have stores in Aruba, Bahamas, Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. The first teo probably depend more on tourists while in the last two on locals.
In the rest of Latin America they are in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Peru. That’s it. A region with over 20 independent countries and it doesn’t reaches 10 where Tiffany&Co. has a store.
I honestly wonder why they have decided to open there. I know there is money in SD but is there really enough to keep a store that size open, without any tourists? I guess if they can make it in Colombia they can make it in DR but seems like a gamble to me.
Every time I walk around Blue Mall the shops are completely empty but there are plenty of people sitting in the cafes making sure that everyone sees them in Blue Mall. I must be going on different days to #Big
I went a few times on Sunday afternoons and while the restaurants on the bottom level were packed, the stores were also empty. Personally, I don't see the attraction, but I will admit the one time I ate at the Hard Rock, it was a great cheeseburger.
I remember when they opened Blue Mall in SD. I don't remember the store on the corner of the first floor (Cartier?), but I saw a woman with 2 security guards go in there once.
The only person I even saw in the place.
They also had about 2 dozen models who just walked around on every floor to draw in the men. LOL
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Isn’t that the same that was asked by many when they opened the Louis Vuitton, Rolex, Cartier, etc stores? They are still open.
You get a similar impression when walking into any store with high ticket items, such as a luxury furnitue store. Those types of stores are very empty for most of the week, but make it up for extra foot traffic on weekends and holidays. Also, most days in the week can end up red and then one customer walks in and buys say US$10,000 of stuff. With that alone the store ends the week in blue even though most days of the week it was in red.MariaRubia said:
There is also the internet as many people use a store simply to see in person something they will buy online, often from the very store’s website. Many times what is bought online the store has it in stock, so to make delivery faster it’s sent from the store.
Other times someone with a big purchase isn’t able to take delivery due to some travelling and they haven’t authorized the house help to take delivery unless the owner is in the home. Their stuff is already at the warehouse essentially waiting for delivery. Someone else purchases an identical item either in the store or online which is out of stock, but you know there is one for the other customer that hasn’t taken delivery in weeks, so you promise the person they will get prompt delivery on what they want to close the sale. Except you know it’s out of stock and it will be weeks before a new piece is imported. So, the customer doesn’t know this but you marked the piece in the big purchase waiting delivery to the new customer and put another other of the same piece which will not arrive until weeks later. If the other customer takes delivery while that piece is out, you delivery everything that has been waiting for delivery in the warehouse and the customer will have to wait until the new piece arrive, but never tell her that piece was there and simply taken out to give to another customer.
The point is that a store’s success level can’t be assessed simply by looking around, especially a luxury specialty store. There are many other ways the store is making money that remains “invinsible” to anyone from the outside looking in since what they see is simply an empty store with employees doing nothing.
Have you ever been into a Tiffany store? A single little bracelet would would be priced for thousand of dollars before taxes, way more than the initial deposit to buy or rent a typical apartment.
What’s the monthly rent for a retail place in such a mall? With 1 or 2 sales, the store could very well be sbove breakeven for that month.