The pressures of keeping independent retail alive

Follow the money... businesses are in business to make money. And even nonprofits have to make money or they can't pay rent, salaries, utilities, and buy supplies.

There have been a couple discussions about the failure of the Readers Lounge, a used bookstore on H Street NE, on the Frozen Tropics blog. I won't bother to repeat the conversation because it's something that I write about all the time...

Today's Post in the gossip column, "Reliable Source," features Carol Ross Joynt and Nathan's the corner saloon for the hoi-polloi at the intersection of Wisconsin Avenue and M Street in Georgetown. The piece, "Nathans Keeps an Eye on Closing Time," says that Joynt will be closing the restaurant when the lease ends, in 2009, because they won't be able to pay higher rents (this is a place that charges $6 for a water glass sized serving of beer--10 ounces). From the article:

Another piece of Georgetown is headed for the history books. For 37 years, Nathans restaurant has occupied a prime piece of real estate at Wisconsin and M -- but its days are numbered. Owner Carol Joynt has been telling customers her lease runs out in April 2009 and the space will probably go to a big chain retailer.

No beef with her landlords (who she says have been "really good" to her) for looking at other options. "Every landlord in Georgetown understandably has stars in their eyes with the retail invasion," she said yesterday. But Joynt decries the "full-scale dumbing-down of our village" fueled by high rents that drive out small businesses and turn historic streets into a mall. "One day Georgetowners will wake up and go, 'What happened?' and it will be too late," she opined on her blog, Diary of a Mad Saloon Owner.

Also see these previous blog entries:
-- Is there a link between historic designation and chaining up of retail in neighborhood commercial districts? (which analyzes Georgetown specifically and is quite long, but well worth reading...);
-- Globalization of the DC real estate market catches neighborhood commercial districts up in the wake;
-- Authenticizing Inner Harbor and maybe thinking about authenticity and Georgetown DC;
-- Dupont Circle's changing retail environment covered in today's Post.

One of my colleagues, Stacy Mitchell, will be speaking at Busboys and Poets later this month, about her new book, Big-Box Swindle:

October 24, 2006 (Tuesday) 6:00 - 7:30 PM (Bookstore) Author Event- Stacy Mitchell is author of the forthcoming book Big Box Swindle: The True Cost of Mega-Retailers and the Fight for America's Independent Businesses, an in-depth exploration of the impact of mega-retailers-and what communities and independent businesses can do (November, Beacon Press). This event is cosponsored by Good Jobs First.

I tried to pull off creating a separate public presentation, but her schedule is pretty tight, so it's something we're going to try to do in the spring.

Index Keywords: retail-development