[RP TownTalk] Town Center

[OurDollMom at aol.com]

Re the Gazette Article - My doll shop is a
small shop.  If I had to depend on retail
sales, I would have died a long time ago.
My doll hospital has been around 40 yrs.
plus in Riverdale.
I survive by the skin of my teeth on repeat
customers & referrals.  But there was a time
briefly that I had retail sales from Northern
Virginia &  Potomac, Rockville area. But
the children grew up so the retail part went
also.  I think there is potential for a business
to survive in the Town Center.  And I think
unique shops that offer services & who are
established with their own customer base
 could make it.  But to
make the business grow further than the
steady established customer base is a 
big challenge for me.  I agree we are off
the beaten path BUT my customers say
that we have such charm & history they
think people would come.
(And that is why our Town Center development
is so important to be historically correct for us)
  I do not see us
getting rich like Jemel would like & I think
the rents are too high for small neat shops.
I am very disappointed over the high rents
because some really nice artists have wanted
to have a shop in the Town Center but could
not afford the rents.  I think the image of 
earning a lot of money needs to be lowered to
making a reasonable living (modestly) doing what
you love with a reasonable rent.  I think there has
to be a delicate balance between reasonable 
modest rents, developers appreciating our town
history/mansion to attract tourists in their design
of the buildings, housing etc - being artist/service
orientated businesses then a coffee shop & other
shops depending on foot traffic would have it - the
little shops & tour trade to the mansion. It is a 
matter of putting it all together.
 
 
Emily



************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://riverdale-park.org/pipermail/towntalk/attachments/20070908/52c06d8b/attachment-0003.html>