Marshalls Coming to North DeKalb Mall
Decatur Metro | September 14, 2010As warehouse store hipsters will surely note, it’s no long-defunct Costco, but Tomorrow’s News Today reports that Marshalls is opening a new store at North DeKalb Mall.
Just this week, I learned that Marshall’s would be opening in the one time Rhodes furniture store adjacent to the former Stein Mart and current AMC Theatres. The space was built for Rhodes in the early 2000s. When Rhodes filed for bankruptcy in 2004, and later closed all locations in 2005, the space reopened as Shoder Furniture (switching the location of the S and R from last to first.) That store later made way for K L Furniture, which closed as well. It’s hard to get excited about anything at this mall.
…Marshall’s should be open by late fall, as signage is already up and the building is already there.
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The 15 or so people who shop at North DeKalb will be thrilled, no doubt.
There’s already a Ross and a Burlington Coat Factory in there. Now there’ll be THREE stores that carry the same stuff. Awesome.
Never could understand why this mall went downhill–we used to shop there all the time when the kids were young. Now it’s trash.
Market Square had a Merry go Round. Remember that?
Yes! Do you remember when they had a Gap way back when Gap sold Levis and you could get a nice pair of 501s, which were the must have jeans at the time, for $20 at that location?
I KNEW there was a Gap there. I thought I was nuts a few years ago when i couldn’t find it!
As far as I know you can still buy Levi’s at the Macy’s there…
i LOVED that gap. likely it was an indication that no one was shopping there – but, i used to always find the best things on their clearance racks!
What ever happened to with Costco?
I think Costco was squashed because they proposed building by the nature preserve area .. and the Medlock neighbors put up a righteous squawk. Good for them. I don’t think they were going to use existing buildings, but correct me if I’m wrong …
I believe agreement was reached on Costco having a new building, but the economic downturn did the plan in.
{Sigh} So much wasted potential…..
I prefer Marshalls over the other discounters, so this makes me happy. I hope it is as nice as the Buckhead store (the one by LA Fitness) and has lots of shoes….oh, and wrapping paper.
I agree. Marshall’s should be a step up from Ross or Burlington Coat Factory.
I hope the new Marshalls in town will do something about all of the outlaws.
After the 3 seconds it took my slow brain to compute that, i totally laughed!
Brad Steel is so cool
Brad – I think we’ve talked before about you using that “nelliebelle 1197″ nom de plume, haven’t we?
Oh, now that would really freak me out.
Couldn’t Costco use the suburban plaza space vacated by Eckerds and Pep Boys? I haven’t gone to North DeKalb Mall since I saw a gun fall out of a teenager’s waistband whole waiting in line at Ross.
Old Pep Boys space is now occupied by a thrift store that moved from the plaza on Church Street that has Mirch Masala and Patel Brothers.
I was kind of hoping the thrift store and mattress outlet would disappear.
That’s a shame. I like Last Chance Thrift very much.
I love Last Chance! Followed it from Stone Mtn/78 to Church St to Suburban Plaza! Werever it goes, I’m there!
That end of Suburban Plaza wouldn’t work for a big box store because there’s very little loading dock access. A Costco would probably require a lot the size of the entire shopping center.
I always thought the renaming of Rhodes as “Shoder” was brilliant.
There’s still a movie theater with an occasional worthwhile movie (usually a kids movie) and Play It Again Sports but otherwise no reason to go there anymore.
They have a very good Santa at Xmas!
Yes they do! He’s a sweetheart.
That’s what I don’t get–the N Dekalb Santa is the best in the metro Atlanta area–he is real as it gets for a retail Santa, and still is the same after all those years. a real good saint nick.
Cranky? Are you still sitting on Santa’s lap?
VOTE CRANKY! (in the upcoming midterms)
He/she has my vote, too bad no School Board seats are open. Speaking of which, does anyone know why school board seats don’t have term limits? I think that would work well in Decatur where we hate to vote anyone out because they are such nice people, live on our street, have kids who play kids with our kids, coach all the athletic teams, like the insurance plan available to board members, etc. Term limits are a non-threatening way to ensure fresh perspectives on the Board. Does state law prevent local school districts from having term limits for Board members?
Macy’s and Marshall’s: I will shop there. Saves a trip too far out of Decatur for cheap clothing.
I wish they would call it Dres Ho.
Yeah, let’s recycle the Shoder sign again! LOL!
LOL! I almost laughed my tea out of my nose reading this…too funny, Parker!
I’m so relieved, MC and Cubalibre, not everybody gets my jokes.
Gotta ask: any idea why malls like North Dekalb / Northlake are struggling when even older malls (Cumberland) are doing quite well?
Good question. Maybe saturation? North DeKalb and Northlake surely cannabalize one another. Then you have the fact that it’s a relatively short drive from each to Lenox and Phipps, and each has better (and more) stores.
Remember that Cumberland has, to a degree, reinvented itself by changing the mix of stores when they lost a couple of Big Boxes. Also, as DEM points out, they don’t have as much nearby competition.
These malls were also built before the trend to big box standalones as well. THey were truly out of fashion by the late 80’s, and that they have managed to “hang on” this long is sadly amazing. Going to either is (to me) very depressing as I remember them when they were pleasant and nice places to go. Now they are junky, ticky tacky, and have the BEST WIG shops ANYWHERE. Apologies to WIGS AND BEEPERS on Memorial Drive ( swear to God it is called WIGS and BEEPERS).
“In the 1954 Internal Revenue Code, a Republican Congress changed forty-year, straight-line depreciation for buildings to permit ‘accelerated depreciation’ of greenfield income-producing property in seven years. By enabling owners to depreciate or write off the value of a building in such a short time, the law created a gigantic hidden subsidy for the developers of cheap new commercial buildings located on strips. Accelerated depreciation not only encouraged poor construction, it also discouraged maintenance…After time, the result was abandonment.”
— Dolores Hayden (Building Suburbia: Green Fields and Urban Growth, 1820-2000)
In other words, if you can fully depreciate your building investment in seven years, you only care about keeping your customers, (renters) happy for that long. After seven years you have made your money back just on tax savings. Any actuall profits you made by collecting rent are gravy.
That’s why Walmart can abandon a store and refuse to rent it to competitors after they build a new, bigger, superer one a mile away from the old one.
WOW. I’ll sure be mulling on this for awhile!
Cumberland may be doing well (I think Costco moving in there played a HUGE role in that, as well as its proximity to 75 and 285). But all you have to do is look across the street at the Galleria to see a mall straight out of “Dawn of the Dead.” And that place was hopping when I was a kid.
But malls in general disgust me and I get really anxious when I’m in one. I grew up going to Town Center all the time and it was certainly the center of teenage life in the 80s and 90s, but now they feel like sad, suffocating traps. I go to the Cumberland Costco all the time, since my office is nearby, but I couldn’t tell you the last time I’ve actually been in the mall proper. The only time I enter a mall these days is A) to go to an Apple Store or B) to see an IMAX movie at Mall of Ga.
My opinion about why these two malls have declined is based on living near one or the other for a combined 25 years. Northlake used to serve a relatively high income demographic; that is no longer the case. And though parts of that general area (Oak Grove, for example) are doing well, the people with the money are generally an anti-mall type group.
As a teenager, I lived within walking distance of N.Dekalb / Market Square. Even during this boomtime (the 80’s) for malls, it struggled because Northlake was so close by. Since then that area’s demographics have changed considerably, in a manner similar to the area around Northlake. Again, the people with disposable income are generally anti-mall.
The malls have to reflect the local demographics in their store mix, but that mix also repels some who might otherwise still shop there. It is hard to imagine either mall ever again being more than a low-end discounter hub.
The whole thing should be razed and turned into athletic fields and expanded nature preserve, and a dog park.
Dang! I was counting on you to offer up a N. Dekalb Mall turn around strategy! That mall used to offer such a pleasant shopping experience…
( Power to the purple! :0)
YEAH…power to the purple.
We should start a grassroots organization. An organization for those who don’t see everything in life as red or blue.
It would certainly be something if it came to be…
DM: ” … fulfilling my dream of spawning off-beat Decatur events!”
Would such a unique group meet-up qualify? Zombies could come too!
I love that, Deanne– totes ought to put it on a bumper sticker! I’d buy one.
It’s SAACJACK’s vision & I love it too! Time to get this party started!