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We had been hearing about the imminent demise of Cleveland Park's 7-11, located at the corner of Connecticut Ave. and Porter St. NW., for a while, but after being reminded by City Desk that the convenience store did indeed shut its doors on Thursday, joining the Starbucks and the Magruder's Market on the growing list of neighborhood retailers who are giving up rather than face increasing rents amid a bleak economy, it's still hard to fathom. Who knew 7-11's, in all their ubiquity, could even go out of business? Granted, this location was at the top, rather than the middle, of Cleveland Park's commercial corridor, perhaps making it not quite convenient enough, but still. Are people really buying fewer Slurpees, packs of gum and nutritionally questionable taquitos? And wouldn't these Cleveland Park landlords trying to raise the rent prefer to have some kind of paying tenant, rather than no tenant at all?
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When will Peter Nickles reign of terror come to an end? Will no one rid me of this meddlesome IG?
Owners think with their pockets. I'm thinking the owners would rather gamble on having a few years of no rent followed by 30 years of great rent.
But not every place can be a Tryst or a Madams Organ, and they've a ways to go before they've got the critical retail density AND mix to draw people to that area.
I'm surprised the bagel place didn't make it. In Cleveland Park? Shocking.
FWIW, landlords in many 'hoods are willing to sit vacant. Just look at Mt Pleasant Street, where half a dozen storefronts have been empty for over a year, while their landlords (probably only 2 or 3 people) refuse to budge on sky-high, triple net rents. Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face...
I credit Si of Mt Vernon Square with coining the term "slum-banking". Not that CP is really a slum, but the concept seems to apply as well as it does on 9th street NW. The concept being, if you can't get exactly what you want, leave it vacant 'till you can.
A strong vacant tax rate, a flexible assessment rate, and Formula Business Zoning would, IMO, address this nicely.
7-11, Starbucks and Magruders are closed? Man, going to the Uptown will be a lot less fun if I have to buy overpriced candy & sodas.
Never fear, Brookville Market and CVS are still open to meet your adequately-priced, bootlegging sugary needs.
Except condoms that will be behind locked doors.
Condoms?? You need condoms for the Uptown? What the hell kinda flicks are they showing there these days? (And how come I don't know about them?)
Cork your pump or you don't hump.
Walgreens is slated to open in the old Yenching Palace space this summer. From the looks of things, I'd be amazed if they had it up and running by the end of the month.
i went into the 7-11 exactly twice for morning coffee, and it smelled like vom in there.
also, when i went to magruders for coffee - they had labeled the brews incorrectly. i got french vanilla wussy coffee when i thought i was getting french roast.
i started getting coffee from the gas station across from 7-11 after those two adventures.
The vom odor at 7-11 is undeniable, and I stopped going to MacGruders after I saw what I presumed to be a tomato (but completely covered with flies).
Getting coffee from the gas station aka Le Marche de Tigre is a much better decision. They'll let you swipe as much splenda as you want too.
Anyone who's taken a cursory ride down Georgia Ave can see where 7-Elevens have gone out of business if they look clearly enough.
Don't worry, it'll be replaced by something else. Don't know that it's not going to be an even skeezier convenience store with less overhead, tho.
'87, senior year of highschool ritual: 2 for $1 chili cheese dogs, 1 yoo hoo, (1 case of milwaukee's best via someone's older brother)
Dang, homey. Now that's a cocktail for projectile vomit!
'87, senior year of highschool ritual: 2 for $1 chili cheese dogs, 1 yoo hoo, (1 case of milwaukee's best via someone's older brother)
The 7-11 in Georgetown, on Wisconsin Avenue, also appears to be closed. I really hope they open a funky, expensive clothing boutique in the space.
Relax. The ManChild Overpriced Cupcakery will be opening in that space shortly.
When I think 7-11, I think coffee and cigarettes. I wonder if, when they upped the tax on cigarettes, they considered the fact that many cigarette-buying establishments are shutting their doors.
(Personally I think the tax is a worth it, because I have a weak respiratory system and am no fun at all ... but it's a conundrum.)
I wonder if 7-11 corporate helped the pull the plug on that location. The bread and butter for 7-11 is drive up, not walk up customers. WaWa closed nearly all of its walk-up locations in the last few years and will now only develop drive up locations, preferabbly with gas pumps. Just from driving around the area, it seems like 7-11 is starting to do the same.
The really interesting thing is that the 7-11 franchise agreements are out of the middle ages. 7-11 makes as much, if not more, money on franchise and other mandatory fees as it does on sales (Quiznos has the same type of agreements), so, in a way, it makes sense to keep as many 7-11's open as you can, just to bring in the monthly fees. Let the owner, who has all sorts of restrictions if he tries to get out of the franchise, deal with the higher rent.
There's another walk-up 7-11 by the other end of CP about 0.5 mi away, just across from the zoo. I'm betting they get more traffic from zoo patrons and their slurpee-demanding children and get more business than the 7-11 up the street, which has to compete with the corner gas station and it's convenient Porter/Connecticut accesible parking lot.
At least there is still someplace relatively nearby to get a tacquito fix.
"Higher rent" is a canard. The amount of rent matters only in relation to the revenue the store brings in. Sales that are too low is as good an explanation as "higher rent" except that it's easy for 7-11 to blame someone else rather than themselves for opening a store that couldn't generate sufficient sales to stay in business.
If higher rent is really the explanation, I'd like to know what, if any, counteroffer they made to the landlord.
I love the term "vom". Thanks, marigold.
*steals*
@pselva01: I agree, I think the zoo sevey is probably the culprit.
@Over the River: Good news - the condoms in the CP CVS aren't locked up!
And then we'll also have the bored-and-self-righteous Historical Association making sure that nothing remotely useful fills the space - only card n' trinket shops - lest someone park a car in front of their houses (*gasp!*).