In today's Inky, Business section, p. E5 ("7 anchor stores in malls will close" by Bob Fernandez). Federated Department Stores will be closing 7 Strawbridges stores in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware by mid-March. The stores are in the following malls: Cherry Hill, Christiana, Deptford, Montgomery Mall (North Wales), Oxford Valley, Springfield (Delaware Co), Willow Grove Park.
This is never good news for the areas affected. Anchor stores aren't easy to find and an empty hole that size in a retail area looks bad. What does this have to do with politics? A politician or candidate who can claim, with some believability, to have brokered a deal with a new anchor has a nice bullet point to put on mailers and to make in debates. Challengers can make a big deal out of an incumbent's inability to have filled the space. This is solely my opinion, though.
Saturday, January 21, 2006
Area Strawbridges Closing
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2 comments:
Jane,
You bring up and interesting point worth exploring: Can politicians broker deals to bring retail outlets to malls? The answer is a resounding "yes." They do it all the time with tax incentives.
"Should" they broker deals is a more interesting question. There is a catch, and you have to be careful what you wish for.
As an example, taxpayers might not applaud the idea of giving hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax credits to huge department-store chains to serve as a mall's anchor. Yet, "payola" or "corporate welfare" for department stores is a fair issue to explore.
Here's why.
Anchors create create permanent jobs, many of which are practically guaranteed to local people. Additionally, you generate additional sales tax, wage tax, and business privilege tax. However, many of the jobs end up being low-paying jobs -- not the kind that many progressives feel is a living wage.
Two years ago, AAA decided to move its headquarters from Philadelphia to Wilmington, DE. Pennsylvania lost over 400 jobs because Wilmington and Delaware officials played the game and offered $7 million to lure them. If it sounds like Art Model and sports welfare, it ain't far off.
You can't force businesses to stay in business, and they often play one city against another, one state against another.
Ultimately, a pro-business attitude and a competitive business tax structure is the only way you can encourage them to come to town.
As a real estate agent, I can tell you that companies will start leasing space in Philadelphia -- as an example -- when we reduce or, better yet, eliminate the Draconian wage and business privilege taxes.
John Featherman
Republican Candidate, US Senate-PA
www.featherman.com
John,
I wasn't thinking of tax incentives. I was thinking of NOT having a "pay to play" atmosphere where businesses are NOT required to fork over huge sums to local politicians just to do business in the area. I was thinking of working with public transit agencies to make sure that workers can get to and from their job so employers can count on a good reliable employee base, which may help with salaries. I was thinking of making sure the area is clean, safe, attractive, kept up, so that businesses would be interested in moving in -- curb appeal. I was thinking of a stable economic environment so a business moving in doesn't see an empty storefront every other store. Those things.
Jane
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