New poll: chains downtown?
•Closing the old poll...
Time to close the old poll question, "Which of the new downtown restaurants is your favorite?" The winner? Check out the results. It was fairly close, but Dakota Harvest Bakers won with 31% of the vote. They beat out The Toasted Frog which got 28% and Joe Black's which got 25%. 15% of voters had no opinion. Voting was pretty close between the three establishments. There doesn't really appear to be any resounding favorite out there. Interesting. I wonder how business has been at the three restaurants?
•Opening the new poll...
Time for the new poll question, "What do you think about chain stores and restaurants in downtown Grand Forks?" I'll be interested to see what you all have to say about chains downtown. Should we be actively trying try to get chain stores and restaurants downtown? Should we let just a few in? How about a "chain-free" downtown? What are your opinions?
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12 comments:
hey, all right! Just what we need in GF - a TENTH Subway...
Either an Olive Garden or a nice upscale place would be great in downtown. Red Lobster has an awesome location in downtown Rochester. It would look neat to have restaurants on both sides of the river. I do prefer locally owned over chains, but bring them on.
I think chains in general are insensitive to their surroundings, but one store that would make a perfect fit for downtown is Urban Outfitters. It's mix of funky clothes and gear and the natural instinct of college kids to shop in an urban center would be a great pairing.
Would they ever locate a store there?
Business is business; I don't personally care for them, but they bring in business.
I'd personally like to see a restaurant like Ichibans and stores like Crate & Barrel, Urban Outfitters and an upscale pet botique, bakery and spa.
Downtown Grand Forks needs shops, housing, office buildings, restaurants, pretty much everything and I don't think the town is in any position to pick and choose, take what it can get, everything helps the downtown.
A Barnes & Noble/Coffee Shop sounds like a good idea, I think they would be able to make a go of it business wise downtown too. Another idea would be like a Hard Rock Cafe downtown, like what they have in downtown Minneapolis...........but I'm sure the Grand Forks market is to small for a Hard Rock Cafe.
I'd love to see a Trader Joe's come to downtown.
As for a bookstore, we had Novel Ideas downtown for a while, but that closed. I was usually alone when I went there when it was open. As much as I'd love a bookstore/coffee shop/music store, I don't know if it would make it around here.
Clothing and outfitters would be nice. There aren't any clothing stores downtown. I think it would be nice not to compete with existing independent shops, such as a chain coffee place to compete with existing coffee shop and cafes, and so on. What we REALLY need is a store like Osco used to be...a little bit of everything! Like a general store. Too bad ND has a law prohibiting pharmacies that don't have the owner/operator/manager as a ND resident, or we could get one of the big pharmacy chainstores, which have anything and everything. Then people who live downtown or who will be living in the new residences being built won't go elsewhere for shopping...it oughta bring people downtown who live elsewhere, if they can do their general shopping in one store and then eat and shop and bank downtown.
Osco is changing to CVS, which is a national pharmacy chain.
Osco was always a national pharmacy chain, but the thing is the manager/franchise owner must have been or still is a ND resident. And places like Walgreen's have trouble getting people to agree to live in ND. I know cuz I called their headquarters a couple years ago to ask them why don't they come to GF and that's what they told me.
I love CVS, glad to see them coming in regardless of ownership. Their rewards program is great. Bright, colorful stores...
I wonder if the shift from Osco to CVS will result in a remodel of the store?
Speaking of changing store names, has anybody else noticed the Macy's signs they have been putting up on Marshall Field's? Last I saw, they had put them up, but then covered them with big banners that say "Marshall Field's". I guess that way they can instantly change names on the day they want to. I always heard early September will be the time when the change becomes official...
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