Hudson Belk Men to Fill Lord & Taylor Space

Can I vote for “whatever”?
Because in all honesty Crabtree will never be up scale until it humbles it self with a better parking! ha!

That would be just odd…to go to one space for Belk’s mens section, but to the other for everything else—womens, childrens, home fashions, furniture, linens, etc etc. Strange, and a bit against the whole point of a department store.

Such an arrangement is quite common at several other malls Belk operates in. Boone Mall immediately comes to mind.

i don’t like the idea of moving just the mens dept, but thats the only dept i use so…….whatever. i wish they would move barnes and noble into the mall like the others have done. make it bigger, pimp it out, whatever. just don’t use the old l&t; for something stupid.

At Union Square in San Fransisco there is a Saks Men’s Store. The more important thing here is that Belk’s men’s department is awful. They have cheap crap and it always looks like a dump. How many different locations need to sell Hilfiger, Nautica, and Dockers? Saks, Nordstrom, Lacoste, and Brooks Brothers feel that this area can support more upscale merchandise. If Belk gets this spot it means they have too much “pull” in Crabtree and/or management isn’t trying to lure better tenants. Raleigh/Durham got Saks, Nordstrom, Brooks, and Crate & Barrel before Charlotte did. Charlotte has Burberry and soon will have Neiman Marcus. This space is perfect for NM.

how about this? move belk to the old l&t; spot and expand that spot since its sort of small. blow out the end of the mall where belk is now and do some outside stuff to incorporate b&n.; and obviously move b&n;’s entrance to face the mall. they probably couldn’t do anything better than what southpoint did (i like crabtree of all our area malls, but have to admit that southpoint outside section really kicks); but they certainly couldn’t make it any more lame that triangle town center. maybe thats a lame idea too, but i would hate to see them waste an oppurtunity. moving belks men is lame.

You all have a point regarding Belk menswear and how the department looks in the current Crabtree location but I think the move is not a mindless one. Yes, they are moving but I don’t believe the move is to simply create more room. Belk is hoping to step it up and compete on a grander scale with the new store. It’s my understanding the Crabtree store is a very profitable location and it’s also a flagship store. If you have ever visited South Park in Charlotte then you can see what being a flagship is all about.

Now that we are finaly getting the better stores in this area (& “Bilk” is not one of them),it is time to motivate the decision makers to give us “flagship” stores. Nordstrom & Macy’s are sorry excuses for the real things. Missing in action are multiple shoe departments, furs and upscale clothing. You can get lost in The Men’s Store & The Cellar, & furniture at Macy’s….but not here! Even Dillards has a lot of room for improvement. Their flagship stores have 1. A women & Children, 2. Men & 3. a Home store, which includes furniture…all under separate roof.
Unfortunately, we are only getting the bottom rung of merchandise..i.e. the cheap junk.

I’m not sure Kathleen gets it. I think she just dislikes Belk’s and would prefer to shop somewhere else and toss any proposed change.
What if Belk is planning to upgrade, offering finer collections than other area stores? I think this is what we are seeing happen.

^ Right. There’s nothing wrong with Belk. It’s a good, decent department store for middle-income folks to shop for good merchandise. It’s more classy than Sears or Penney’s…but not as outrageously expensive as Nordstrom or Saks. It’s just right.

If Belk doubled in size they would still sell the same things they currently stock. Someone please tell me something Belk sells that cannot be found at other stores? Why do we want more of the same thing!? If you want to buy Polo merchandise, there are dozens of places in the Triangle that sell it. I have heard from a reliable source that Belk (at least in the not so distant past) buys/bought remnant merchandise to fill their stores. “Remnant” is past seasons’ merchandise that didn’t sell and was returned to the vendor by other stores. If somebody didn’t want it last year, why are we asking for more of it this year?

^Tom- Regarding the remnant merchandise, it’s common for stores to consolidate their stock at the end of a season into smaller stores. This keeps the brand strong with plenty of quality merchandise in a location where there is a desire for it. Think of smaller stores like Greenville, Garner, Lexington, etc… As far as the merchandise that Belk carries that you can’t find anywhere else? Well, I’m not fashion forward enough to answer that one. What I see Belks doing is trying to build their brand to grow a more profitable store.
FYI- I don’t shop much nor do I work for Belk.

I think that if Hudson Belk wants to upgrade, they don’t necessarily need more space. Getting rid of all that stuff that they also sell at JCPenney would create plenty of space.
That was a very solid store when the Hudsons were running it. Now it seems that Charlotte is calling the shots and the store looks more cluttered and sloppier than ever.
Belk probably does need to redefine itself. Belk is taking over the former Parisian spaces in Atlanta and the moans and roars from shoppers there are not going unnoticed. Parisian was a good store that people were interested in exploring. They _dread_ Belk’s presence in Phipps Plaza.

I think everyone in this market that goes to all of the area malls can see what an embarrassing job we all do in supporting our local economy. In this age of online, we have forced these department stores to make cuts everywhere possible- that is why the assortment in these area stores is not “flagship” as some have said. Why would you pay $300 for a cotton sweater at Saks, evidentally no one does, afterall, they even close early because the people in Raleigh don’t spend that kind of money to justify them staying open for normal business hours. How dare any of us “blame” Belk for trying to expand their space and therefore hopefully offer even better assortments of products that we are actually buying. It’s amazing in reading these comments, how people are so quick to make a company that tries to serve us as consumers look like the bad guy. I challenge you to read how opininated most of these comments are, and at the same time, how many of them say something about how they don’t shop that much, or at least not in this area. If you aren’t shopping then why do you think you have a voice in what Belk or Crabtree does with the L&T; space, and shame on you for not supporting your local econony and then feeling like you have any reason to complain about something that you contribute nothing to.

I’ve never considered spending $300 on a cotton sweater at Saks as “supporting the local economy.” In fact: I’ve never considered spending $300 on a cotton sweater. Embarrassing job supporing our local economy? I proudly avoid Crabtree, Southpoint and Triangle Town Center.
Shop Cameron Village, Stitch, Firefly, Cherry or any of the locally-owned stores at North Hills. Crabtree is an entirely avoidable section of town and soon to be worse.

i think that belk, like so many department stores out there, still look at life as though they need every department that they have. i think having multiple departments under one roof is a good thing, don’t get me wrong, but the fact is that with the increase in targets and wal-marts, many of the departments in department stores are not where the money is. i think if stores like belk want to expand their product line in departments that do well, they need to start cutting departments that don’t; rather than cramming in more racks until the store is practically un-walkable, they need to trim out stuff that people can get cheaper elsewhere. have you ever noticed that the first floor of belk is crazy, the second floor is tolerable and the third floor you could take a nap in?
get a clue people. bite your bottom lip, admit that blenders are not whats paying your rent and nix that dept. let someone else do it.
i think the point here is that rather than moving the mens dept to another location so that they can continue to keep cramming in crap that doesn’t sell, they need to re-think their store structure. move some of the 3rd floor stuff (if you must keep it) down to the first, consolidate womens to 2 and 3, that would increase traffic to the 3rd floor, and ease some of the insanity on the main level.
i think if anyone in this idea needs to be “blamed” its the folks at crabtree valley mall for taking an easy way out to fill space, rather than going out and getting us something good.

Like others, I am disappointed by this news. When I go shopping at a mall, I still pick Crabtree because it is less hassle than going all the way out Capital Boulevard to TTC, and North Hills is still distinctly lacking in stores for men’s clothing. I think a number of other good ideas exist for use of this space, and having Belk use it as a dumping ground for the fiasco that is their men’s department is not one of them. I suppose I should at least be glad it will be one less vacant space there, and will save me from walking all the way down to that end of the mall. It’s still frustrating, though.

I for one don’t think that it’s a bad idea for Belk to branch out and expand since strength usually follows strength. I had initially thought that Parisian would have been a good fit for that spot until Saks sold it’s non-luxury divisions off to Belk and Bon-Ton. If Neiman-Marcus couldn’t survive in Seattle and Cleveland, then there is no way that this market would be able to support it for any time in the foreseeable future. Federated is taking it’s time to digest The May Company while divesting Lord & Taylor, and Bloomingdale’s isn’t going to expand anywhere outside of its core markets for at least a year or two.
Crabtree, like many malls, has had to deal with all of these recent consolidations and they’ve taken a definite wait and see approach while coming up with a way to make them continue to stand out among the competition. They’ll see how things shake out after Christmas, go to the retailer conventions in Las Vegas in January, and start making some solid plans for 2007. At least the space won’t be converted into a Target.
For me, though, I’ll take a look at whatever they do and cheer them on. But, I’ll still end up going to Chockey’s like I always do. That’s just me, though.

Boooo…
Oh well, I don’t try to visit malls that often anyway. But as a lover of Raleigh, it is sad to see this occur in such a vital part of its economy.
here’s to better ingenuity in 2007. and new mall managers too.

I am not sure Kathleen is that far off. I work with some hard core department store lifelong shoppers who have even worked in these stores (Saks, Macy’s, etc) and they say the same thing as Kathleen. Yes, I use to say , “oh you are just complaining and Belk is good enough” but I have now thought twice through their education. There are different markets for these stores in different cities and I guess the Raleigh market is not considered “top shelf” to them.
I mean, how much yellow Tommy Hilfiger shirts can you buy? Apparently a lot!!! They sell us this stuff because we buy it in droves. Kind of like what the music industry has done to Raleigh radio. We eat what they feed us and we eat a lot.
I do think there are different levels of stores and Kathleen is wishing that they considered Raleigh at a higher level and therefore stock the stores with a higher level stuff and all the assortments that go with that, it would be better shopping.
I grew up in Raleigh and use to think these people were “shopping snobs”, but I have come to realize that Raleigh, as much as I want it to be “So Metropolitan”, in the real world, not every one agrees, especially people who sell us stuff in the large stores.
And again, I am from here.

Belk is the Dodge Stratus of department stores. It just doesn’t do much for me. But wait, should I shop there anyway just to “support the local economy?”

Many of you are acting as if Crabtree has not tried to get a “good” tennant for that space. It has sat empty for a long time. If anyone was truly interested I believe they would have found them.
Eight years or so ago Crabtree had momentum, as other area malls were closing. The tide turned, however, and if anything the area is now overbuilt. How many malls do we really need?
Retail developers have continued to canibalize each others customers to the point that they just don’t have the traffic numbers to attract many of the stores some of you are looking for.
Then again, I don’t go to the malls so what do I know.

Well if anything there will now be more variety in both the men’s and women’s clothing sections. Maybe its a better risk to take right now?

well, i’m not happy they are doing this, but i guess it could be worse. they could have gone with a target or something to make the space feel cheap. its not i would have done (bring barnes and noble into the mall allready!!!); but its better than an empty space. at least if they take up both floors they could give us a whopper of a mens department. of course, they could also give us a whopper of a screw up. time will tell.

Regardless of your opinion of Belk and/or Crabtree…you have to admit, this will be a nice change from what most department store men’s departments in the Triangle tend to be: the “here you can have half of one floor” routine.