Does the Globe operate in Bizzaro Boston?
...because they're currently running a front-of-websie story about how it was "a slow 'day after' at malls" and "Retailers hoped today would be a season-saver. But discounts failed to draw shoppers to the Burlington Mall. Above, the scene in KB Toys" (insert shot of two shoppers in an aisle of the store.)
Well, that's odd. At "The Natick Collection", traffic was backed up clear to Cochituate Road around 3:30, and I spent 20 minutes trying to get from Speen Street to a parking space. The entire complex was gridlocked, and according to the counters outside the parking garages, most of them were full.
Sherwood Plaza was packed with cars and the line at the sports store stretched out quite a ways.
When I stopped at the Chestnut Hill Mall around 5-5:30, I had to hunt for a parking space. Walking by the Apple Store, it was so busy that they had formed a line, complete with nerdy-looking bouncer with earpiece...
Comments
Maybe it depends on which
Maybe it depends on which mall you visited. Across the country, there have been lots of reports of half-empty malls.
South Shore Plaza was empty, according to the Patriot Ledger
South Shore Plaza was empty, according to the Patriot Ledger today:
“It’s not as busy,” said Valletta, who was looking for some summer clothes. “Didn’t have any trouble parking.”
Read the whole article
Globe Article
If you read the whole thing you would have found the section talking about how some shopping areas, including the Natick Collection, were busier than others.
I know it's the norm to criticize the Globe here, but all the news sites, tv news, etc. reported the same basic story - that sales yesterday were lower than expected - I don't see any reason to jump on the Globe's article like that.
Tracing
The writer is tracing over wire coverage of national "disappointment" in overall sales, trying to localize it. it's like putting a sheet of tracing paper over a drawing and making your own. In this case he has attempted to force-fit local facts and quotes to fit what was originally a national story, quote-for-quote... talk to shoppers? check. merchant? check. authority figure? check.
... thus the confusion.
Not how I read it
What I read was an article that including information about national sales figures with little stories about several local shopping areas, including quotes from a marketing research firm, local business people, local shoppers, president of the MA Retailers Assoc., figures from SpendingPulse, etc. I just can't see the problem with it.
Guess I sometimes just get sick of the quick criticisms I see on here. I can only imagine if poor Kevin Cullen had written it!
Whooptifriggin-dooo
I stand by my statement that the writer has just traced over the same story I've heard reported on radio, tv and on the wires over the last 48 hours.
I agree that the first criticism that cited one person's experience at one mall wasn't enough to smack down the story altogether.
But it's nonetheless true that the media, including these local writers, mostly operate in me-too mode and report the same stories on the same days (and if you ever see local news - they cover the same stories in the same sequence)...
Y A W W W N
Hey, lazy reporters: tell me something I don't already know, or just sit on your hands. The Standard Wire Story about this Non-Event (there will be no actual fact-based figures until at least a month from now) + maybe one foreign look inward (AFP, Reuters, or FT) completely covered the story. Put on your big boy pants and write something original. It's a big big big world with lots of stories that could be written, that aren't, cuz you're too busy rewriting each other's words.
And for those of you who haven't worked in a newsroom, an editor ripping a bit of wire copy off the machine (or forwarding thru terminals today) with a note "Localize This" is nothing new. But now it seems onionskin tracing over stories is the basic function of "reporters." With the Internet in front of everyone, localizing a story when the local "color" adds nothing useful is a wasted effort that squanders a reader's time, wastes energy, and crowds out other stories that should be told. It's the information equivalent of junk food.
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(results below courtesy of Google News, which steals story nuggets but doesn't show ads around them)
NYTimes
For weeks, reluctant consumers have forced retailers to lower their prices — and lower them again and again — before they even considered opening tight wallets and purses.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/27/business/economy/27shop.html?hp
Chicago Sun-Times
Shoppers braved icy highways to grab after-Christmas bargains Friday, but retail experts say the holiday season will end up a dismal one for business.
"The results will be a debacle. Horrible. Terrible. Sales will be down maybe 6 percent [from last year] -- the worst in 50 years," said Howard Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz & Associates Inc., a New York-based national retail consulting and investment banking firm.
http://www.suntimes.com/business/1351120,CST-NWS-shop27.article
Baltimore Sun
Retailers slashed prices the day after Christmas as much as 60 to 80 percent and extended hours to attract customers, but it appears their efforts will not be enough to salvage a dismal holiday shopping season.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bal-md.shopping27dec27,0,301309.story
Nightly Business Report
SUZANNE PRATT: On this day after Christmas, retailers pulled out all the stops, offering deep discounts to clear out holiday merchandise. Historically, the week between Christmas and New Year's accounts for about 15 percent of holiday sales. But this year, desperate retailers are doing all they can to ring up extra sales and save the season. And as Erika Miller reports, the bleak sales environment does not bode well for 2009.
http://www.pbs.org/nbr/site/onair/transcripts/081226a/
You have far too much free
You have far too much free time on your hands. I recommend a hobby.
Brilliant retort!
Gosh, mister, you sure put me in my place!
three malls, not one
I agree that the first criticism that cited one person's experience at one mall wasn't enough to smack down the story altogether.
Now who can't read? I visited three, not one.
Well i screwed that up
fixed:
I agree that the first criticism that cited one person's experience [] wasn't enough to smack down the story altogether.
I agree that the first
Wait a minute! The story itself was based on an observation of... only one mall!
There is a hint of Chicken Little in the Globe story.
Yet, at least two commenters
Yet, at least two commenters here posted contradictory observations of the same mall (Burlington)
The same stuff happened?
Um, maybe they all reported similar stories because the same things happened all over? I wish you would draw us a chart of all the related stories, sorted by the time each story was first published, possibly with correlations of duplicate references along with details of individual contributions by each reporter.
I do agree that most news I read lately seems very watered-down and not very interesting, but could part of the problem be that you are reading too much news?
do your own homework
Sorry, i'm not your bitch.
the confusion was that someone saw tons of people shopping yet the reporter wrote that people weren't shopping... and my goodness, how could that be?
i'm sorry that you can't accept that these are all unthinking rewrites of the same meme.
open your eyes.
Grouchy too
Re:
My original comment was about the fact that the original post specifically mentioned the Natick Collection as being crowded, and the Globe article did also specifially mention that the Natick Collection was more crowded than some other shopping centers.
Nope, I'm not a professional journalist and don't even pretend to be an expert news-reader, but I still have a reasonable opinion.
and i was writing about a broader theme
nothing about the bigger story invalidates your specific observations, but it's not often the case that a small observation can be scaled up.
Maybe you've got that the wrong way around
Well, if i'm going to write commentaries about news, and think about news and the future of news and reporting, and I do, then I certainly need to read and/or listen to news.
That said, it's probably the case that I consume far less "news" than most Americans, and probably less than most people here. I tend to follow pointers and then read, and read around the things pointed-to, rather than sitting in a comfy chair and absorbing "news" for hours on end.
Maybe it's quite the opposite - that I am not overexposed to news, so that when I go to have a look at some phenomenon, I can actually see it due to (a) experience (b) not having been numbed by constant noise.
Cars at Burlington
I wasn't shopping, but I was headed to NH from Boston. The line of stopped cars exiting 95/128 for the Burlington Mall was about a mile long. I was pleasantly surprised that they kept to one lane so Route 3 North traffic could get by :)
Look at the picture
any wonder this store was empty? Look at the picture - there was almost nothing left on the shelves. Looked like Russia in the 80's!
Not what it looked like on 128 yesterday
Southbound 128, the right lane was bumper-to-bumper for two exits with mall traffic.
Driving past, I noticed even the usually vacant corner of the parking lot where I normally park was packed.
But the New York malls were empty ...
so the Globe just cut and pasted. Simple.
Meadow Glen Mall was totally packed with large packs of pre-teens, teens, and elders. Lots of free-range mid-life adults, too. GameStop had tattooed game geeks organizing a serpentine line at the registers, and Marshalls was hopping.
The only place that didn't seem to have its usual traffic: Old Country Buffet!