As expected, the mayor of San Diego, Jerry Sanders, has already vetoed an ordinance banning big box ordinances:

Sanders said the ban, passed by the City Council earlier this month, limits the options available to consumers who want to save money.

At a news conference Friday afternoon, Sanders said consumers benefit from the savings Wal-Mart offers.

Many shoppers agreed, telling NBC 7/39 they enjoy the competitive prices as well as the convenience the chain offers them.

The mayor said consumers should be allowed to decide where to shop and how much money they want to save.

It’s not every day that you read that a big box store is good for competition.

More on this story from NBC San Diego.

Recently, Kaua’i, Hawaii passed a bill banning big box retailers and now San Diego is the newest city to get the fight against big boxes.

SAN DIEGO — The San Diego City Council Monday passed an ordinance that will prohibit the construction of so-called big-box retail stores within city limits.

The City Council heard from passionate citizens on both side of the issue but voted 5-3 in favor of the ordinance. The measure bans new establishments that are larger than 90,000 square feet and generate more than 10 percent of revenue from non-taxable goods, like groceries.

This particular fight isn’t over, as the San Diego mayor, Jerry Sanders, is expected to veto the resolution. The City Council has a month to override the veto, but it is possible that Wal-Mart, or another large retailer, would be able to secure signatures via petition to get the people to vote on this resolution come the February election.

More from NBC San Diego and the San Fransico Gate.

One of the reasons I started this site is because of how much I enjoy going through planning and zoning board minutes/agendas to spot new retail development in the area that I live in.

Now there is something interesting brewing in my town, Middletown NJ. On the agenda for the June 6th Planning Board meeting is this proposal:

#2007-200 – Bowen Development Company, Block 807, Lot 1, 1230 Highway 35, located in the
B-3 Zone. Applicant is seeking major site plan and minor subdivision approval for a 14,708 sq.ft.
pharmacy and a 9,600 sq.ft. retail building.

A quick Google search for Bowen Development Company comes up with this SEC filing from Walgreens, showing that Bowen Development Company is one of their subsidaries.

What is interesting to me is that the address in the proposal is actually the exact address of a longstanding Friendly’s restaurant. What is happening to that eatery? Is it being closed, moved, or redeveloped?

Walgreens, via Bowen Development Company, also has an application in Franklin Township, NJ for a proposed location. Public comment was in March with the application on the agenda for their meeting next week.

Walgreens is currently working on redevelopment of a former restaurant in Washington DC to create their first location within that city. It appears that they have been working closely with local officials and historic groups to create a design that satisfies the local community. Good to see a retailer who is that involved with the community.

(More coverage of the Washington DC development from examiner.com.)

What is to come of the Friendly’s location and the Walgreens proposal? We’ll find out more next week.

Last week, the City Council of Kaua’i, Hawaii, passed an ordinance restricting retail construction to under 75,000 square feet:

A 75,000-square-foot floor-area limit on retail or wholesale operations. Business square footage would be added together if establishments are within 800 feet of each other and sell similar goods under common management, share check-out counters, or are under common ownership — meaning, for example, that a single retailer could not build two 75,000-square-foot stores around a single parking lot.

While the island already has Costco, Wal-Mart, and K-Mart, this bill seems to be aimed squarely at Wal-Mart’s plans to increase the size of the location there from 119,000 square feet to almost 200,000 square feet. The City Council wants to preserve the character of the small island community and preserve the local, mom and pop stores, that make up the community.

I recently commented on the plans by several retailers to build smaller concept stores. Anti-big box bills like this are just another reason why retailers need to have several construction ideas in their portfolio. One size does not fit every community.

More coverage of the bill from the Honolulu Advertiser. The quote above is from their coverage.

Christian Trejbal has an editorial in yesterday’s Roanoke Times where he offers his opinion on the big box battle in Blacksburg, VA.

Opponents’ strategy right now — aside from hosting a bake sale fundraiser outside Gillies yesterday and today — is a proposed ordinance that would require large retailers to get council approval before building. It would not ban a big-box, but it is hard to imagine the current council signing off on one.

Unfortunately for the opponents, Virginia courts frown on retroactive standards. They must be kicking themselves that they did not think to pass a law years ago.

He talks about what kind of community Blacksburg is and what big boxes mean to the community.

More from Roanoke.com.

Town official in Blacksburg, VA, misses deadline and vote on anti-big box ordinance is tabled until later in the month. Is it a simple mistake or a government conspiracy?

The big box vs. little box debate in Tuscon, AZ. There’s still room for small retailers.

New Jersey’s Freehold Raceway Mall expands and announces the first new tennants.

The Wall Street Journal is talking about the smaller sized buildings that retailers are buildingre. Focusing on the electronic retailers Best Buy and Circuit City, the article states that the average size of their new buildings may be 30-40% smaller than their current prototype.

Two factors primarily are fueling the smaller-store phenomenon: Consumer-electronics chains need less space for merchandise as some products get smaller and shoppers increasingly buy music and movies online. And Best Buy and Circuit City, which operate a combined 1,500 U.S. stores, now need smaller structures to penetrate fast-growing suburbs, rural areas and gaps between their larger stores — places that can’t support one of their superstores.

“We’re taking a square footage and a revenue number for a market and, instead of trying to force it into one large box, we’re spreading it across smaller boxes that are more convenient,” Best Buy’s vice president of real estate, Pat Matre, says.

Do these smaller store concepts speak volumes about the state of the electronics industry today? The article alludes to the high volume of movies and music that are bought online, thereby further reducing the amount of space needed for this media in the store.

It seems that retailers are starting to realize that one size does not fit every market. Other retailers, like Home Depot and Wal-Mart, have experimented with smaller store concepts that have allowed those retailers to get in to neighborhoods or areas that they previously would not have been able to get in to.

The Chicago Sun-Times is running a story with more details about the upcoming expansion plans for JCPenney. As they have previously announced, the focus of their upcoming growth (250 new stores through 2011) is in the off the mall format. But what is revealing is that one of the larger areas of growth is within Chicago.

From the article:

J.C. Penney will open nine suburban, off-mall stores in the next two years, making the Chicago region the biggest market for the retailer’s new stand-alone stores.

[…]

Penney’s strategy is to open free-standing stores near families in growing suburbs that welcome “lifestyle centers” — outdoor malls with restaurants, movie theaters, landscaped walkways and stand-alone stores that have their own parking lots.

The new, one-story stores measure 85,000 to 105,000 square feet, slightly smaller than Penney’s traditional two-story mall stores at 100,000 to 165,000 square feet. The new stores sell no furniture.

“The stand-alone Penney’s stores fit the shoppers’ lifestyle of not wanting to park in a mall parking lot, but to park at the store, run in, do their shopping and go home,” said John Jones, Penney’s district manager for Chicago’s North Side.

(More information, see Penney shifting to off-the-mall strategy.)

I wonder how many of these new stores are going to go into existing markets, either as a replacement for an aging mall anchor, or into an area where they previously had and closed locations.

Located along Route 35, just a few traffic lights away from the Garden State Parkway, is a shopping center that, at one time, was among the only shopping centers in the area. But as more traditional big box and national retailers moved into the area, this shopping center all but died. While some shopping centers lost an anchor or two, this center had an incredible assortment of retailers that did not survive the competition in the early to mid-90’s.

Arguably, the main draw of the center was Service Merchandise. From my childhood, I have many fond memories of this store as an eceletic retailer where one could get boxing gloves, a camera, a stereo system, and a watch. In this area in the late 80’s, if you needed electronics, you went to Service Merchandise, (Nobody Beat’s) The Wiz, or Crazy Eddie’s. While the chain went under for, I’m sure, more than a few reasons, the strongest threat that they had was the increased competition from chains like Wal-Mart and Best Buy.

The second doomed retailer was Rickel. Rickel was a northeastern-based hardware store. A little larger than the neighborhood hardware store, but not large enough to compete with the likes of Home Depot. After a merger with competitor Chanel, the chain could not survive and folded in the late 90’s.

Then we also had Herman’s World of Sports, which seemed to be the best place to go for sports equipment or merchandise. Increased competition from retailers like Sports Authority eventually killed this chain.

The last piece of this shopping center that didn’t survive was a Roy Rogers location. After a sale to Hardee’s, and an unsuccessful venture into the Mid Atlantic by the Hardee’s brand, this Roy Rogers location eventually closed. (I still think Roy rogers is my all time favorite fast food resturaunt.)

Interestingly, this center was also home to an Odd Lots. Although Odd Lots still exists, as Big Lots, this particular location closed a few years ago.

Around 2000, this center was a ghost town. Odd Lots has become a children’s discount clothier and Herman’s World of Sports was now a carpet store. The former Rickel and Service Merchandise locations stood vacant, leaving more than half of the center empty. After 2000, Staples moved into the former Rickel location while McDonalds eventually opened up in the former Roy Rogers location.

While the Service Merchandise location has stood vacant for almost a decade after the chain went under, it is finally seeing signs of life as construction is under way on a new Foodtown supermarket which looks to open later this year.

Some photos of the construction:

I’ve always been fascinated by how this one shopping center seems to have the worst luck. No other shopping center in the area saw so many retailers go under or sat vacant for so long. But this is an interesting look back and I’m sure there are lessons to be learned from all of these retailers who did not make it in face of increased competition.

Reader Michael Daines pointed me to a number of web sites related to the proposed Target in Davis, CA.

What I find very interesting about this proposal is just how the community and government is using the Internet to debate this issue. First, the City of Davis has a sub section on it’s website presenting all of the information about this proposal. From site plans, to artist renderings, to impact studies - all of this information is there (see: Proposed Target Store - City of Davis).

Then, there are the pro and anti proposal group websites (see: Target in Davis and Don’t Big-Box Davis).

But the thing that intrigues me the most is the great use of a wiki at DavisWiki. Sections of that website include Target Debate and Second Street Crossing. This wiki allows users to share ideas and opinions on the proposal and seems to have been very active during this process.

I really like the ways that all sides of this project have embraced technology to spread their message and get people involved.