All Things Local, 104 North Pleasant Street
The all natural food co-op opened in late November, 2013 in the former location of the Souper Bowl restaurant, who also went out of business due to the same formula.
And so it goes.
We had a good run, Amherst. Thanks for all the support along the way. Go Pats!
— All Things Local (@ATL_Amherst) October 19, 2015
Who are the greedy landlords? The same ones that gouge UMASS students for off campus apartments for a year or two?
ReplyDeleteOh. Of course. In socialist Amherst, this person deems the landlords to be greedy. Because what-? They want the tenants to stick to the agreement that was made between the parties. And I wish those greedy bastards I work for would pay me more than what I agreed to work for.
DeleteSure...always the fault of the greedy landlord. Perhaps there just weren't enough customers? Nah, that's not possible.
ReplyDeleteOnce again, socialism in a capitalist society doesn't work.
ReplyDeleteAnd thank God it doesn't. But go ahead, Black Sheep. Keep the Bernie Sanders poster up. Lol.
DeleteTheir did a poor job of saying exactly what they were esp to visitors. The place inside was also a bit of organized chaos.
ReplyDeleteWho is going to seriously consider the center of Amherst for fruit and vegetable shopping. No parking, too much traffic, too much foot traffic, too many reasons why retail in Amherst doesn't work. Oh and competition. Far too much farm-style competition. You'd hit five roadside carts with all you need before you got here.
ReplyDeleteTHAT is an ignorant comment. Not only did our town's super star, Barry Roberts, give them huge rent discounts, extra space, and many opportunities, he volunteered to serve on their board to help them succeed. This was a HUGE money looser again for a guy who wants the BEST for this town. How dare you presume that landlords are to blame for the failure of this experiment.
ReplyDeleteThis is dumb. The landlord is Barry Roberts and my understanding is that he afforded a reduced rent and worked diligently to support this concept and the store. It was a great idea in theory but there never was a lot folks wanted to buy.
ReplyDeleteWho really cares, anyway???
ReplyDeleteThe community (country, world, government, employees, volunteers, protestors, etc.) turn their back on small business (service, quality, community, etc.) decades ago so that it can run to whole foods, walmart, verizon for both goods and jobs.
ReplyDeleteAnd people blame the local business, the landlord for this??????
There is truly a disconnect between people that think they understand economics and the real world. Regulators and Consumers run the economy.
Keep in mind that business closed because it lost money. They likely invested savings, sacrificed a great deal to open. The town of AMHERST charged them plenty of money, made them meet requirements. They had to collect and submit sales tax, against their will, likely $1000's and $1000's. The town profited off this business, the state profited off this business, the community profited off this business (because some folks shopped there and liked the stuff they got better than the money they left), but the business owners took a loss.
For my local businesses, the town and the state ALWAYS make more money off my business than I do. Always, @ 10k, 50k or 100k a year, they always make more. The government also makes 10x what the oil companies make on their fuel.
Average retail American profit is LOWER then the sales tax revenue that the states make of the very same businesses and transactions. Sales tax in mass is a whopping 6.25%, most retailers have net profit far less. They work and the government literally makes more off their efforts than they do. In this case the government made out good and the family/company simply paid for it to have the right to fail in business. Given the numbers were so low, we can be confident that excessive fees, taxes and regulations before any profit was made had a decent role in shutting them down.
Many firms never even get started, the potential owner says there is just too much paperwork and regulations to try, they don't even get to the taxes. Everyone these folks know shop with big companies like whole foods, verizon and walmart anyway.
You, your neighbors and the folks you put in government to run our lives were the ones that did not shop there. Someone should have known better than to open a local themed shop, for the same reason we don't open buggy repair shops either.
Barry gave them a great shot at making it. They had an interesting concept but couldn't sustain it long term. I commend them for trying, and commend Barry for making it possible.
ReplyDeleteMass does not have a high state tax as state tax goes. Our neighbors in Vermont pay 8.95% as an example. Out west California pays 13%. There is no one "Average retail American profit" - it depends on the industry and the quarter. It could range from a few percent as in electronics retail to double digits as in many forms of retail. If profit was LOWER then the sales tax revenue, no one would be in business, anywhere. Profit is considered after expenses (including taxes). If you are not making ends meet because of state taxes, then you have a poor business model.
ReplyDeleteThis place was doomed to fail because the service inside the store was awful. It would take forever to get someone up to the register, and then half the time they didn't seem able to operate it properly or figure out the price of your items in a timely way. The stock was also confused. Crafts next to hard cider...I could never figure out what this store was supposed to be, really.
ReplyDelete"I could never figure out what this store was supposed to be, really."
ReplyDeleteSomehow people think that if you have a good idea in a area that seems to go for it, then you'll e successful. Without a solid business plan, and an understanding of retail, you are doomed.
Huh? State taxes are paid by the consumer not the retailer. They are not an expense. They are added on and passed on to the state,
ReplyDeleteWell, if it keeps you out it's doing some good.
ReplyDeleteThose who do not collect and submit sales tax have no sense of what they are talking about. The taxes are semantically paid by the consumer, the are really paid by the retailer via offset sales. You can see this clearly at the NH border or if you go town to town in states like CO or ID where sales taxes change at every town.
ReplyDeleteWe had retail businesses in Mass when it recently raised its sales tax by 25%. We had a retail business in Maine when it recently raised its sales tax by 10%. We have retail businesses in CO where the towns constantly change their sales tax based on greed.
In all three cases, when the sales taxes when up, you can calculate the dollar amount this reflects based on our sales. Locally in Mass we had a store that was doing $30k in sales per month with a 5% sales tax. We were tight, month to month. Then sales tax went to 6.25% (25% higher). At $30k that means that our customers had to pay $375 more in sales taxes. After literally 18 of months averaging $30k, for the next 6 months we averaged $29,500. Same in Maine when the change happened, same in Colorado when they played the taking game.
We also had one employee in this store. As the consumer was not willing to pay any more for our products and the only flexible budget a retailer really has is employee pay, we had no choice but to reduce employee pay to offset the cost of the increased sales tax. So in reality, what happened was the state got $343.75 more in taxes. Our revenue went down by $500 and the consumer got 1.25% less stuff for the same money. They paid the same, they just got less, the state got free money and the retailers employees get paid less. THIS IS ECON 101.
The market knows all, the market knew you had to devote your money to the state, the market knew you had a fixed budget, the market knew that you would thus spend less on real goods. The business owners also knew it. The employee is stuck paying for it in lower wages (which will be blamed on the employer of course). The consumer denies it, and it happens none the less. The state decided it, which makes sense, when you can force people to give up their money and their is nothing you can do about it....the only question is why stop at 6.25%, why beat around the bush, you ain't hiding anything unless folks are not paying attention.
It is not practical for novice theoretical economists (employees, welfare recipients, government employees, etc.) to try to tell applied economists (business owners) how economics actually works. This is our job, it is your novice sofa hobby. The effect of not understanding this is a rush to heavy regs, big business and then more of the same when it just gets worse. Rinse and repeat.
If selling groceries was really your job, you would know that there is no sales tax on groceries.
ReplyDeleteSo maybe stick to what you do know, 12:07.
I forget to go there--didn't know what they had each week. I am not a regular denizen of downtown so, like for Atkins in south Amherst, I read the ads to see if it's worth the gasoline and the time. T
ReplyDelete