|
|
| Re: May 11, 1975. . .End of the Culver shuttle (429839) | |||
 |
|||
| Home > SubChat | |||
|
[ Read Responses | Post a New Response | Return to the Index ] |
|
||
|
Re: May 11, 1975. . .End of the Culver shuttle |
|
|
Posted by Stephen Bauman on Mon May 14 13:44:21 2007, in response to Re: May 11, 1975. . .End of the Culver shuttle, posted by MJF on Sun May 13 21:21:59 2007. Was the Jamaica Macy's customer base suburban? Chances are most of their customer base was arriving by public tranportation, bus or subway. Why eliminate their way of getting to the store?Jamaica was one of two major shopping hubs for Queens residents until the late 1950's. (Herald Square was the other). Macy's-Jamaica featured free roof top parking, for its more affluent customers. Alexanders radically changed the dynamic by locating its first Queens store in Rego Park in the late 1950's. It was very successful. Macy's followed suit with a store on Queens Blvd in Elmhurst in the early 1960's. This was followed by Queens Center, with two big box stores, also in the early 1960's. This shifted shopping away from the Jamaica hub for the new post war high population corridor along Queens Blvd from Broadway/Grand Avenue to Union Tpk. Business suffered in the Jamaica hub, as a result. The die was cast by the early 1970's. The big stores decided consolidate their Queens operations to the new Elmhurst/Rego Park hub. They were not staying regardless of whether the El stayed, came down or was replaced by the Archer Ave subway. However, the Jamaica hub had dozens of smaller stores that could still lure bargain seeking customers. The only way the big stores could stop the comparison shopping habit was to kill the easy access for the Jamaica hub's remaining customer base. |
|
|
|