Matthew Quimby and his sister Cassie drove an hour from Claremont for a steal of a deal at Toys R Us in Concord on Thursday, expecting to hit the first day of the bankrupt company’s liquidation sale.
They came away with a toy BMW sports car for Matthew’s 2-year-old daughter, but they didn’t find the big sale they were expecting.
Later in the afternoon, word started to spread that the merchandise liquidation would start Friday at the earliest.
Inside the Concord store, it was mostly business as usual.
Sure, there were more customers than normal, staff members said. But there were no deals to be seen – no early-bird surprises for the aggressive deal hunters. There was no frantic Black Friday electricity in the air – possibly a product of the misinformation and delays to sales that never came.
Some shoppers expressed regret at the store’s pending demise.
At the Concord store, a sign featuring Geoffrey the giraffe – the company’s mascot – hung at the front desk.
“Geoffrey will always be in our hearts,” it read.
On Loudon Road – as Bon-Ton prepares to close up shop just as developers snatch up land for new commercial projects – a store’s death is a part of life.
The retail toy giant announced it would be shuttering its remaining 740 stores in the U.S. last week. It will try to bundle its Canadian business (about 200 stores) and find a buyer. The company’s U.S. online store will still be running for the next couple of weeks in case there’s a buyer for it.
With the company winding down operations in preparation for its closure, another major retailer right next door is doing the same thing.
The Bon-Ton in the Steeplegate Mall – actually two stores forming a crucial anchor for the shopping center – was put on the chopping block Jan 31, part of dozens of closures for the national department store chain.
But the area has also seen an aggressive pursuit of new retail space.
Across the street from Toys R Us, developers recently spent spent $3.5 million to purchase a slew of single-family homes to make way for a large commercial space, including an Aldi grocery store.
While the Toys R Us store is nestled among the city’s high-value commercial real estate, it’s tied for the second-lowest appraised value among retail outlets along Loudon Road at $3.4 million along with Best Buy, according to the city’s assessing website.
Both buildings sold for more than $5 million in 2005 (Toys R Us) and 2002 (Best Buy).
The highest-valued building in that Loudon Road corridor is the Walmart Supercenter at $19.7 million; that’s more than double what the location sold for in 1998. The next closest? Target, isn’t even close at $13.2 million, although that location has also drastically increased in value – it cost $2 million when sold in 1998.
From there, the highest-valued buildings are as follows: Home Depot at $11.8 million; the Steeplegate Mall at $10 million, including the TD Bank and Applebee’s properties; and the Dick’s Sporting Goods and Petsmart buildings, collectively valued at $9.4 million. The Michaels building is appraised at $3.7 million.
And smaller business parks aren’t far behind or are above Toys R Us. The lot at 240-242 Loudon Road, where the Starbucks and the Jos. A Bank are located, is worth $2.8 million; the Shaw’s building is appraised at $11.3 million.
While not a retail store, per se, the Regal Cinemas is located close to all these other locations. It takes last in valuation at $2.3 million.
(Material from the Washington Post and the Associated Press was used in this report.)