What is happening to 7th Ave businesses?

Rents.

whynot_31 said:

Americanization.

Franchises are slowly replacing many stand alone businesses.

whynot_31 said:

Americanization.

Franchises are slowly replacing many stand alone businesses.

Agreed.

I was walking down 8th street in the west village, remarking the same thing, and noticing that all my favorite stand alone businesses were closed, but the awful franchises like Dominos, Subways, BBQ etc on that street are still very much open.

I try so hard to do much of my shopping at stand alone stores. I never get coffee at StarF*cks, I will go to a food cart first.

One of things that a commercial landlord told me was that because of the way the city keeps on raising taxes on commercial property it is not always a negative for the landord when a unit become vacant. The landlord will let it stay vacant and use the loss of income to start an appeal process on the real estate tax.