Sunday, November 21, 2010

Belk; Carolina Mall, Concord, North Carolina. View of secondary exterior entrance. Photographed November 20, 2010.

Previously on LiveMalls
Belk; Carolina Mall

7 comments:

  1. This logo is terrible. They cut the hours and pay of employees to spend $30 million on this. Let that sink in.

    I was hoping they would at least do a better job of covering up labelscars than they did in the Proffitt's and Parisian conversions. Clearly, that's not the case.

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  2. I personally think the new Belk logo looks ok on the newer stores, or stores that recently had their exterior remodled, but on the older stores it just doesn't look right. Maybe it would without the blue flower thing. I sort of compare it to when KMart rolled out the Big K-Mart logo in the late '90s. It looked ok on the "under 10 yr old" stores but it looked out of place on the 60's and 1970's stores (and still does in the case where the stores are still open).

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  3. Brian: More like $70 million. The logo is okay, just nofor Belk. And don't get m started on how bad the background looks.

    Michael: You have a point zbout it looking better on more modern stores. I'd imaine that it's one of the key challenges of an image makeover. How do you make it work ovrall?

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  4. I think that Belk needs to invest more money and energy into the quality of their stores' presentation if they are trying to revive their image as a major southern retailer.

    I remember when Belk opened in the old Lord and Taylor at North Point in Alpharetta (Atlanta). It seemed as if Belk had just opened the doors, shut the lights on and welcomed business. There was no extensive renovation, nor was there any evidence of catering to the market the store served. That's why they failed.

    Belk should take notes from Nordstrom, as they are masters at opening/revitalizing new locations. Look at what they did for the Lord and Taylor at Phipps Plaza in Atlanta. You could never tell that the store was the once a 40 year-old Lord and Taylor that catered to grandmas who sought for bras.

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  5. Your point is well-taken on Belk needing to spend money on revitalizing stores, but it's really penny wise and pound foolish to put serious money into renovation when the market is simply not there right now. For anybody.

    The only entity renovating right now is Walmart, and they've gotten mixed results at best because the economy is shaky at best. If they can't get it to work, what does that say for the rest of the industry?

    Nordstrom did what was needed to project their image at Phipps and it's appreciated, and from what I hear, Belk could have done better at North Point, but renovation is only profitable when the return on investment is high enough to justify positive returns.

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