Holiday shoppers can try a spate of new local businesses
December 9, 2012 at 6:00 pm in Duluth News Tribune
In recent months, about a dozen new stores, restaurants and bars have opened or soon will open in downtown Duluth, just in time for the holiday season. And it’s giving shoppers more reason to shop downtown and buy local.
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Struggling college students dishing out $5 a beer.
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Change is good.
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I think all of this is fantastic. Downtown is making small strides to become a viable option to the Miller Hill Mall area. It is never going to be able to compete with the big box places but that is fine, just a sign of the times. Fitgers is a great place to shop. I saw a Duluth Coffee Company sticker in Hayward last week so they are doing well. I am very excited to see Z’s Deli coming back. Hopefully they break the curse of that spot. 7 West is alright. THe food wasn’t that great, sure they have a lot of beer but its nothing you can’t get anywhere else. i also don’t understand the Wal-Mart water there. Canal Park Brewing Co. has some amazing craft beers to offer. I reccomend taking an afternoon to do a tasting. Hey, if nothing else, a day in downtown Duluth is nothing like it was 10 years ago, it has only gotten better. Keep it up Duluth!!
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So you recommend being drunk if you have to spend any appreciable time downtown?
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Downtown may seem busy to the young crowd, but it will never have the buzz like it did back in the 60′s when, Glassblock, Woolworths, Sears, Norm’s Reliable and the many other stores brought the shoppers downtown.
That dingy mall up there, just isn’t the equal of downtown of yesteryear.
The new places, I wish ‘em well.
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A small pool of entrepreneurs is responding to the market vacuum downtown. Some will thrive; others won’t. I wish 7 West the best but nothing about it (and this is unfair because I’ve never been and can’t for some time as I don’t live in Dlth anymore) – it’s name, its decor, its offer (fayre, ambiance) has “zip” appeal. Z’s doesn’t excite me. I remember the original but if that keeps people out of McDonald’s then by all means bring it on. The rest of the places featured are refreshing, niche and imaginative. In the case of Canal Pk Brewing – the know their product, the invested in top notch premises, maxed out the maxim Location, Location, Location and they are customer-focused. If they don’t succeed – who can?
I remember the last dept store downtown – Wahl’s and it was an absolute time warp. I was embarassed to be seen in there but I lament the exodus of the dept store from downtown. It is not out of the realm of reality to envisage a Nordstrom dept store downtown someday if the number of high value-added professional services continues trending upward. The demand for new class A space, as in Maurices, could spur further development from outside investors. That building is a big vote of confidence and won’t go unnoticed in business circles.
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