JM FIELDS....blast from the past.  Forgot all about that store....and I liked going there, too.                  

Quoted from joebxr

Wel, I apologize on the timeline (assuming and giving you credit that your dates are correct)...but the point is...Mohawk Mall could not compete with Colonie Center....I did not say a thing about Latham and Stuyvesant.  As for being off I-890....easy tio find for people that are from the area, that makes sense.  Talk to people from Albany, Troy, Bennington, Utica, Syracuse........ask them about Rotterdam Square and I know "FOR A FACT" that the ones I've spoken too said they had a hard time finding it (if they did) and others said they went to Colonie Center instead because it was easy to get to....AND....there was a lot more shopping they could do in that area.  What else is around RSM....REX (gone now), BJ's, Dunki Donuts (sure you know that already), and so on.  How is that attracting people to shop there.

Here's is a good write up/history/photo gallery of Mohawk Mall I found interesting:
http://www.uer.ca/locations/show.asp?locid=24630

When Filene's was in the mall -- and I worked there for 8 years -- we had many customers coming from all directions --- including regular customers from Utica and Binghamton.    One of our more regular customers was a "sort of" populary known singer named Mariah Carey who would drive up from her country home in either Columbia or Dutchess County to shop at  Rotterdam Square Mall.    

The real problems with Rotterdam Square mall -- start with its design ---    
      a)   it was allowed to be built with LESS than the required number of parking spaces for a retail building of its size ---   during the Christmas shopping season this was particularly problematic especially after a big snowstorm when the snow piles would take away even more parking spaces
      b)   the mall should have been built with a second story -- 2 story malls attract the better anchor stores --  when the Filene's store was built  -- it was built to add a second floor easily -- the "slots" where the escalators, stairs and elevator would have been built were all set aside and ready to go.   I had many conversations with the Regional Vice President and the General Merchandise Manager who said that our location could easily have been  at the same rating as the Crossgates Mall or Poughkeepsie Galleria stores ......     in fact ...   and this disputes the contention that some have that I was never successful in business ... when I ran the Housewares-Small Appliances department -- I took it from just over $500,000 in sales to over $1 million in sales in 18 months ... we were outselling Crossgates, Poughkeepsie and even  2 mega Filene's stores one in Stamford Ct and the other down by Nyack.     We did it because we "shoe horned"  A store level merchandise line into our  C level  floor space.  
        The customers came because we had the merchandise they were looking for and didn't want to drive to Albany or Poughkepsie to purchase  (technically the Poughkeepsie store was a higher level store than the Crossgates Mall store)
        Filene's is gone --- Macy's could do better if it were a 2 level store -- and expand its offerings .. but it won't add a 2nd story when the rest of the mall is 1 story    ... and thus ... rumor has it that Macy's may eventually close its Rotterdam location.    
     c)   the food court and restaurants at Rotterdam Square Mall were always problematic -- Friendly's should have been located on an outside wall with access from the mall and from outside -- like the 99 has --  that was just poor planning from day 1 ----    also ... the food court never really had a great selection of eateries  ... and  as those of us who worked in the mall could tell you a number of those eateries (including the McDonald's and Dunkin Donuts) were poorly managed ......   poor customer service,  they didn't prepare the food properly.   I won't mention the eatery .. but one closed because its owner was not on site and his or her  employees were basically robbing him or her blind.       Another closed because they got a bad reputation for the "hygiene habits" of their employees.

So ...  I will repeat something that I said a few months or weeks ago ... the best thing that could happen to Rotterdam Square Mall would be for a new owner to come in buy it and be willing to invest the money needed to  fix the place up.      Pyramid screwed up when it built and ran it -- and the current owner isn't much better.

Quoted from joebxr

Mohawk mall demise began when Colonie Center was built, along with anchor stores that didn't keep up with the times...it was just a slow death
Downtown demise began with the creation of malls and the attractiveness of indoor shopping and variety of shopping options in one location
Rotterdam Square potential???  Location sucked, first, becuase it was not easy to find for anyone who was not a resident; many were oppossed to the mall because of the aquafier and may have chosen to not support it; it was a Johnny-come-lately development when more booming established successful malls were alredy in-place....the writing was on the wall from the inception
TRUE - increae of sales tax made shopping less attractive in Sch'dy Cty....when we were at 4%, surrounding was at 6-7%, so people would come here.  When tax rose, there was no reason to travel to Sch'dy when there were local choices.

chasing sales tax savings yeah,,,,I dont think so.....my time is worth alot more than chasing a stupid 5dollar bill......the ring
in our noses is connected to that chain that we get jerked around with by those we elect....Mohawk Mall's demise was because it
became old like our bodies....we are that fickle that the next new thing we chase...the machine knows how we are....look at NFL/NASCAR
NBA/Kardashians etc etc......

Rotterdam Square Mall supports the 'farmers' from the hills.......a checker hill farms would bode well there......along with the likes of sears....the Macy's
at RSM is a very small shadow compared to the one in Colonie Center....even I noticed that and I HATE SHOPPING.....

Quoted from senders

chasing sales tax savings yeah,,,,I dont think so.....my time is worth alot more than chasing a stupid 5dollar bill......the ring
in our noses is connected to that chain that we get jerked around with by those we elect....Mohawk Mall's demise was because it
became old like our bodies....we are that fickle that the next new thing we chase...the machine knows how we are....look at NFL/NASCAR
NBA/Kardashians etc etc......

Not sure if you were around when tax jumped from 4%, but I was and working retail at clothing store in Sch'dy County.  Our sales dropped 18% in first year...fact!  I rang up many sales that were people from outside of Sch'dy Cty , and saw first hand the decrease in those who would come when 4% was tax.  It's not a $5 bill when you are buying clothes for several children for school etc., so the diff between 4% and surrounding areas was enough incentive to travel to Sch'dy.

Quoted from joebxr

Not sure if you were around when tax jumped from 4%, but I was and working retail at clothing store in Sch'dy County.  Our sales dropped 18% in first year...fact!  I rang up many sales that were people from outside of Sch'dy Cty , and saw first hand the decrease in those who would come when 4% was tax.  It's not a $5 bill when you are buying clothes for several children for school etc., so the diff between 4% and surrounding areas was enough incentive to travel to Sch'dy.

That is what I said the other day ... and jumped all over me.     I was working in retail before and after the county sales tax was implemented.       That drove away a lot of our shoppers from -- Schenectady County used to be a  "destination" for shoppers to travel to from quite a distance southwest , west and north of here.  
I remember the crowds on the weekends .. families would drive in .. do all kinds of shopping -- spend some money eating at one of the local eateries.

Implementing the county sales tax killed all that.