http://www.dailygazette.com

Quoted Text

ROTTERDAM
Mall location among stores being closed by jeweler
BY JAMES SCHLETT Gazette Reporter

    The retail industry’s post-holiday cleanup is continuing, with Zale Corp. closing over 60 stores, including a jewelry store at the Rotterdam Square mall.
    Zale, the Irving, Texas, retail jewelry giant with 2,200 stores and eight brands in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico, announced earlier this week a 9 percent decline in same-store sales during November and December. Total sales during the holidays fell 10.1 percent to $723 million.
    The holiday sales report issued Tuesday at a consumer conference in New York made Zale the latest high-end retailer to be sideswiped by consumers’ pullback in spending amid a housing slump, higher energy costs and recession fears. Tiffany & Co., the world’s second-largest luxury retailer, last week posted a 2 percent decline in same-store sales during the holidays.
    The lackluster holiday results prompted Zale to announce the closure of over 60 locations — half kiosks and half regular stores — during the first 90 days of 2008.
    The Zales Jewelers in Rotterdam has already closed. Other New York Zale operations targeted for shutdown include Piercing Pagoda kiosks in Syracuse and on Long Island.
    “These closings are concentrated in the three brands — Zales, Gordon’s and Piercing Pagoda — as part of the focus on return on capital. Leases were at the end of their maturity. We are not exiting any geographic markets and there is the potential that the people impacted get placed at other stores or other brands,” Zale Vice President and Treasurer David Sternblitz said in a statement.
    At the Cowen & Co. Consumer Conference, according to a Web cast of the event, Zale Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Rodney Carter said most of the 60 stores were “cash-flow positive,” but they showed no promise of operating efficiently enough to earn a return on capital. He said more closures might come by the end of Zale’s fiscal year in July.
    Zale’s net loss deepened during its first quarter that ended Oct. 31 to $28.4 million from $26.4 million a year earlier. Total revenues during that period slipped 1.3 percent to $377 million.
    The company, which opened its first store in Wichita Falls, Texas, in 1924, has recently undergone a series of shakeups.
    In November, it sold its Baily Banks and Biddle brand to Finlay Fine Jeweler Corp. for $200 million. Last month, Zale installed a new president and chief executive, Neal Goldberg, a retail industry veteran who has worked for Macy’s, Victoria’s Secret and Gap. He succeeded Betsy Burton, who stepped down as CEO after less than two years.
    The soft holiday sales were felt throughout the industry. The National Retail Federation earlier this week said industry sales in November and December rose 3 percent, compared with a year earlier. Those results made the 2007 holiday season the worst since 2002, when sales rose by 1.3 percent.

Gee, you don't think they were running from the county with the high taxes for any special reason, do you?  

Rotterdam Square Mall has been a dinosaur for quite a while. I don't know how any of those stores stay in business. Surely Christmas sales can't keep them going all year financially.

I believe that this will be just the beginning of many businesses closing it's doors. And unfortunately, Rotterdam doesn't have an economic cushion. Every single business that we may loose can only hurt this town. We have no infrastructure to speak of. So many areas that could develop are vacant due to the lack of infrastructure.

If businesses start to close in Rotterdam, that will be less of a tax base coming in. Money badly needed for repairs of old infrastructure and the creation of new.

I could have sworn I saw a big billboard on Central Ave near colonie ctr that a new Zales was opening...I could be wrong I didnt pay much attention.  could have been Western Ave., now I don't know.  Anyone else see it?

hey rollerama where is that new car wash sign ??

I didn't see the sign for Zales, but it wouldn't surprise me.

Ya see, what Rotterdam needs is something no other area has. Such as a Cabelas, just as an example. And the best location would be Rt 7 by I88, I think.

Now Colonie Center did a great job of bringing stores in that are not anywhere else in the tri-cities. They now have LL Bean and Sophora's, The Cheese Cake Factory, that Christmas Tree store and the soon to open Melting Pot. All of which are no where else to be found around here and are busy just about all of the time.

Now Rotterdam Mall has stores that every other mall has. So who will come here? Sure we have that new Goodwill store and AJ Wright by Wal-mart and now Rotterdam will be getting a 'next to new store' for teens. But I don't quite see a vast amount of people from Guilderland, Loudonville or Scotia Glenville coming out in groves to shop there. Actually they all have their second hand/thift shops as well.

Niskayuna does have Mohawk Commons which is about as close to the Colonie line as you can get.  But Rotterdam does not, as of yet, have the infrustructure to support such businesses.

Quoted from biaggio

hey rollerama where is that new car wash sign ??

Hopefully in the spring...we are having many problems at the car wash with people stealing the nozzles from the vacs, dumping garbabe all over the place, we can barely keep up with it.  The other night a UHaul truck backed right up behind the carwash and dumped all sorts of goodies...a fish tank, some boxes full of junk, an old kitchen table.  We have had the new nozzles in the bays broken, have had a foaming brush cutoff and stolen...we are so dissapointed that people choose to treat our business this way.  We do have the 24 hr surveillance but it is hard to see license plates.  The people who do leave bags of garbage in the bays are usually stupid enough to leave something in the garbage with thier name and address on it, so, we take the bags and try to leave them their garbage at their residence.  We have called the police once, and the person came and picked up the mess they left us.  The other day a glass company was using a bay as a garage and repairing someones windshield.  We almost had to call the police to make them leave.  They were taking up time in the bay away from real customers, not to mention the glass and mess that would be left for us to clean up.  Can you believe the nerve? The guy refused to leave until we waited there in the cold and snow and he realized we were not leaving.  However, business has picked up a lot...and we want to thank all of the GOOD people who patronize the car wash.  It is a shame a few bad eggs will probably lead to higher prices at the car wash because of all the money we spend bringing peoples personal unwanted belongings to the dump!

I would suggest that you should put up a couple of more cameras at various angles to get a better view of their license plates and turn then into the police to prosecute them. It's a shame that you have to put up with that type of behavior when you're just trying to provide us with a good business to service our vehicles.

We had thought about that, only thing is we would have to lower the cameras, and then guess what would happen if they were within reach?  They would be destroyed and/or stolen.  

Its too bad about your problems with the car wash.  What is wrong with people?  As for Rotterdam Mall, the biggest problem I see driving from D'burg is the fact that the stores are smaller and don't have the inventory the bigger ones do.  If I see something in a flyer on sale at Sears I just go to Colonie Center rather than Rotterdam.  I have gone there too many times to find they don't have it in stock, but the one in Colonie does.  I end up driving first to Rotterdam than to Colonie. It doesn't make much sense and it doesn't matter much to me if I drive to Rotterdam or Albany from here.  Thats not to say I don't frequent Rotterdam Square because I do, but if I need something specific I question the wisdom of driving there first.

Rollarama, is there some way that the cameras could be secured in a locked box like some of the other locations I've seen where the cameras were able to be reached by possible vandals or hidden so that the vandals wouldn't even know that they were there?

We actually WANT people to KNOW they are BEING WATCHED.  We have signs in every bay stating they are under 24 hr video surviellance.  All the research we did stated it is a huge deterent.  When people are aware they are being watched...they are less likeley to vandalize.  We have the "eye in the sky" type of cameras.  We have decided not to invest any more money in cameras, this will just mean more time spent searching the video tapes for when the vandalism or theft had occured.  We also do not want to go running to the police every time someone dumps something on the property.  
It is just difficult to understand why people feel the need to do the things they do I guess, and it comes with the territory.  We have spoken to other carwash owners and the problem is so widespread.  
Perhaps when we get the land behind the carwash cleared out, the problem will slow a little bit.  Right now it is the perfect dumping ground because it is cloaked in darkness and trees at night.  But not for long.

I heard that Cabela's first considered the Rt7 corridor and then changed their mind when the Catskills were going to build a casino. I guess Cabela's thought that that area would be more lucrative. Since then, that area in the Catskills decided against the casino and Cabela's may be re-thinking this area.
Sorry that this is not a fact. I just heard this from a few other people.

Quoted from rollarama

We actually WANT people to KNOW they are BEING WATCHED.  We have signs in every bay stating they are under 24 hr video surviellance.  All the research we did stated it is a huge deterent.  When people are aware they are being watched...they are less likeley to vandalize.  We have the "eye in the sky" type of cameras.  We have decided not to invest any more money in cameras, this will just mean more time spent searching the video tapes for when the vandalism or theft had occured.  We also do not want to go running to the police every time someone dumps something on the property.  
It is just difficult to understand why people feel the need to do the things they do I guess, and it comes with the territory.  We have spoken to other carwash owners and the problem is so widespread.  
Perhaps when we get the land behind the carwash cleared out, the problem will slow a little bit.  Right now it is the perfect dumping ground because it is cloaked in darkness and trees at night.  But not for long.

the new generation wont care if they are being watched.....there's Utube, Myspace, reality shows galore and the more bad you do, the easier it is to get on tv for fame and fortune......I think the research will soon be dated.....