New Businesses Coming to Southern Maryland

GregV814

Well-Known Member
poor planning:

In Prince Frederick, next to the new fire station, sits a Dunkin Donut. The drive thru is just as busy as $tarbux, so cars are surrounding the building most of the time. Whoever planned and approved this building to be a duplex, for another business was nuts I thought. I thought it would never rent because traffic on both sides. However Red Octopus is outfitting the vacant space for a tattoo parlor. Seems like it'll be a PIA to cut between cars to get a piercing...

Now, about a mile further North, in the Fox Run shopping center, sits a strip shopping center. A few large stores closed and are vacant., Lots of empty space there, but a developer built a new cluster in the parking lot. Vacant now, the cluster will house pretty much the same old, same old, fast food and probably a nail salon.. Hey, their money....whatever...
 

stgislander

Well-Known Member
PREMO Member
poor planning:

In Prince Frederick, next to the new fire station, sits a Dunkin Donut. The drive thru is just as busy as $tarbux, so cars are surrounding the building most of the time. Whoever planned and approved this building to be a duplex, for another business was nuts I thought. I thought it would never rent because traffic on both sides. However Red Octopus is outfitting the vacant space for a tattoo parlor. Seems like it'll be a PIA to cut between cars to get a piercing...

Now, about a mile further North, in the Fox Run shopping center, sits a strip shopping center. A few large stores closed and are vacant., Lots of empty space there, but a developer built a new cluster in the parking lot. Vacant now, the cluster will house pretty much the same old, same old, fast food and probably a nail salon.. Hey, their money....whatever...
Sometimes it's better to let it sit empty and write-off the loss.
 

NorthBeachPerso

Honorary SMIB
There's a Dollar General right at the intersection of 5 and 235, just five miles up the road. Five miles the OTHER way, there's a Dollar General in Hollywood, on Mervell Dean and visible from 235. Who thought we needed ANOTHER one?

If there's 10 miles between them there is obviously an underserved market there. I can't help it if Dollar stores go into areas with high levels of poverty.

And before your head explodes ask yourself that question: Why are all these discount stores coming to Southern Maryland if the area is so wealthy?
 

SamSpade

Well-Known Member
PREMO Member
If there's 10 miles between them there is obviously an underserved market there. I can't help it if Dollar stores go into areas with high levels of poverty.

And before your head explodes ask yourself that question: Why are all these discount stores coming to Southern Maryland if the area is so wealthy?

So which is it - wealthy or high levels of poverty? I was certainly not aware that Mechanicsville or Hollywood was POOR.

I think a couple things are happening - one is that convenience stores are kind of always in demand. And that's what Dollar General is, albeit a big one (it's not a "dollar store" in the sense of Everything's A Dollar or Dollar City). I shop there frequently, but - for milk - bacon - cereal - laundry detergent - ibuprofen. It's rare that I buy more items than I can carry. We've lost several 7-11s in the area - and now we have Dollar General. Soon we will have a Royal Farms. Same concept, different flavor.

But the other is that the face of doing business with retail chains is changing. With us switching so much more to delivery for certain items, I see only a few kinds of larger stores remaining. We've seen the demise of regular department stores and bookstores. More will follow. Convenience stores for the present, will suffice.
 

LightRoasted

If I may ...
If I may ...

If there's 10 miles between them there is obviously an underserved market there. I can't help it if Dollar stores go into areas with high levels of poverty.

And before your head explodes ask yourself that question: Why are all these discount stores coming to Southern Maryland if the area is so wealthy?

Guessing St Leonard is a high poverty area, (well maybe at least the housing community at Calvert Beach and Long Beach), with a Dollar General right there on Calvert Beach Rd across from the self storage and down the street from the fire dept. Actually, I have no idea how that was ever given the go ahead to begin with. I always thought those old timers, (read the old family names), in St Leonard wanted to keep their slice of heaven with the old fashioned country county feel. But maybe it was put there to service those living in the Cliffs Motor Inn? Or to supplement all the liquor sales by the completing liquors stores sitting across the street from each other?
 
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