Broadway L.L.Bean Closing Feb. 11

I think its less prestige and more that it should be a shop for which people are able to travel. The idea being that folks from other towns should bring their foot traffic and credit cards to New Haven.

I miss the outlet, and I visited the other regular store locations in CT, and they had a much better selection of stock than the New Haven store which seemed to just be mostly college student body sized clothing, and not much else.

me too! I love that store. the drive to Mystic to their other site is unreasonable.

@Kevin - yes, retail has left New Haven, and there isn't retail in Bridgeport or Hartford. The question is whether they left b/c there is no demand or whether they left because the local condition are not friendly to retail. Just because it's true in CT doesn't mean that it is true in the rest of the country (where 99% of our population is).
Two examples are highlighted in the links below. One a tiny town and one a city slightly larger than New Haven. What they have in common is far lower property taxes (60%-70% lower), utility costs (about half), and costs due to crime and theft. (plus neither is in a state that forces biz owners to pay $15/hr to 18 yr old who are on their phone for half their working hours). The cities close most of the gap with local sales tax - so those who can afford to are paying the bills by choice rather than having costs forced by the state.
Retail can be done and done well. Many have learned the value of shopping locally....which is a great concept if the government would get out of the way

https://www.highlandschamber.org/things-to-do/shopping/

https://www.cntraveler.com/shops/charleston/king-street

Thats why unique boutiques and quirky independent retailers would do better in New Haven, places you cant find the same goods online, places that provide an experience and an atmosphere with shopping. But those places cant afford the rents downtown, and Yale as a landlord requires month to month leases and operating hours that include evenings and holidays, which is a real turnoff for a small mom and pop shop or a smaller or mid sized chain retailer.

And hit Jersey Mike's after!

I agree, free parking and a larger store with a wider selection to appeal to a wider variety of shoppers makes more sense for this type of store.

Yes true from my view too. but affluent shoppers live in milford,fairfield,branford. and there certainly are new haveners who just might want to take a drive some sunday

and lets not forget my favorite part of the job that was a daily nightmare, parking!! So, if you're a construction worker, coming to the city of new haven on a daily basis to contribute to the local economy and infrastructure, you get to play an adult game of hide and go seek with the meter maids that prowl the streets of new haven, fining the very people who come to the city to try and improve it! If you didnt want to deal with that, you could come to work early an extra unpaid half hour, so you could park your car in the parking lot at Stop and Shop on Whalley ave (essentially letting it be a sitting duck everyday for your windows getting smashed out and your car stolen) and take a nasty company owned shuttle van to the job instead. So as a construction worker in new haven, either run out to the meter 6 times a day to inevitably get there 30 seconds late at some point anyways and find the ticket from the meter maid that stood next to your truck and waited for the last minute to expire so they can hand out a ticket the city desperately needs you to pay since it's broke, or.. park your vehicle at stop and shop on Whalley and wait for something bad to happen. I know this is crazy talk, but imagine if Yale paid for the use of parking meters by construction workers that build yale associated buildings!!!!! They have 30 billion in spare change just in endowments, surely some of that coin could go into a measly parking meter! Just another fine example of how the middle-class blue-collar worker in New Haven gets screwed the most of all!!

@EscapeFromCT Another case of "looks good, feels bad." It's all a facade anyway, the entire Yale campus was prefabricated to look like an old English university. The new campus was put together like Lego blocks and hauled into town and mounted on giant cranes. I watched the whole thing happening. The older buildings in New Haven, facing the Green, are so well built and beautiful because it was a time when architects, builders and businesses had a different mind-set. A pride in their work. Nowadays, one big storm and ....

Does this building pay property taxes? The store? The housing?

Good to know that Yale is a crappy developer cutting corners on the costs of building.

I loved Wawas!

Bring back The Doodle. Please?

I know, the Barnes and Noble college bookstore is mostly Yale insignia merchandise. I miss the Yale Coop and their fabulous selection of books, clothing, footwear, student necessities, etc.

continuing the conversation w Kevin but some info for others as well...King St has 2 bookstores, 0 hardware stores, 1 department store (Target), and no free parking. So, free parking isn't the driver.

And if income was the driver, New Haven would be crushing it. Via 2020 US Census, Avg family income in New Haven County is $71,370 and avg family income in Charleston County is $64,022.

Kevin McCarthy, i am aware of these bags. Also aware of the booklet of scratch card style stickers for your car window around the same price. Now imagine sitting in on a project manager meeting and all the trades respective project managers submit the bill for their worker's parking bags to the general contractor. Lets say in the land of make believe, the general contractor doesnt laugh in their face and actually submits that cost to the price of the project for the customer, that customer being yale. Yale will never just go along with that, sadly. Unfortunately, the parking downtown is a difficult problem, with few easy solutions. However, money talks. And Yale has a whole lotta money. Like more money than they can ever come up with ways to spend kinda money. And im sure, in comparison to what the New Haven area local goverment has in supply for it's city's funding for projects and development, it's a seamingly endless supply of money. Negotiate in the contract for the job that Yale pay for the side streets that have low level traffic for the workers to park, yale funded meeter bags to all construction workers with parking passes. Pass required to park at a bagged spot. Easy peasy. The solutions arent that hard to create when you put the jaws of life on Yale's wallet and actually spend a few dollars on the benefit of the community that it takes advantage of. Point being is that the cost of parking for the workers required for the project should fall on the customer, not the workers nor contractor. Its the cost of doing business. As necessary a cost than of the construction material itself. But that also requires someone with a backbone to put that in the contract for the project and make Yale agree to pay for parking. Is that worth losing getting the job if yale says theyll find someone else who will just pay for it themselves? Most contractors will choose their battles wisely.If you work for a halfway decent company, theyll reimburse your parking in your check

Kevin, most Barnes and Noble stores are making that sort of shift to cafes, games, etc. They still sell books, though. Large chain retail is suffering losses and stores do close. And then other stores will come, many times from outside the area, Even larger chain restaurants might take over an empty retail space. What sort of retail is going to come to New Haven given the small store fronts? LL Bean should have had a larger storefront in order to sell more in the way of outdoor gear, etc. , that might have attracted more shoppers. Fat Face always attracted shoppers because there only other Fat Face was in Mystic and Fat Face has a dedicated clientele. There are businesses that could do well here if the circumstances were right.

B&Ns business model has always included a cafe, gifts, games, toys, stationary, etc. Its a model for survival to have diverse offerings to appeal to a wide range of customers.
Its not a change, although the square footage and numbers of items in each department may fluctuate to meet current sales trends.

Ask anybody who has rented from and/or been driven out by Yale, and you might find your answer!!!!

I was here in the 80s and 90s. I raised two children here and they and their grandmother were downtown weekly shopping, eating out, etc. Were there some parts of the downtown not great? Yes, but for the most part it was fine. I had a friend who drove in from Fairfield every other week to go to the Irish Import shop and have tea. Etc. I always supported local businesses and still do. The problems have been outlined in other comments, ridiculously high rents, utility costs, parking, etc. Very hard for a chains to survive here in the city much less a small business. Are students the only people the downtown is for now?

The seventies and eighties had Macys, Malleys, the Mall, State St had quite a few boutiques and restaurants replace the old shops, Brian Alden selling futons and housewares and sponsoring the Jazz Fest, concerts and festivals on the green almost all summer with the Green filled with families and all sorts of people, Conrans furniture and housewares, Laura Ashleys, Benettons, Schiavone renovated Chapel St between Temple St and York St, the Yale Coop, the stationary and gift shop next to Atticus, the York Square/Lincoln theaters, Clarks Dairy and Apizza restaurants, Demerys, Yankee Doodle, Educated Burgher, Gentrees, a NYC style Asian market with salad bar, Thomas Sweet, Ashleys, a chocolate and candy store near Sherman Alley, Ten Thousand Villages shop, Sally Endlemans boutique, Seychelles, other bookstores that I cant remember the names of, a theater, live music and comedy club near the Taft building, Boppers, various newsstands, Naples/Wall St Apizza, etc, etc, etc.
New Haven was a thriving, quirky, unique, mostly locally owned retail and food and beverage and entertainment little city where town and gown from all walks of life mixed and mingled and shopped and had fun.
Todays New Haven Downtown is a pale comparison to the variety of offerings and the number of eyes on the street that we had back then.
Todays Yale owned Broadway, Elm, York, Chapel, and other Yale owned retail spaces are a failing, sterile, Disneyfied, mostly empty upscale mall chain store that are a college student body focused wasteland that only draws in the upper classes and college students and has nothing to attract families, or older adults outside of restaurants and cafes and bars, nothing for children, nothing for the lower chases or lower middle classes to enjoy.
You used to be able to see lots of people from every walk of life from the city and suburbs, and Yale affiliates enjoying downtown together, rubbing shoulders, but not anymore.

Yes, its been created by Yale, for Yale.

Thank you, anonymous. I had to scroll through 61 other comments to get through your reasonable one.

This is a tricky one. With a world renowned, prestigious university like Yale, i think it is important to embrace and welcome as much diversity to the city as possible. And as much as most locals resent this fact, yale puts new haven on the map to anyone outside of Connecticut. In many ways, it can be perceived that Yale is a necessary evil for New Haven to be relevant. The part where it gets tricky is that, whether people like this or not, the facts remain that this city was built by irish and italian immigrants. And it should not be surprising that many multi generational new haven area locals have become upset with the fact that the city they and their relatives built now identifies with them less than ever. I believe the challenge is making new haven relevant again to all communities and cultures, and not just have a big game of cultural musical chairs taking place where each generation, a different culture "rotates" out of relevance. The points you bring up about the plentiful amount of independent business owners and minority business owners show that new haven is able to provide an environment for cultural diversity to flourish. However, what does the city provide for the common man middleclass white families that have lived in this area for generations. Is it now their turn to "rotate" into irrelevance? Go ahead and look at what races and ethnicities comprise the populations of towns like east haven, branford, north branford, north haven, bethany, woodbridge, derby, guilford, milford, orange, west haven, etc etc. What does new haven offer to attract middle class white people? Yes they still exist, and no its not wrong to speak this outloud. What does the city have to bring in families from these areas to come and enjoy and experience? I remember going to the Coliseum for wrestling and the circus as a kid, the st. Pattys day parade when it was still civil and family appropriate, not the chaos its become. Theres no reason the city cant have things for all!!