Arkansas Blog

No

Lou Shickel can't be happy. That's basically the same as signing on Dillard's and getting Kohl's instead. I guess he could choose not to lease to Belk's but who else would be interested? Would Dillard's scrap their Chenal project for this already constructed space? Would another department store be interested? Replacing Parisian with Belk's may cost him the high-end tenants he had commitments from or was courting. Bad timing all around.

ooooooooohhhhhh

You bet some people are gonna be pissed... I don't see ME shopping there I'll tell you that

Why can we not get a Pottery Barn and Crate and Barrell out there? We have a shoping center with both as well as a Barnes and Noble and Ann Taylor Loft. I truly believe Little Rock needs and deserves stores of this nature. West Little would be a perfect location and would bring jobs to the state. It just seems so hard to believe that there is not one Pottery Barn in the whole state!!!!!

OK, there is a Pottery Barn, Williams Sonoma and Restoration Hardware going into the Midtowne Center across from Park Plaza. They'll open this fall.

When will Little Rock get decent department stores? When Dillard's finally goes under one day. I have shopped at Belk's before and egad -- it's one stop up, or down, from Kohl's. Little Rock pretends to be such a progressive hip city but ha! If we were, we would have decent department stores instead of having to go to Memphis, Dallas or Tulsa to shop. Sad news.

I wouldn't count out Belk's so fast. When I lived in NC and VA I loved shopping at Belk because the stores were not all alike. By tailoring their stores to the local area they kept themselves competitive. Of course the snooty name is gone, and that may be all that matters in WLR.

If you go to Memphis or Tulsa to shop instead of Little Rock you're just wasting gas. Neither of those cities has much LR doesn't.

Dear Anonymous: You obviously never leave Little Rock. Does Little Rock have a Saks Fifth Avenue? No. Tulsa does. Does it have a Macy's or Neiman Marcus? No but Dallas does. Does it have a Black Market / White House? No, Memphis and Tulsa do. And sure, Little Rock is suppose get one but we were also suppose to get a Parisian. And wasting gas? It takes a lot of money to buy good fashion, dear, when you live in a place where even the Dillard's stores get all the reject crap from their other stores around the country.

The threats and stranglehold of Dillards prevents any real change from occuring in the retail market.

Regarding the change, it could not happen to a better man than Lou Schickel. If Belk's will pay the lease, then Schickel does not give a damn about the store. However, prospective tenants might think twice. Parisians draws a different clientele than Belk. Because of that, I would imagine a lot of prospective tenants have thrown away their proposed leases and those that have signed are trying to get out.

I never said LR had as many places to shop as Dallas, that would be idiotic. I live in Dallas, I know the difference. The places you mention are just the tip of the iceburg. Northpark Mall craps on just about anything in the region. I'm just saying that driving to Memphis or Tulsa doesn't make sense. Aside from Tulsa having a Saks, I fail to see a plethora of awesome department stores in Memphis and Tulsa I was advised existed. You failed to mention the chain everybody wants these days, Nordstrom's, of which Dallas has two of and Tulsa and Memphis won't be getting anytime soon.

I fail to see how Dillard's controls the market. There are only two Dillard's in Central AR. A competing store was set to go into West LR. If Simon will ever do anything with that sack of crap still called University Mall or someone builds the retail space to make up for it elsewhere, we'll have plenty of options besides Dillard's. The real issue is the paralyzed retail market the city of Little Rock and Simon created through the whole Summit Mall debacle.

There are several small independent retail clothing stores that cater to the trendy in the heights and out west but if you are over 25 or 30, forget it.

Funny, when it comes to the Heights stores I always felt like you had to be over 40 to like them.

I'm talking about City Thread, Scarlett's(?) and RK Collections.

Schickel rapes the land and snarls the traffic flow with another scenic Highway 10 bulldozer development . . . now he gets paid back.

Schickel deserved all the bad karma that's coming to him.

A Parisians was planned to be an anchor at the new Pleasant Crossing mall being built in Rogers. There is a Belk no more than two miles from Pleasant Crossing.

What happens with that?

My hand tastes like soap.

They haven't started building that part of Pleasant Crossing yet, so that space probably gets nixed.

"There are several small independent retail clothing stores that cater to the trendy in the heights and out west but if you are over 25 or 30, forget it."

... Or larger than a size 8.

You people must be on crack.

#1 Dillard's isn't going under any time soon. Not in your lifetime or mine. They are a solid company with good invetments and a very sound business plan.

#2 I promise you the Dillard's in central AR does not get the rejects from all the other stores. As a matter of fact we are one of their largest test markets so that they can see first hand how the area will look and how the merchandise will fit with the rest of the store.

You should be proud that such a wonderful company has its headquarters in LR. Yes, some stores are better than others both in terms of visual appeal, merchandise and customer service. But that goes for all retailers. I was in southern California this summer and browsed through a Macy's. I was sweating because the AC wasn't working, they merchandise was sub-par and the overall store was in poor condition.

Yes, it would be nice to have a Nordstroms or Sak's Fifth Avenue, but it'll be a long time before Little Rock is big enough for them to even consider opening a store here.

Be thankful for what you have, its better than you know.

I agree about Dillard's. As a matter of fact their Park Plaza stores are the nicest in the chain as far as I can tell, based on about 20 or so I've been to.

I've also been to a couple of subpar Macy's.

It would be nice to get a Foley's and it would've been nice had Parisian worked out to get some diversity and competition in the area.

From what I read, Parisian will open in October, but by the next October... it will all go down-market. As for the fate of the shopping centers, Macy's will only NOT be in five states, including Arkansas, as of September 10. Macy's will almost have to break the market at that rate. Where is up to Federated. Nordstrom is a nice idea, but it will lag far behind Macy's, Bloomingdale's and Saks coming here. Lord & Taylor apparently won't land here, after the restructuring that positioned it east-coast only.

Saks, Neiman's, Bloomies...

Online, fellow shoppers, online!

Foley's is a Macy's affiliate and they're already in DFW and Tulsa. Little Rock is only natural.

If Dillard's at Park Plaza is the top, then I feel sorry for the rest of the stores they have. And never say never, bigger companies than Dillard's have gone under. You must work for Dillard's. The stores are so clutter with utter crap you can't even move and see all the crap they have. Beans Bunny is right. Little Rock does lack something in the shopping arena.

Don't really shop much but didn't Dillard's race issues a while back? Didn't they get sued about something?

I dont understand why Dillards does not at least try to make the LR store look appealing. I would love just to go in there and re-organize their store where you could actually find something. AND PLEASE CLEAN THE BATHROOMS.... Do they not care? I would also kill for a Whole Foods, but I doubt that ever happens. Is there anything we can do to get better companies in our state?

Whole Foods has gone into smaller markets. They are about to open in Lafayette. They probably would in Arkansas as well but only for the right development in the right location.

I seem to remember a certain coffeehouse chain that didn't think Arkansas fit their 'demographic'. They finally opened a free-standing store and surprise, surprise that store did the second highest opening day gross of any of their stores....in the world(according to an employee). Now they have 12 planned for LR/NLR, 3 for Conway, etc. If you build it, we will come.

PS I prefer Sufficient Grounds in Hillcrest.

Speaking of department store names, I still remember when Dillards bought Pfeiffer-Blass. Even as a kid, I thought Dillards sounded dull. Now my spellcheck thinks "Dillards" should be "Dullards" and so do I.

The onlly place I buy clothes in Little Rock is Elle. Memphis has Macy's, Dallas and St. Louis have Neiman's and best of all, Austin has NM Last Call. I once got a $500 suit for $51 including tax.

Nashville has Off 5th Ave. I purchased a $900 Italian suit there for $150.

Dillards is too crowded with junk, and has very boring clothes

The best clothes, however, are in Canada. They are designed by French Canadians (who else) are a little cutting edge, and very reasonably priced.

Thank you Fix Dillards. Their bathrooms are so nasty, toliet paper everywhere, sometimes no towels to dry your hands. If people think Dillards is an upscale department store, they are so incredibly wrong. It is so cluttered and no kidding, I was in there a few weeks ago and I saw stuff on the sale rack that was in that store this time last year. And Irene, indeed, Canada, great clothes. Austin is a great place to shop, too, closer to home. You can pick almost any place --- except maybe Jackson, Mississippi, and get better stuff than you can in Little Rock. I really think we don't get great dept stores because of Dillards. Elle is a good place to shop, but when you just want a fairly reasonable black pair of pants -- where to go? You need a search party to find a pair in Dillards.

Beans Bunny & Vogue.... of course people think Dillard's is great........ Because their standard is frickin' Wal-Mart !!! The same way people around here think Outback (GAG ME) is an upscale restaurant

Belk is a Kohl's clone, period. Maybe we'll get an upscale nail salon, an upscale cell phone shoppe, and an upscale Subway in the Shickeldome...all thanks to the LR Planning Commission.

People that bitch so much about Little Rock should find another place to live.

Little Rock will get some decent department stores when the population truly spends, spends and spends some more money, instead of complaining all of the time.

Dillard's, it could be better, but it's the best we got. Belk is a great store, but I have heard from a very good source that the department store on Hwy 10 will not be a Belk.
Pig Crap, your name says it all. I guess you are too good to eat sandwiches, only talk on land lines, and have yucky nails. Whatever, but you gotta hand it to Schickel, he has some balls.

Dillard's, it could be better, but it's the best we got. Belk is a great store, but I have heard from a very good source that the department store on Hwy 10 will not be a Belk.
Pig Crap, your name says it all. I guess you are too good to eat sandwiches, only talk on land lines, and have yucky nails. Whatever, but you gotta hand it to Schickel, he has some balls.

Dillard's, it could be better, but it's the best we got. Belk is a great store, but I have heard from a very good source that the department store on Hwy 10 will not be a Belk.
Pig Crap, your name says it all. I guess you are too good to eat sandwiches, only talk on land lines, and have yucky nails. Whatever, but you gotta hand it to Schickel, he has some balls.

Today's Ark DemGaz (Sunday) has an ad stating Parisian is hiring and opening in October, 2006.

Continue the charade to the end, I guess.

Well, they put up the signs for White House/ Black Market and chico's in the new mall across from park plaza. I can't find anywhere though what stores are supposed to be in the shopping center with parisian's. Also, about Rogers, Dillard's is putting an $18 million store there. We are getting decent shopping and giving Dillard's a run for their money.