Oh great an overpriced Dry Cleaner and a 3'rd rate Cell Phone company.

Classy, just classy

Well, if everyone would just stop using cell phones and dry cleaning their clothes, the problem would take care of itself.

Whine, whine, whine...waaaahh, mommy my panties are in a twist. Boo-hoo...

If you don't like it, don't shop there. Reality is if people want this store they will shop there and it will stay in business. People complain about sushi, coffee shops, tanning salons, etc. but guess what? Those businesses are staying in business because people shop there. When your quaint little book store or whatever goes belly up it's because people don't shop there. You can complain about rising rents all you want but there are plenty of other businesses that see their rents rise yet manage to stay in business.

The travesty is the loss of office space for businesses other than another phone store, hair-nail salon, coffee shop.

This is just more proof that our retail real estate market is still strong in Ballard. Despite all of the complaints on this blog over the past few months about land lords pricing businesses out.

Whenever a business closes, a good portion of comments lean towards land lords being ignorant and charging more rent than the market will bear. This is simply not the case as there are few vacant spaces and most of them have or will be filled by new tenants.

Oh, and if people are so convinced that new business X is such a terrible idea, and business Y or business Z would do so much better, shut up and do it yourself. I can't believe how many people complain about jobs being created.

Eh. A cell phone store. How uneventful.

ugh

Some of you whine so much.......if you want something else to open there do it yourself! This is America damnit!

AMERICA!!! F--- YAH!!

I wasn't complaining at all. I was just pointing out that the cliche is that a new condo/apartment block goes in and the only thing that can fit in their mixed retail space is a cell phone store because they cut out the back room for parking garage access or they won't allow restaurants because of the smells/noise.
Thought it was kinda funny is all.

Ok SPG, I will admit, that is pretty funny.

WhAT?? No Classy Nails place yet?!?

Big Deal
who the heck cares anyway?
restaurants, cell phone stores, espresso stands -cripe
we've lived in Ballard for almost 60 yrsnow, our parents before us and theirs too - although we've faced the fact change is inevitable, what happened to neighborhood balanced business? It is seriously missing in Ballard - it's often an embarassment to say we live and work in Ballard. By the time we justify to our friends the whys........they're tired of listening and we're tired of explaining.

Define neighborhood balanced business! Last I checked there were still plenty of local businesses doing just fine in Ballard.

If you're often embarrassed to admit that you live and work here, then why do you? Just because you've been here for almost 60 years doesn't mean you need to make it 61.

OK. I guess that's a bit harsh.

But honestly, EVERY time I tell someone I live in Ballard they tell me how much they like this neighborhood. So I just don't understand what you and your friends find to be so wrong about it. What neighborhoods in Seattle would you and your friends deem to have balanced businesses?

An embarassment? Really?

I've bought two phones at the Cingular/ATT store by Tran Bros., it was convienient. What's the big deal?

While I'm glad to see something moving into the space, I agree that it would be nice if it was something more interesting - and something that would benefit more consumers.

I walk past frequently and picture a little market. Where I grew up on the east coast there is a tiny place called the uncommon market. They carry a variety of things but specialize in imported groceries. Think cost plus without the furniture/decor items.

Hi Zeph

Hmm, I wonder if that is a common name for that kind of store--we had a store called the uncommon market in Pittsburgh that sold those kind of things. I thought it was a one-off, maybe I was wrong.

-j

Not a common name. But a common place! I'm from Pittsburgh as well!

Zeph

It IS a small world.

We really enjoyed shopping there--lots of different things to try.

-j

Darn, I was hopeing for some kind of grubby quick store grocer who sold cheap beer in cans, lotto tickets, cigarettes, firworks, pocket knifes, condoms, noDoz, and phone cards to homeless derelects.

Isn't that the 7-11 next to Hjarta?

Dang, I was sure hoping for a tanning salon

Boring.

Thank goodness, I’ve been looking all over for a place to buy a cell phone.

Isn't the cell phone company store the exact cliche about these places?