Back to the topic of Silver Spring’s burgeoning retail fashion economy, anyone see this news?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121556183997437589-search.html

The clique of pro-development, pro-gentrification forces cannot come to grips with the demographic realities of Silver Spring. We will never, ever become Bethesda or Arlington, VA (i.e. predominately white, high-income professional). There will always be a strong middle-class African-American, Latino and immigrant community here.

Further confounding things are the demographic differences between those who live in Silver Spring’s central business district (CBD) and those in the surrounding neighborhoods. (Incidentally, the triangular CBD is bordered by Spring Street to the north, Fenton Street to the east, and Eastern Avenue to the west.) CBD dwellers tend to be younger, less affluent and more ethnically diverse than those in adjacent neighborhoods.

That leads me to drop this whopper on everyone: Whose central business district is it?

It’s always been my contention that Silver Spring is too much of a nebulous middle-ground (not overwhelmingly rich, middle-class, or poor) for marketers to get a handle on. That’s why there are no “anchor stores” here yet. People in corporate marketing departments are accustomed to (and comfortable) dealing with MONOLITHIC neighborhoods, towns, etc. In my opinion, Silver Spring would be less of a gamble for certain retailers if it were, say, uniformly lower-middle class.

Here’s some data I would love to see: The zip codes of all the people who shop, eat, and attend movies in DTSS. I bet there’s some really surprising information there. My guess is that the DTSS isn’t really serving the “needs” of the neighborhoods that are closest to it–and that the overwhelming masses of people down there aren’t from “around here”. If that’s true, “demographics” don’t mean JACK because the group of people who frequent DTSS is a different mix that what you’ll find in Silver Spring at large. What’s happened is that mix of businesses in DTSS (a bad mix in my opinion) is attracting a demogrphic that has nothing to do with locale.

“Poor teens and low income people in general spend a lot money on alleged ‘high-fashion’ items such as jeans, footwear, and t-shirts. But you’ll never hear Nike or Adidas talking about targeting ‘urban poor’ – even when this demographic makes up a big portion of their sales.”

In my opinion, urban teens are just as interested in tee shirts, jeans and footwear as Hollywood’s trust-fund babies. They’re all subjects (victims?) of pop culture.

Also, anyone can have disposable income, keyword being “disposable”. The same credit-card companies that target community college students work the Ivy League circuit, too.

The truth is, poor to middle-income teens are the primary market for “high-fashion tee-shirts”–just like they’re the primary market for brand-name athletic shoes. Look around. Poor teens and low income people in general spend a lot money on alleged “high-fashion” items such as jeans, footwear, and t-shirts. But you’ll never hear Nike or Adidas talking about targeting “urban poor”–even when this demographic makes up a big portion of their sales. Why? It doesn’t have the right ring to investors’s ears.

Anyway, my point is that PIECES failed for two reasons:

1) Location. As many of you have pointed out, that strip along Georgia is the last place you’d expect to find a hipster clothing store. Who walks over there??? I believe PIECES would have done much better it had been located in somewhere closer to DTSS–perhaps on Ellsworth or on Fenton–but MUCH closer to all the hub-bub. That leads to the next problem…

2) (THIS IS IMPORTANT) PIECES’s owners believed their own press releases. There target market (young, hip urbanites with disposable income) barely exists in Silver Spring. Sure, they were supposedly coming. But they ain’t here. Pieces would have done better to drop their attitude and target the people who are here, who also happen to buy what they were selling.

Best Buy? Have we all forgotton about the Best Buy 2 metro stops away, (10 min drive) in Wheaton? We don’t need a big electronics store, Best Buy is all over DC too. We need a Dave & Busters on the top floor of Shitty Place. That mall was not planned very well, its confusing on the inside with nothing but hair, shoe and nail places. Silver Spring will never support anything like a Nordstrom or Barneys New York lol, we have Chevy Chase for that.

What we need is to stay true to the demographics.

When are we going to realize that SS is a real mix–low income to moderately high incomes. We need a mix of big chains and small shop owners–but the small shop owners have to cater to more than just one group to stay alive. Pieces catered to only one small segment–young, hip, and fairly well-off. I don’t think there will ever be a large enough bloc of these types in SS. There’s plenty of us older, less hip, and comfortable but still not going to pay $60 for a t-shirt folks!