Wednesday, March 11, 2009

For Lease

If I didn't know any better I would swear that there is a new chain of stores called "For Lease" here in Toronto and they are taking over the city like gangbusters because as I travel around the city I keep seeing that sign more and more in storefront windows.

I wonder what the occupancy rate is for retail stores in this city these days because it used to be pretty high a few years back with new outfits just waiting to swoop in and take coveted real estate anywhere downtown. Not so now. Empty storefronts growing daily. Not just the usual fly by night operators in the usual locales getting burnt or burning bridges by not paying rent. Places that have been around for years and were seemingly stable outfits going down, out of business too.

Such is life in the recession I guess.

PhotobucketThis photo is from Barbados, St Lawrence Gap to be exact courtesy the PlanetBarbados Blog but it could just as easily be applied to Toronto and probably just about most places these days.

If it isn't "For Lease" then Sale seems to be the byword of the day. Its a virtual utopia for bargain hunters (assuming anybody got two shillings to spare).

Every storefront that doesn't have in a For Lease sign has in a sale sign. I mean none of them aint as blatant as that sign in the picture but we get the idea. Business does suck, please buy or we'll go out of business too.


That's just the 2009 reality. A so it a go!

4 comments:

Olivia said...

In ever recession the face of commerce changes. Familiar stores known by previous generations that we have never seen.

I too have seen family businesses around for 15-20 years closing down, which is sad. Then you kind of hope they can start up again when things get better...it's happened before.

Anonymous said...

That sign is funny ... hehehehe

Mighty Afroditee said...

...And some stores have sales, and we still can't afford to buy their crap. Have to wonder if some jus' fling the sign in the window for so, to manipulate people inside. Hmprh!

neena maiya (guyana gyal) said...

This too shall pass.

I think it will pass soon, don't know why, just feel so...I hope I'm right.

Guyanese woman here is always trying to tell me how life here is AWFUL, MISERABLE, TERRIBLE, GROSS. She goes on and on about Barbados is the most perfect place on earth...I guess she doesn't hang out with the less fortunate. She told me too how Canada is completely safe from the recession...that truly puzzled me.