Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Gold's Gym Not an Anchor

This paragraph from the press release sent out by the city announcing the sale of West Park Plaza and the relocation of Gold's Gym to the old Kroger location:

“This acquisition has been in the making for more than a year and could not have been possible without local financing from The Bank of Carbondale and the Small Business Growth Corp and legal assistance from the law firm of Barrett, Twomey, Broom, Hughes and Hoke,” according to John Etherton and Shane Smith, co-owners of Gold’s Gym in Carbondale. “We are proud to play a part in spurring new growth on the west side of Carbondale. The new Gold’s Gym facility will be open around Thanksgiving of this year and will be the anchor of the shopping center.”

Specifically, the last sentence was what caught my eye. While I'm glad to see something finally moving into the old Kroger location, Gold's Gym will not be an anchor store, at least not in the traditional sense. Traditionally, an anchor store is a large store at a mall with a wide selection of merchandise. This selection draws people to the shopping center, who then patronize other stores in the center. Macy's at University Mall is an anchor store as is, to a lesser extent, True Value Hardware at Murdale Shopping Center. Both draw in people from the area, who then hopefuly will go to other stores in the center to spend money.

People who go to Gold's Gym go there for the purpose of working out. The arrive, work out and leave. They are not in the mindset to go shopping at the other stores, with the possible exception of CVS Pharmacy for health items. Gold's Gym, destination location yes, anchor store and driver of traffic to other stores, no.

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