RETAIL STRATEGY

The spirit of competition has built our towering cities. It fuels our industry, sates our carnivorous instincts, and elevates our lifestyles to the lofty realm of Olympus. Freedom and competition are kindred spirits. They represent our highest ideals around which all American life revolves. However, as keen as our instincts are for competition, so do we love order. "Everything in its place, and a place for everything." Without order, freedom and competition are reduced to mere jungle instincts. To balance these concepts, we readily accept restraints. For instance, you cannot punch another individual in the nose, unless of course, you step into a boxing ring. Then, if you're good at punching people in the nose, you make a lot of money. The same could be said of auto racing and gambling. To maintain a peaceful, well-ordered society, yet encourage competition that if freely practiced would cause disorder in society, we restrict specific activities to specific areas, sometimes by law, and at other times by the result of some serendipitous dynamic. We have red light districts, and high crime areas, just as we have commercial, manufacturing, and residential zones. Within the pale of each confinement, a fierce, Darwinian struggle takes place. (All except the latter, which is traditionally viewed as sanctuary - a man's home being his castle, that is, if he's an accomplished enough practitioner of free enterprise to afford a castle.)

I am in no way attacking free enterprise and competition - in fact, I cannot imagine life without competition and the esprit of freedom ingrained in the American character. What I am against, is disorder, and chaos; the probable result of hastily breaking down zoning barriers, opening the floodgates and allowing restricted elements to spill helter-skelter all over the country side; using the device of secret lists and tainted studies. A radical plan to scatter forty-eight enormous, and notoriously predatory retailers in a borough predominantly made up of residential zones lacking the infrastructure to support giant retailing strategies is not a prerogative of imposition by an iron willed ruler and well-healed builders, but rather, results of an accord reached by strenuous debate before the informed electorate who must agree to assume a risk they fully understand. Any notion to the contrary would be ill conceived, inviting a serious backlash; as the public could easily blame the entire retailing industry for calamities and misfortunes obviously inherent in this plan.

One last word about competition before we move on. The politicians who are banging their shoes on desk tops to the rhythm of more competition, more competition, live in America's only cradle to grave, socially secure environment. They have voted themselves so many benefits and regulations to protect their interests, the rigors of competition are totally alien to them. The mellific tunes they sing could more aptly be titled, "do as I say and not what I do."

The retail industry seems to be in a high state of flux, brought about more by Wall Street buyers then Main Street consumers. The closest analogy that comes to mind is Oklahoma in the 1920's where wildcatters punched as many holes in the ground as backers they could find, pumped the gushers and abandoned the dry holes. This fits the mega-box store craze that builders have apparently bullshited Wall Street into backing. The bonanza will probably last until the next crash, or until investors get tired of tossing good money after bad. In many places, the trend is in disarray. In Long Island, the supposed Mecca of mega-box stores, the law firm of Spellman and Walsh, working for the homeowners of Roslyn, secured an injunction against bankrupt builder Bruce Ratner, preventing the completion of a half-built Stop and Shop mall and costing the backers millions. There's a similar Home Depot story in Westchester. Even in Manhattan, the borough that has almost no homeowners, attorney Jack Lester secured an injunction against Toys R Us, and has easily defended it against several appeals. Obviously, New York courts are as fed up as homeowners with the overly aggressive, rule bending, box store builders. They are badly in need of protection, and are willing to pay a very hefty price for it. Hence, the mayors retail strategy which has filled his war chest to overflowing, the proposed 48 mega-box stores for Queens, the most extensive and expensive lobbying campaign in the city's history, a large hole in the middle of Woodhaven Blvd., and traffic counters buried in the snow.

I am not against megastores in commercial zones, box or otherwise. Most of America's prestigious, old-line retailers have had the common sense to locate themselves in commercial zones. They pay the price for prime commercial property and get the services. Queens Blvd. has twelve lanes, and there are subway stops right in front of the stores. Other stores are clustered in the commercial area, so the crowds can gather and wonder from store to store. The more stores are clustered together, the larger grow the crowds, the better business gets. Forty-eight box stores scattered throughout Queens will destroy the ecological balance of this system of zones, pulling crowds away from current commercial zones into now quiet residential areas - with the rationale of throwing up cheap buildings on cheap property to undercut prices and reap a quick buck. They care not a fig for the communities they will leave in chaos. Shocked homeowners will sell out as soon as possible, taking huge losses just to flee the phenomenal confusion set in motion by choked residential streets. Falling prices will quickly turn into blight. Forty-eight giant, ruthless, retailers (and if you can't call Home Depot's management "ruthless," then the very word needs to be redefined) will rip huge cancerous holes in New York's finest communities, and cause wild fluctuations in both the residential and commercial property markets.

Where's the fire? Passage of this plan needs to be slowed down, and the list of proposed sites made public. Town Hall meetings in affected areas must be held and funded by the retail industry. Giant retailing activities require the proper infrastructure for their support, and belong in zones set aside solely for this purpose. It cannot be the province of builders and politicians meeting in secret to simply carve up our society for their mutual benefit. If our borough is in need of more megastore space, and thus, a new specialized commercial zone, ( These elephantine structures are centers of gravity toward which people are attracted from miles around. They require traffic-intense life-support systems, and random placement throughout our well-ordered society is ridiculous and out of the question) then it requires homeowners, builders, retailers, city planners, social scientists, traffic planners, politicians, and everyone concerned with the perpetuation of America's greatest city to shape the new zoning process using reliable studies and public exposition until a genuine consensus is reached. Implementation of the current esoteric plan will lead to one hell of a fight with no element emerging unscathed. There is a better way.