Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Longing

One of the more amusing features of Rochester is the longing exhibited by Rochesterians for retail options available in larger metro areas.  As someone who has spent 21 years in New England, perhaps my ability to relate to such longing is somewhat limited.  New England, comprised of six states, has exactly one city with major professional sports.  The Rochester metro area has a larger population than two states in New England, namely Rhode Island and Vermont.  In fact, Monroe County alone is more populated than Vermont.  If Rochester were in New England, it would be the second largest city after Boston.  But if our yearning must continue, here are a few points about apparently important things that we lack:

  • Nordstrom, which I have never been to, is an upscale retailer that is not located in Rochester.  To be precise, it is not found in 12 states.  As a substitute, Rochester has Von Maur, which I have also never visited.
  • Tiffany & Co., per Wikipedia, is renowned for its luxury goods and is particularly known for its diamond jewelry.  I'm pretty sure Rochester has jewelry stores.
  • Louis Vuitton sells purses for around $1000 each.  Is that a good thing?
  • Prada...I thought that was a movie with Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway.
  • West Elm...actually we have that one.
  • Wegmans is headquartered here, I believe.

2 comments:

  1. You forgot the one retailer that would really put us on the map: IKEA

    Seriously though, having one here would probably attract a lot of shoppers from Syracuse/Buffalo as well as our own community.

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    1. I guess the point is that the "worthiness" of an area should be judged on more than big name chain stores. That said, if these stores help with branding and/or the local economy, I'm 100% for them.

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